The Roots Become 'Undun' (A CherryOnTop Review)

The Roots Become ‘Undun’ (A CherryOnTop Review)

Within seconds of the album’s opening, our main character Redford Stephens is dead. Undun is The Roots’ eleventh effort and first concept album. The story unfolds in a reverse fashion, starting with the death of the main character, Redford Stephens. What follows is a gripping series of songs that narrate his upbringing in the crime-filled ghetto. The Roots truly created an album worth sitting through in it’s entirety. The features from Big K.R.I.T, Greg Porn, Dice Raw and Bilal all help contribute to Redford’s cautionary tale. The album’s opening songs “Sleep” and “Make My” featuring K.R.I.T truly create a dark and, at times, hopeless atmosphere, “The grim reaper telling me to swim deeper Where the people go to — lo and behold, the soul keeper.”

Ring-leader Black Thought raps on the later track “Lighthouse,” “When everybody’s fresh out of collateral to damage. My splaying got me praying like a mantis, I begin to vanish,” Black simultaneously brings both gritty (“One Time”) and profound (“The OtherSide”) lyrics as he narrates Stephens’ tragic tale. The production feels organic as usual, the entire band is in full effect for the majority of the album. The closing four instrumental “movements” stand as stone-cold reminders that you are listening to a full band at work. Even with a near 40-minute running time, the album tends to feel a little on the brief side. With most tracks reaching a little over three minutes, the songs tend to leave just as quickly as they come, making the epic four part closer arrive a little earlier than it should.

As a whole, Undun‘s creativity alone is miles ahead of its time, telling a story about a person among the lesser-privileged, but speaks for the human race in general. Death is an often rhymed about topic in hip-hop, Undun just want’s you to stop, breathe and look around every now and then.

- Richard Martinez

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December 16th, 2011 | Mara | Comments Off |