The Roots - Things Fall Apart (1999)

The album was issued with multiple album covers, and all of them are powerful. Look into the backstories behind each one.

I gotta admit something to you: Up until just a few days ago, I had no idea that Rahzel was ever in this band. I knew Rahzel as being a great beatboxer, and his collaborations with some other artists were pretty great, like the one he did with Mike Patton's Peeping Tom project, but I had no fucking idea that he was ever affiliated with The Roots, and I think that's really cool! You know what's not so cool? The fact that nearly everyone holds this up as being the best Roots album but I don't really see it: I like it, but the best? It's not even better than the previous two albums! That's not to say I dislike it, I like it a fair bit, I think it's a good album, that it has some infectious songs ("Dynamite!" is one of those songs that DEMANDS to be played a few times before continuing on through the album, and is coincidentally the only song on the album that the late J Dilla was affiliated with, production-wise) but the BEST? Nah. The instrumentation on here is cool, as always, especially in the case of "Step Into the Realm" where they experiment with constant fade-outs, but it isn't as great as it was on the previous two albums, and I don't hear a terrible lot of musical progression from the previous album. The music in general sounds a bit more.. Contained, I guess. Good album, good shit on it, but best? Are you outta your fuckin' mind?

7/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!