Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Roots: Are Undun

The Philly based hip-hop band The Roots have long been a favorite of true hip hop heads who desire substance, integrity and art in their music. The organic musicology of The Roots band is legendary - starting with front man and MC Black Thought, who doesn't rhyme for the sake of riddlin; and with the peerless hip hop drummer ?uestlove,  The Roots have a devoted and eclectic following that is rarely disappointed.

Thirteen albums deep into the game, The Roots, on the track Undun have taken their art form to a new genre and level - visual artistry (not to say their video archive is not artistic). Just check out the raw force, stark truth and power of this video/short film.  

I must add, The Roots being called a Hip Hop band is both a honor and misnomer. The doorway is hip hop (and they represent like no other), but the house is full of jazz, rock, R&B, funk, blues and spoken word.

And as as ?uestlove says

“Undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner like Tupac’s character Bishop in Juice… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?”

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