the roots - things fall apart

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Pinning down the Roots' legacy isn't quite as simple as acknowledging their current role slow jamming the news on The Tonight Show: in fact, before they were invited into our daily national households, The Roots had to first shake folks up.

Things Fall Apart became the ascendant touchstone for a band that always had chops but never felt dangerous - from the fiery Jim Crow imagery stamped on the cover to the grab you by the throat lyrical turns held within, Questlove, Black Thought and company laid down somewhere in the neighborhood of 145 tracks to whittle down to a final take-no-prisoners fourteen songs, and once the interludes and transitions were sifted in, the record felt like a full on protest - of history, of their careers.

How does it hold up twenty years down the road? Lend an ear and let's see.