“You Got Me” by The Roots (1999)

For the final track of this volume, I selected “You Got Me” from Things Fall Apart. You may have heard this song before. You may even have the nerve to say it shouldn’t qualify as an overlooked song since it won a Grammy. Fair enough. Still though, “You Got Me” is one of The Roots’ best songs and belongs on any playlist that includes their music. This track is an illustration of how difficult long-distance relationships can be (especially budding ones), which is uncommon with the immediate gratification sexual nature of a lot of hip hop lyrics. It’s just sublimely pleasant to listen to as well, and reminds me of the frequent long distance that began my own current relationship.

“You Got Me” also works well as a transition song into the next volume on this site (focus on women in music), since it features two prominent female guest appearances; Erykah Badu on the chorus and a young, pre-fame Eve (then known as Eve of Destruction) on the second verse.

It has been a pleasure to write for Overlooked Songs this month. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“I Remember” by The Roots (2011)

The Roots’ latest album, Undun, chronicles the life of a fictional character from the point of his death backwards to the point in which death seems like an inevitability. So it’s a little dark, but not particularly intense. Most tracks have a sedate, low-key quality about them, and with the lyrical introspection from MC Black Thought, “I Remember” is certainly no exception: ”It’s a pain living life against the grain, I’m looking back and y’all look the same.”

Instrumentally, “I Remember” is one of The Roots’ smoothest and most effortless tracks in their repertoire. I enjoy the dream-like keyboard lines that fill the introduction before the beat and vocals drop in with a stark dose of reality. Even better is the breakdown of strings and choir vocals that follow the second chorus at the 1:55 mark. It’s a moment that illustrates how The Roots have evolved from a jam band to a group that is much more precise and intentional in their musical decisions. Perhaps not everyone agrees, but I think they’re better for it.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“Criminal” by The Roots (2008)

There are a lot of elements that make “Criminal” a great track—it has strong lyrics, a catchy hook, and interesting layered guitar lines—but I picked it for this volume for two reasons: first, its song structure, and second, its track placement on Rising Down.

A lot of music, and the vast majority of hip hop tracks, operate in multiples of four. Verses are often 16 bars in length, choruses are frequently eight bars, and instrumental loops that play underneath the vocals are usually four bars. There are many variations (A Tribe Called Quest’s “Award Tour” has 24-bar verses, 2Pac’s “California Love” has 12-bar choruses) but they still have verse/chorus/loop lengths that are multiples of four. “Criminal” is delightfully different because the choruses and the instrumental loops are six bars in length. Going off the multiple-of-six structure, one of the verses is 18-bars in length and the other two sort of cheat the structure by being 16-bars in length with 2 bars of nothingness before the chorus kicks in. This song structure difference may not be huge, but it gives “Criminal” a distinctive feel from other hip hop tracks.

Within the context of Rising Down, “Criminal” is what I’d consider the MVP, not just because it’s a great track, but because of where it’s placed in the album. The Roots have a tendency to start their albums slow, and with Rising Down it’s definitely done to a fault. Only two of the first six tracks could be considered actual songs—only one of which is good (the title track). When I first heard “Criminal” come in at track 7, it saved the album from losing my interest and marked the beginning of a series of great songs that ends the band’s eighth effort. Had “Criminal” not been there to jump-start this album, I don’t think I’d consider it one of The Roots’ best.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“Water” by The Roots (2002)

I felt it would be negligent to not include at least one song of monster length in this volume, and “Water” from 2002′s Phrenology is one of my favorites. As with my last entry, MC Black Thought is given the opportunity to lyrically make the song solely his. He talks about the difficulty that many of his friends and family had with drug addiction with the lines, “I got fam that can’t stop druggin’, they can’t sleep, they can’t stay on one subject, they can’t eat.” Despite the subject matter, “Water” feels like a fairly breezy song, due in large part to the clap-heavy schoolyard beat that plays throughout. After about the 4:00 mark, the track dissolves into atmospheric sounds (including the bubbling of a bong), before building back up with elements of experimental jazz. Eventually, the beat becomes chaotic with a frenetic drum beat, thick guitars and sharp piano stabs. It’s a welcome stretch of muddiness after such a crisp and tightly constructed song.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“I Don’t Care” by The Roots (2004)

