The Roots
by Believer on Jul.12, 2010, under The Roots
The Roots are an American hip hop band from Philadelphia, currently consisting of Tariq ‘Black Thought’ Trotter, Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson, Frank ‘F. Knuckles’ Walker, ‘Captain’ Kirk Douglas, Damon ‘Tuba Gooding Jr.’ Bryson, Kamal Gray and Owen Biddle. The group has had another ten members throughout its history.
Formed in 1987 when rapper Trotter and drummer Thompson met in Philadelphia High School for Creative Performing Arts, the group was originally known as The Square Roots. They self-produced an album called Organix in 1993, which earned enough industry buzz to get them signed to DGC Records.
Their first major label release was the EP From The Ground Up in 1994, and this was swiftly followed by their debut album Do You Want More?!!!??! in January 1995. Although not a commercial hit (it reached only number 102 on the Billboard 200) it produced three critically-acclaimed singles: Distortion to Static, Proceed and Silent Treatment. The album is now considered a classic of the 1990s hip hop jazz genre.
The group first achieved mainstream success with their third studio album Illadelph Halflife. Released on 24th September 1996, the record reached the Top 40 on the Billboard 200 and produced the Hot Rap Singles chart Top 20 hits What They Do and Clones. This was followed by their 1999 breakthrough album Things Fall Apart, which reached number four on the US charts and was nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy. It produced the award-winning single You Got Me and The Next Movement, which Randall Roberts of the Riverfront Times called “one of the best singles of the ’90s.”
The group released four more albums during the 2000s – Phrenology, The Tipping Point, Game Theory and Rising Down – and scored hits with singles like The Seed (2.0), Don’t Say Nuthin’, Don’t Feel Right, In the Music, Rising Up and Birthday Girl.
The group’s eleventh album How I Got Over was released in June 2010.
