Happy 10th Anniversary to The Roots’ ninth studio album How I Got Over, originally released June 22, 2010.
Putting together an album about abstract concepts is always a difficult feat to achieve. As I’ve written before, a lot of hip-hop concerns the details, dealing with everyday experiences and how they affect the rapper or crew’s lives. Tackling the larger emotions associated with doing what’s necessary to survive is something else altogether.
The Roots’ How I Got Over traverses this difficult territory. Much like Aceyalone’s A Book of Human Language (1998) or Illogic’s Celestial Clockwork (2004), it’s a big idea album that takes big swings and absolutely connects.
The Roots’ ninth studio album (and third on Def Jam) is, as always, driven by the dynamic performances of lead emcee Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. In the grand sense, it’s a “concept” album, but rather than telling a linear narrative, it examines how the emcees on each track “feel” through their lyrics. How I Got Over shows the workings of a psyche that must cope with hopeless circumstances and find a way to escape the crushing despair. The end goal is to not only survive, but also to excel.
How I Got Over is the first post-Jimmy Fallon album by The Roots. The crew became the official house band on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in March of 2009, and have since followed him to The Tonight Show. When the decision was first announced, it was the source of much handwringing and speculation by Roots fans and hip-hop heads alike. If Fallon was going to use The Roots primarily as a band, what would become of Black Thought? Would The Roots ever release an album again? Would they ever tour? Were they selling out? If they ever released an album again, would they go for pop appeal?
These concerns turned out to be much ado about nothing. Black Thought is just as much of an integral part of the group when they’re “Late Night now like, ‘Here's Johnny’” as he is on record. How I Got Over is the first of three albums the crew have released since taking the job. They’ve toured extensively. The delays on their latest album appear to have their “roots” in artistic reasons rather than scheduling. And the group certainly hasn’t lost its edge or spent the last decade playing it “safe.” If anything, The Roots’ music is much more experimental.
But like many of the Roots albums during their Def Jam days on forward, How I Got Over faced delays in its release. Originally slated for the summer of 2009, it was first bumped to October 2009, before finally hitting the shelves in the early days of summer 2010. Furthermore, some of the material that was announced for the project in advance has never surfaced. In a June 2009 Billboard article, written to promote a performance of the album’s title track on Late Night, they list an R&B tinged track called “Make a Move,” as well as covers of Cody Chesnutt’s “Serve This Royalty” and Frank Zappa’s instrumental opus “Peaches en Regalia.”
Though these tracks didn’t make it on to How I Got Over, The Roots decided to go in an interesting and often daring direction. They branch out to work with not only friends like John Legend, but also indie rockers like Amber Coffman, along with Icelandic singer Patty Crash (f.k.a. Patty Cake) and folk-rock super-group Monsters of Folk.
On the lyrical end, Black Thought remains the group and album’s focal point, though he is often joined by other emcees. Some are mainstays of The Roots’ lineup, like Dice Raw, who occasionally raps but mostly sings the hooks throughout the album. Others are more recent collaborators with the group, such as Truck North, P.O.R.N., Peedi Peedi (f.k.a. Peedi Crack), and STS a.k.a. Sugar Tongue Slim. The group also enlisted two of the most talented emcees working at the time to record verses. Both Blu (of Blu & Exile) and Phonte (of Little Brother) contribute to two tracks apiece (including one where they appear together).
With How I Got Over, The Roots recorded a great album about learning to succeed in a world where the deck is stacked against them. As the extensive list of collaborators suggests, they tackle this theme by blending no-nonsense hip-hop with soul, folk and indie rock, and experimental music. Given the massive amount of talent collected in the Roots crew, these forays into other genres never feel forced. In fact, every button they press and switch they flip works, turning How I Got Over into one of the best albums of 2010 and during the decade overall.
How I Got Over starts off in a dark place, opening with “Walk Alone,” a somber examination of alienation, isolation, and despair. Over a melodic piano groove, Black Thought, Truck North, and P.O.R.N. all contemplate being at the end of their rope, and lacking direction to take the next step. “Living life without a care, mean pokerface,” Truck North raps. “But I’m forced to play solitaire ’til I get up out of here.”
Things get even grimmer on “Dear God 2.0,” where Black Thought ponders the existence of the divine in a world gripped with atrocity and inequality. The song serves as a sibling or maybe first cousin to The Roots’ hit “The Seed 2.0,” their duet with Cody Chesnutt on Phrenology (2002), in that it’s a quasi-remake that features extensive contributions from the song’s original artist. In this case, the aforementioned Monsters of Folk help reinterpret their hit that was released earlier in 2010, stripping it down even further, creating an even more somber vibe.
Blu makes his first appearance on “Radio Daze,” joining Black Thought and P.O.R.N. as they try to shut out the world’s constant bombardment of stress through whatever other means are at their disposal. “’Cause see, the past tense, it never really passes,” Blu raps. “Phases that trap us and cage us like classes.” Meanwhile, Black Thought doggedly searches for ways to numb himself, rapping, “Ain’t like I’m on a coke binge, hanging in dope dens / Or life is just a pool of Patron I’m soaked in.”