“I Don’t Care” is about as straight-forward as a song by The Roots gets. Instrumentally, it stays pretty constant throughout, with an introduction that focuses on Questlove’s drums. Once the groove is in full-effect though, it has a sort of a pleasant, forward-flowing quality. Lyrically, “I Don’t Care” is a Roots rarity in that all of the verses are recorded by resident MC, Black Thought (there are no guest appearances), and his lyrics are uncommonly boastful, such as the line, “I’m a Philly boss player, a dope rhyme-sayer.” With the hook, “I don’t care, as long as the bass line’s bumping, the drum line’s banging away,” The Roots definitely went for catchy, and definitely succeeded. Even if “I Don’t Care” leans a bit toward the simplicity of mainstream hip hop, it does so smoothly and infectiously on an otherwise underwhelming and disjointed album.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“No Alibi” by The Roots (1996)

“No Alibi” keenly mixes all the elements of what makes The Roots’ early releases (such as 1996′s Illadelph Halflife, and the earlier Do You Want More?!!!??! and Organix) so smooth, understated and organic. This track also foreshadows the bleak direction that The Roots’ music would eventually go in. Even though Game Theory would come a decade later, it’s not hard to hear “No Alibi” (albeit a trimmed down and slightly sludgier version) fitting in on that album. For me, “No Alibi” is one of the best tracks from Illadelph Halflife due in large part to how well the vocals from Black Thought and Malik B. (especially the chorus) complement the eerie instrumentation. The vagueness of “if you seen it or heard it, maybe probably I did it, maybe or maybe not, I admit what I committed” works especially well with the cloudy and dissonant keyboard line. As the track meanders along, it puts the listener in a slightly dizzying perma-haze, which early albums from The Roots do so well.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“The Fire” by The Roots (2010)

About eighteen months ago, I was a fresh-faced rapscallion waiting to hear back from an employer I had recently interviewed with. This wasn’t an interview for just any job, though. This was for my first job with a regular salary AND benefits. This was for the job I went to graduate school for, for the employer I was meant to work for, for a salary I needed to pay my student loans for the aforementioned graduate school! This was at the same time I had The Roots’ How I Got Over on my iPod on repeat, and on the day I received the call I got the job, that album and this feeling of immense jubilation would be forever burned into my memory as one.

I chose “The Fire,” from How I Got Over, not because I’m a huge John Legend fan (he sings the hook), but because when this song came through my headphones on that wonderful day, I was unable to contain my enthusiasm and began dancing… while riding the train. I don’t dance on trains. I’m the guy with a self-satisfied smirk on my face who privately mocks the guy dancing on the train.

This was what I consider my second perfect Roots moment (the first is in this volume’s introduction). “There’s something in your heart, and it’s it in your eyes, it’s the fire, desire…let it burn.” It’s because of moments like these that if I had to pick one band to write the soundtrack of my adult-ish life, it’d have to be The Roots.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“Long Time” by The Roots (2006)

There isn’t much of a consensus on what The Roots’ best album is. Some people may argue for 1999′s Things Fall Apart as The Roots’ something-for-everybody equivalent of “The White Album.” Others who prefer The Roots’ easy-going, free-flowing elements may reach back even further to 1996′s Illadelph Halflife. For me though, nothing tops the focus, mood or songwriting of 2006′s Game Theory, and “Long Time” is my favorite track from off of that album.

This track stands well on its own, though to fully appreciate it, I highly recommend purchasing Game Theory and listening to it all the way through until you get to “Long Time.” The eight tracks that precede it put the listener in a heavy sludge of hopelessness, and though “Long Time” isn’t a bright track by any means, it provides the album’s first moment of clarity, contemplation and maybe even a hint of optimism as indicated in Black Thought’s line, “…making something out of nothing, because everybody’s fifty cents away from a quarter where I come from.”

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“Swept Away” by The Roots (1995)

Though Organix was released independently two years earlier, 1995’s Do You Want More?!!!??! was The Roots’ first major-label release. And even perhaps more so than Organix, Do You Want More?!!!??! fuses elements of old school hip hop with jazz, or as it’s put at the beginning of the album, “you are all, you are all about to witness some organic hip hop jazz, 100% groove.” With its smooth saxophone lines and steady rim shots, no track illustrates the jazz-hip hop fusion better than “Swept Away.”  MCs Black Thought and Malik B. provide loose and complementary verses, and The Roots’ put their spontaneity on display by coming to a screeching halt at the 2:33 mark and switching back to the groove they open the album with.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“Make My” by The Roots (2011)

I briefly debated whether it made sense for this volume to include tracks from The Roots’ most recent album, Undun, since it was released just three months ago. I decided that was enough time to let it breathe mainly because this track, “Make My,” breathes so effortlessly.

“Make My” contains all the elements of what makes a classic jam from The Roots. First of all, there’s a pitch-perfect guest MC spot from Big K.R.I.T., which comes in after a dream-like introduction is given ample time to establish itself. Black Thought adds a strong second verse, and the song finishes with an interesting and moving coda. All in all, “Make My” is a 4 minute and 27 second song that contains just under 2 minutes of vocals. High instrumental-to-vocal ratios are not common in hip hop, but it’s what has separated The Roots from other hip hop groups even as their albums have become shorter and more focused over time.

Another element that makes “Make My” and the whole Undun album so pleasant is that the MCs understand their role without trying to dominate the song. Notice that all of the rap vocals in this track are contained within the space intended for them. There is no spillover. When Big K.R.I.T.’s verse starts, it starts, and when it ends, you never hear from him again. There are no little additions or shoutouts that are so common in hip hop. Hell, he doesn’t even identify himself. This isn’t one of those things most people think much about, but it’s welcome when it happens.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“Dynamite!” by The Roots (1999)

Is it a sin to discover a band by hearing one of their songs in a commercial? If it is, I’m regrettably going to Hell. I first heard Matt & Kim’s single “Daylight” in a beer commercial and I liked it, so I proceeded to download their album. Commercials introduced me to Phoenix and La Roux as well. These aren’t necessarily a list of my favorite artists, but if scrounging for a new pop/rock act to listen to, you could do worse than watch TV. I never thought commercials featured much in the way of undiscovered (by me) hip hop, but then I realized how I first heard The Roots. I hate to admit it, but I discovered The Roots though a Volkswagen commercial that featured “Dynamite!” from off their 1999 breakthrough album, Things Fall Apart. When I first saw the commercial, I was unaware of who wrote it or was even sure it was by a hip hop group (only the chorus of the song was featured). I later recognized a muffled and low volume version of “Dynamite!” through someone else’s headphones while riding the bus. I asked who it was and was told with a hint of disdain, which I now find understandable, since I think it’s a sin to disrupt the listening of a song that moves with such fluidity. I guess that’s two sins.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“I Can’t Help It” by The Roots (2008)

“I Can’t Help It” is a great, great hip hop track. The instrumentation hits hard and festers underneath the skin, the chorus vocals are mechanical and hypnotic, and the breakdown at the end of the song is perfect reprieve from the darkness. However, what really separates “I Can’t Help It” from the gluttony of other dark tracks such as the title track and “Singing Man” is the soul-crushingly depressing final verse provided by guest MC, Greg Porn. Greg Porn is one of a handful of MCs that The Roots regularly call on to drop a verse to complement what’s been written by resident MC Black Thought. With his verse (starting at the 2:31 mark) on “I Can’t Help It” though, Greg Porn completely makes the song his. I have never heard a verse so dreadfully self-deprecating in any genre of music, let alone the self-congratulatory nature of popular hip hop. He starts the verse with “I never said I’m ready to die, but I accept it,” continues it with “lost all semblance of hope and now I’m left with nervous conditions, addictions, in addition to vixens who mixed in with the wrong crowd,” and peaks the tragedy with “my life is on a flight that’s gone down, my mother had an abortion with the wrong child.” There are other knife-twisting lines in his verse, but God, it’s almost difficult to listen to. Almost.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“Pass the Popcorn” by The Roots (1993)

“Pass the Popcorn” is the first full-length track off of The Roots’ first full-length album, Organix (1993). I enjoy this track for a lot of reasons, but mostly because it’s simple and carefree, without crossing the invisible line into goofiness. The added bonus is that drummer Questlove drops the extremely rare verse at the 1:22 mark. Instrumentally, “Pass the Popcorn” contains only drums and upright bass with a simple keyboard melody over the chorus. Even with this minimal instrumentation, the movement of the drums and bass throughout the five-and-a-half minute running time is impressive. Try to listen to “Pass the Popcorn” with the last song I discussed (“In the Music”). It hardly seems like the same group could have written both tracks. Black Thought delivers the verses that begin both songs, but the gravelly voiced, bleak lyricist of “In the Music” seems to be a totally different person from the MC who encourages, “now you’re free, you can be all you want to be, go where you want to go and see all you want to see.”

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

“In the Music” by The Roots (2006)

The Roots have gone through three distinct phases over their long recording history. The first phase, which lasted from Organix (1993) to Illadelph Halflife (1996), was all about the easy-going intellectual hip hop pioneered by De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and The Pharcyde. In their second phase, which lasted from Things Fall Apart (1999) to The Tipping Point (2004), The Roots recorded more focused and hook-heavy music, which infused a little darkness into an otherwise loose structure. The third phase, which began with Game Theory (2006), has been characterized by much darker, more focused and vaguely politically-themed music.

I believe that The Roots’ most recent phase has contained much of their best music, and no song typifies the dark mood of their last four albums quite like “In the Music” from Game Theory. Questlove’s stark drumbeat is given ample time to settle-in before the dissonant and menacing guitar takes over. Even before Black Thought’s vocals come in at the 0:51 mark, the sinister mood of the track is acutely established. When the vocals do come in, the bleak lyrics compliment the underlying beat without overwhelming it.

I put “In the Music” as the first song of this volume, not because I think it’s The Roots’ best or most dynamic track, but because of what I perceive as brutal honesty. In his verse, Black Thought sums up the inner-city Philadelphia experience with the couplet, “A celebration of the loss of your innocence/To your old self you lost any resemblance.” The depressing conditions and violence are thoroughly illustrated, but not glorified, which is a strength of The Roots that separates them from a lot of hip hop artists.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]

That The Roots have largely eluded mainstream success though, does not come as much of a surprise. First of all, they’re a full band, which is outside of the accepted norm of elements that go into a hip hop group. The Roots formed in an era in which hip hop groups consisted of a DJ and two or three MCs. That’s it. Popular hip hop now is more focused on one individual MC, which is even less in-line what The Roots are about.

The Roots, in their current incarnation, consist of one MC (Black Thought, founding member), one drummer (Questlove, other founding member), a percussionist, a bassist, a guitarist, two keyboardists and a sousaphone player. Their albums are stuffed with guest appearances (especially guest MCs). The Roots are literally too big to fit into the archetype of popular hip hop.

Part of what I love about The Roots is how they’ve bucked every trend in hip hop throughout their existence. I appreciate that they’ve always been more concerned with the feel of an album than a hot track. In fact, The Roots have stunningly never had a single crack the top 30 on the US charts. For the purposes of this volume it practically qualifies all of their songs as overlooked.

Like a lot of people, I first became acquainted with The Roots when they released their 1999 breakout album, Things Fall Apart. That same year they also released a live album, The Roots Come Alive, which cemented my fandom. From there, I listened to their three previous albums, Organix (1993), Do You Want More?!!!??! (1995) and Illadelph Halflife (1996), while I eagerly awaited each subsequent release. Since then, The Roots have released Phrenology (2002), The Tipping Point (2004), Game Theory (2006), Rising Down (2008), How I Got Over (2010) and Undun (2011).

Impressive discography aside, what separates The Roots from most other hip hop groups is how great they are as a live act. I saw them play an outdoor concert at DePaul University’s quad in June of 2007, and it still stands as my favorite concert ever. It was the perfect storm, both figuratively and literally. I had been dating my current girlfriend for about a month, and was getting the pings of euphoria that come just after the nervousness of God-I-hope-this-works-out settles. My smitten-ness was elevated by the relief of having finished my final paper of undergrad, which was magnified by the imbalance I felt having not slept in 48 hours. I was drunk too, I guess.

Just as we arrived at the quad, the sky opened up with a fury that usually seems accompanied by tornado sirens. It wasn’t. However, the downpour was so rapid and harsh that the thought of seeking shelter quickly became moot. We were drenched, but drenched well past the point of discomfort and into total acceptance and perhaps enlightenment. As the rain eased, The Roots began their set and I was ecstatic. I don’t remember what they started with, what they finished with or how long the set was (somewhere between 45 minutes and 10 hours I think), but it was perfect. They reached a level of cohesion within their band that was positively hypnotic. I think I may have been pumping my fist at one point.

This is what The Roots are to me. They are a great hip hop band, and at moments, the perfect hip hop band. I can’t replicate the perfect Roots storm for you, but with this volume, I hope to at least illustrate why they are woefully underappreciated. I hope you enjoy it.

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[Andy Metz is a Seattle-born, Chicago-based musician who has produced solo and collaborative work. He currently works as a transportation planner for a prominent transit agency in Chicago (you’ll never figure out which one) and when he's not writing new music and performing throughout the city he can be seen drinking a bottle of Pike beer while wearing a throwback Largent jersey. This volume is his first contribution to the site. You can reach him via email here, and his website can be found here.]