The Roots have always had an unparalleled knack for pushing hip-hop’s borders without losing its essence. The band’s sixth album might’ve been their least traditional hip-hop collection to date, focusing on funk and soul grooves like “Star/Pointro,” a musical conversation between the band and a Sly & The Family Stone sample. But Black Thought’s rhymes are still razor-sharp: “Boom!” is a stylistic homage to pioneers Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap; on “Web,” he spits 84 uninterrupted bars over a stripped-down breakbeat.
Other Versions
- 12 Songs
- 12 Songs
- 1999
- 2002
- 1996
- 2010
- 2011
- 2004
- 2010
Featured On
- People Under the Stairs
- Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek
- Murs & 9th Wonder
- Blackalicious
- k-os
- Talib Kweli
- Diverse, Mos Def & Prefuse 73