How I Got Over

I’ll admit to being confused when I heard the news that The Roots had accepted the gig as Jimmy Fallon’s in-house late night band. I wasn’t bummed, because they’d been stale for years, but did figure that, as recordings artists, The Roots were all but done. The Fallon gig, to me, felt like retirement. I bought their ninth studio album, How I Got Over, recording during their ongoing Fallon gig, because I was about to leave for a long trip and wanted some new music. I checked the 30-second samples online and, surprisingly, of all the records I could find that night (and didn’t already have), it was the best option. 

A few days later, while on my “long trip,” it clicked. I’d been playing the record mostly as background music, which is all I figured it’d ever be for me, when songs started to jump into the foreground. I’d bought, somewhat enjoyed, and eventually sold off nearly every record the Philly-based hip-hop band had ever released, but this one seemed different. How I Got Over, despite its epic list of guest artists, felt very concise - or maybe cohesive is the right word. Clocking in at about 43 minutes over 14 tracks (only 11 of which are proper songs), the record is the band’s by-far tightest work yet. They’ve dropped the need for the forced inventiveness we heard on Phrenology and moved on from the lousy crossover pop efforts of The Tipping Point.

They’re no longer obsessed with paying tribute to J. Dilla or making a “throwback” or concept record. They’re no longer confused or burdened by their own expectations. Basically, it seems that The Roots are finally at the point in their career where they’re done trying to be this or that, and are now comfortable just making a record. The irony of this newfound maturity is that, by not being overly conceptual, the band has made their best record yet. And, believe it or not, we have Jimmy Fallon to thank. Fallon because he’s the man who got these guys to play together on a daily basis with a new set of challenges.

Taken away from the focus of their own music, The Roots were able to grow, digesting the music of guests with each show they played, turning down no challenge. And thus we have a record full of guests that never really feels like a record full of guests. Artists like Joanna Newsom, The Dirty Projectors, Monsters of Folk and more pop up, including Dice Raw. More predictable guests like John Legend and Phonte show up, too, but, like all the indie rock guests, they blend in nicely.

Frontman Black Thought subtly holds things together without ever being too overzealous. He pops up here and there, the only constant voice in a sea of big personalities. His band, fronted in musical direction by drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, also never come off as too anxious. They don’t sound like a subtle/safe late night backing band and they don’t sound like the rap band that used to try to hard. Here, surprisingly, they simply do what works and nothing more, in doing so, creating a boom-bap surprise.

How I Got Over, featuring instant classics like “Radio Days,” “Right On” and “Walk Alone,” works for me in the same way old A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers and De La Soul records worked for me in the early 90s. The sound is organic, lean, melodic and soulful; it’s the kind of record you can play over and over again, whether you like hip-hop, indie rock or pop. Against all odds, a sub par late night show has made The Roots relevant again.   9.5/10

Written by G. William Locke