After wallowing at rock bottom, the direction of How I Got Over changes with “Now Or Never,” as the album becomes less about the crushing stresses of the world and more about finding way to overcome obstacles in order to succeed. “Now Or Never” finds Black Thought, Phonte, and Dice Raw all rapping about motivating themselves to take control of their lives.
Similarly, “The Day,” again featuring verses by Blu and Phonte and a soulful chorus by Patty Crash, might as well be named “Carpe Diem,” as the three emcees each face the day in front of them, and resolve to make the most of it. “Now it's like I’m in the last lap of the car chase,” Phonte raps. “And I finally understand my right to choose / My preacher man told me it could always be worse / Even the three-legged dog still got three good legs to lose.”
In between these two tracks is my personal favorite song on How I Got Over, the title track and centerpiece of the album. Existing somewhere between the desolation of the project’s beginning and the guardedly optimistic back half, “How I Got Over” depicts the streets as Black Thought experiences them, a place where “don't nobody care about you, only thing you got is God.” Though Thought is a surprisingly good singer, crooning the song’s first verse, here he’s comfortably in the peaks of the upper echelon of rappers drawing breath, depicting the need to take whatever steps are necessary to survive in the unforgiving inner-city. “Whatever don't break me will make me stronger,” he raps. “I feel like I can’t take too much longer.”
“Right On” is another of the album’s highlights. Musically, it’s about the most interesting entry on the album, featuring sampled vocals from Joanna Newsom’s “The Book of Right-On” with drums inspired by the Turtles’ “I’m Chief Kamanawanalea” and portions of Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock’s “It Takes Two.” The elements are combined with strings, whistles, and chirps to create an almost haunting backdrop. Thought drops one of his best verses on the album, rapping, “I told y’all I’m above and beyond a gimmick / I get into your head and spread like a pandemic.” The sharp voiced STS is now slouch himself either, basing his verse around the power of light.
STS joins Black Thought on “Hustla,” a dedication to working a better life for your children. While Black Thought pledges to hustle to provide his daughter that which he never had access to, the then childless STS wonders about the future and what it may hold for himself and whatever offspring he may have. The beat is one of How I Got Over’s oddest and most creative, consisting of a drum track and auto-tuned baby cries. Diplo, one of the producers of the track, first used this trick on the skit “Baby” on Major Lazer’s Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do (2009). As the backbone for an entire song, it works surprisingly well.
“Doin’ It Again” and “The Fire” offer a one-two punch of the aforementioned John Legend. The former samples the piano and vocals from Legend’s “Again,” with Black Thought working to achieve in the face of adversity, rapping, “I’m on my job, see my eyes focused where the prize be.” “The Fire” featuring a chorus by Legend, centers on passion, motivation, and finding the drive to succeed. The group first performed it at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which explains a lot of the sports and torch-related imagery that Black Thought utilizes in his verses.
Amongst the heavy themes, “Web 20/20” is a welcome release. Appearing near the end of the album, it’s a lyrical free-for-all featuring Black Thought, Truck North, and Peedi, all rhyming over a complex drum track and stabs of keys and vocals. The track is another sequel, similar in theme and execution to “Web” from The Tipping Point (2004), in which Black Thought kicked one lengthy, masterful verse. His cohorts rise to the occasion, with Truck North declaring, “Fresh new trick to flip, I’m Dick Dastard / Half smooth criminal and half straight bastard.” But much like the outing a little over half a decade before, Black Thought owns the track with astonishing verbal gymnastics. After proclaiming, “N***a like me just has to spit acid / Sucker like you just has to get blasted,” he raps “Can’t place the face, kind of hard to catch me / Kings that pull strings like Dorothy Ashby.”
“Web 20/20” would serve as an informal gathering of what would become the Money Making Jam Boy, who’s roster included Black Thought, Truck, Peedi Peedi, as well as P.O.R.N. and STS. They’d release their mixtape The Prestige in early 2011. It would be marked as a raw back-to-basics, lyrics-oriented hip-hop foray.
How I Got Over did serve as a template for what the future of The Roots career would evolve into, as they continued to record and release concept albums. However, the future endeavors were more narrative based, with varying levels of success. A year-and-a-half later, the group followed up How I Got Over with the extremely dope undun (2011). Their last effort, …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, wasn’t quite the same level of artistic success.
It’s impressive that over fifteen years and nine albums into their career, The Roots had so much creatively in their tank to release an album like How I Got Over. It deals with the macro in ways that are relatable, while never hitting the audience over the head with “the point.” How I Got Over is a clear reminder of why The Roots are among the most gifted groups out there, and why they really should just release Endgame, their much-delayed, potentially final album, already.
LISTEN: