Happy 20th Anniversary to People Under The Stairs’ second studio album Question In The Form Of An Answer, originally released June 6, 2000.
As spring turns to summer, it’s becoming People Under The Stairs weather. During their more than two-decade history as a group, Chris “Thes One” Portugal and Michael “Double K” Turner seemed to know that their music was best to be enjoyed under the blue skies and increasingly hotter and longer days. Question In The Form Of An Answer, PUTS’ sophomore album released 20 years ago, captures this vibe in a unique manner, hitting new notes and expanding the breadth and depth of their sound.
Question shows PUTS’ improvement as artists. The Next Step (1998), their debut release, was a decent first draft of an album. It featured one of their signature songs, “San Francisco Knights,” but it was clear that the group was pretty unpolished. With their follow-up, the duo works out the kinks as both producers and emcees, achieving a mature and fun-loving aesthetic. Like all of their releases, the album is a celebration of Los Angeles, the city of their residence, and the hip-hop culture that shaped their identities.
The album served as the template for the group’s full-length efforts for the first 15 years of their career. It’s a lengthy endeavor, running an hour and thirteen minutes and chock full of 22 different tracks. It’s filled with carefully constructed complex grooves and features a few quirky skits. It’s highly entertaining, as the group knows when to take itself seriously, and when to plant their tongues in their cheeks. It’s one of the better albums of 2000.
PUTS go the more aggressive route early on in Question. The duo pushes back against any perception that they’re soft on “Youth Explosion,” the album’s first single, one of the most hard-hitting tracks in their catalogue, built on blaring horns and a pounding drum track. Double K makes it clear that the duo isn’t to be fucked with, rapping, “I represent with a passion, and punk I ain’t asking / I'm telling’, then after that I'm bailing.”
“Blowin Wax” channels similar energy, with the head-cracking drums complementing the growling bass and striking saxophone sample. Thes and Double K continuously trade eight-bar verses, pledging their commitment to creating dope music. While Double K boasts of “digging through old crates, just creating this sound / Scribble the funky rhyme and go and put that shit down,” Thes describes the mission of PUTS circa 2000: “We traveling the globe, trying to take it back to ’92.”
PUTS dedicate much of Question to championing the preservation of hip-hop culture , which was important to many non-mainstream rappers during the early ’00s. For the pair, creating sample-based music composed of often-obscure tracks found through crate-digging missions was an intrinsic part of their music’s soul. Throughout the project, the two lament how the creativity in mainstream music is lacking, as ambitions of commercial success trump artistic quality.
These sentiments become the central theme of a song like “Give Love A Chance,” a sublime track, PUTS’ love letter to the music of their upbringing. Double K goes the allegorical route, describing the life of young man on his quest to build a music career and the troubles he must traverse during the early days of his pursuit of hip-hop happiness. Thes One addresses his quest to find success on his own terms, without sacrificing quality in the quest for a quick check. “American cash machine keeps rolling with or without,” he raps. “We got a subculture to save, and I’ll be damned if I shout / Some shit over tracks that’s wack to make a fat stack of cheese / Hip-Hop is my art, only myself I can please.”
“Stay Home” follows a similar theme, with Thes showing disgust towards rappers who see rap music solely as a way to gain financially. He works to set himself apart from his peers, rapping that “We do it because we only follow original rules / When only microphones and original records were tools / Flash forward 20 years later, they calling us haters / Popular rappers call it progress but it ain’t no greater.” Again, Double K takes a more personal tact, explaining his own upbringing that brought him to the point of being a successful recording artist.
Thes One and Double K each excel in their own solo tracks on Question, with each one delving into one of their many loves. “43 Labels I Like” centers on Thes One’s crate digging obsession, particularly the thrill that comes from the hunt for the right record. Lines like “I buy a record before I put food on my plate” capture a time when the love of music could be all-encompassing.
Later, Double K extols the virtues of smoking herb over a muted bassline on “Zignaflyinblow,” one of his first great weed anthems. Over a bubbly bass track, he describes his obsession with toking whenever possible, encouraging any and all to engage in a little toking.
The pair also flex their storytelling muscles a bit. They get fantastical on “Suite For Creeper,” where the pair break into a government building loaded with weapons for purposes that aren’t really explained. Neither takes the premise particularly seriously, playing the whole escapade for grim laughs, especially as Double K freestyles in the midst of a shootout with the police.
“July 3rd” is a more poignant entry, as both consider their separate experiences on what turns into a pretty lousy day for both of them. While Double K grapples with news that a friend got shot and the more mundane annoyances of an argument with his girlfriend, Thes One describes surviving getting hit by a minivan while crossing the street. Each verse is a meditation on “the randomness of it all,” and how quickly fortunes can turn on a dime.
“Earth Travelers,” one of Question’s best songs, took me a while to fully appreciate. Tucked in the back half of the album, it’s one of the group’s most understated yet musically interesting undertakings, featuring multiple layers of instrumentation and subtle filtering. First, Double K pays tribute to “back hands and fly rhymes,” while expressing disgust for “For these Starbuck-n*****s running up to the mic / They don’t excite, they bite, going against the rules.”
Thes One follows up with one of the strongest verses of his career, explaining the musical progression of PUTS’ material, and likening the group’s distinct sound in the Shiny Suit Era to Hard Bop separating from Cool Jazz. “With soul in our ears, we hear loops they can’t, and free the lost rhythms of indigenous chants,” he raps. He further explains his approach to creating hip-hop music by stating, “I went from pause loop tapes to 24 crates / discovered history repeats, so I looped beats / Collect loot on the streets, keep the people out of their seats / At shows with the long-handed flows of polysyllabic prose.”
Question also features the type of song that would become the bread and butter of future PUTS albums: mid-tempo, jazz and soul-drenched jams. Whether it’s songs like “The Cat,” where the two describe their experiences touring the globe, or the blissed out and sublime “E Business,” PUTS create some of the best chill-out music of the era. “We’ll Be There,” the album’s third single, is a celebration of just kicking back and enjoying music, letting the day and night unfold as the funky tunes play.
Question In The Form Of An Answer established a baseline for the duo’s fans, who now knew what to expect from the talented team. The group “leveled up” with Question, while remaining true to the vision they established during their initial efforts. A whole lot of work went into making this advancement look easy, but Thes One and Double K proved up to the task.
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