THINGS F(EX/2LP/INDI

The Roots: Black Thought, Malik B, Leonard Nelson Hubbard, Kamal, Shou-Out, Rahze. Additional personnel: Ursula Rucker (spoken vocals); Anthony Tidd, Warren Wimbly, Spanky (guitar); Igor Szwec, Emma Kumrow (violin); David Garnet, Larry Gold, Deidra Murry (viola); D'Angelo, Scott Storch, James Poyser (keyboards); Bob Powers (synthesizer); Shawn Gee (hand claps); DJ Jazzy Jeff (DJ); The Jazzy Fatnastees, Lady B, Dice Raw, Eve Of Destruction, Mos Def, Common, Marie Daulne, Beenie Siegal, Erykah Badu (background vocals). Producers: The Grand Wizzards, Chaos, Scott Storch, James Poyser. Engineers include: Keith Cramer, Axel Niehaus, Kelo. "You Got Me" won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance By Duo Or Group. THINGS FALL APART was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The Roots: Black Thought, Malik B, Leonard Nelson Hubbard, Kamal, Shou-Out, Rahze. Additional personnel: Ursula Rucker (spoken vocals); Anthony Tidd, Warren Wimbly, Spanky (guitar); Igor Szwec, Emma Kumrow (violin); David Garnet, Larry Gold, Deidra Murry (viola); Bob Powers (synthesizer); D'Angelo, Scott Storch, James Poyser (keyboards); Shawn Gee (hand claps); DJ Jazzy Jeff (DJ); The Jazzy Fatnastees, Lady B, Dice Raw, Eve Of Destruction, Mos Def, Common, Marie Daulne, Beenie Siegal, Erykah Badu (background vocals). Producers: The Grand Wizzards, Chaos, Scott Storch, James Poyser. Engineers include: Keith Cramer, Axel Niehaus, Kelo THINGS FALL APART was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. "You Got Me" was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group. Hip-hop is about presence. Whether party- or street-oriented, it tends to keeps its listeners firmly centered in their own skin: hands in the air, guard your grill, watch your back. In spite of the blunted ethos of the late '90s and the emergence of trip-hop, it's a rare hip-hop record that causes your eyes to go out of focus and your brain to operate freely in that space that makes us describe music as "deep." THINGS FALL APART achieves that distinct sort of transcendence perhaps because it is not trying to save, reinvigorate, or resurrect the artform. As the title (taken from Chinua Achebe's novel on the loss of traditional African culture during colonization) suggests, the record takes the death of hip-hop as its starting point. Where earlier Roots albums captured the live feeling of the open mic/jam sessions for which they are now internationally famous, TFA adds a newer wrinkle of arrangement and studio mastery. The layers and echoes occasionally (as on "100% Dundee") give you the sensation that you're wandering through one of those jam sessions in a detached, even feverish state--a perfect snapshot of hip-hop on the eve of the millennium.