FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
The Roots - Undun
___________
THERE is always something…
IN THIS PHOTO:' The Roots perform an exclusive track during the John Varvatos fall/winter 2011 campaign shoot at Republic Airport in New York
fascinating and unique with every album from The Roots. The Hip-Hop band were formed in 1987 by Tariq ‘Black Thought’ Trotter and Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their most-current album, ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, was released in 2014 – let’s hope that this is not the final album from the group. I want to discuss the album that arrived before that: 2011’s magnificent Undun. Its concept is one that really interests me. The album is about the short, tragic life of fictional character Redford Stevens, set in urban poverty and told through a reverse-chronological narrative. Before bringing in some reviews and a link to buy the album, it is worth grabbing some Wikipedia information regarding Undun’s concept:
“The plot of the album takes place in reverse over the course of a day in Redford's life, with the multiple featured rappers all speaking from Redford's first-person perspective. The album opens with the sound of a flatlined EKG on the instrumental track "Dun", signifying Redford's death. This leads into the second track, "Sleep", where Black Thought's verse portrays Redford's dying thoughts on his life, fate and whether he will be remembered. "Make My" depicts the killing of Redford, with an extended outro modeled on Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones (Part II)" that conveys Redford's spirit beginning to leave his body.
"One Time" finds Redford feeling remorse and contemplating the course of his life; he reflects on the time that he stopped caring about school. "Kool On" and "The OtherSide" depict Redford living successfully as a drug dealer. "Kool On" hints that Redford is deluding himself, and the song's lyrics are about "how successful street hustlers might fool themselves in believing they are living the 'good life' but, in reality, 'living on borrowed time.'" "Stomp" is meant to be the song on which "he's either gonna live or he’s gonna die with whatever path he has chosen to go down." While Redford feels that he has been forced into crime, he is also decisively choosing his path. On "Lighthouse", Redford contemplates suicide,[19] and the song's hook "there’s no one in the lighthouse/Face down in the ocean" is a metaphor for Redford being caught up in crime and questioning the direction of his life. Redford recalls his life before crime on "I Remember". "Tip the Scale" explores "how the odds are already stacked against a black man growing up in the ghetto even before he is born".
The album is concluded with a four-part instrumental movement. Part one is Sufjan Stevens performing his "Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)", originally from the album Michigan; part two has a string quartet reinterpret the song. Part three is a free jazz performance by Questlove and pianist D. D. Jackson. The album concludes with the fourth part, another string quartet piece that ends abruptly with an unresolved piano chord. Roots manager Richard Nichols described the final four tracks as a "birth-cycle" and said "It’s almost like he was undone upon birth ... your outcome of your life is definitely gonna be affected by your surroundings, statistically".
I would recommend that people buy the tremendous and hugely memorable Undun on vinyl. You can buy it from Rough Trade. They describe Undun in these terms:
“10th studio album from the Roots originally released in December 2011. The first conceptually-based album from the Roots featuring Big Kirt and Sufjan Steven. Undun is an existential re-telling of the short life of one Redford Stephens (1974-1999). Through the use of emotives and Redford's internal dialogues the album seeks to illustrate the intersection of free will and prescribed destiny as it plays out On the Corner. Utilizing a reverse narrative arc, the album begins as the listener finds Redford disoriented - postmortem - and attempting to make sense of his former life. As he moves through its pivotal moments he begins to deconstruct all that has led to his (and our own) coming undun”.
Many of The Roots’ album have received positive feedback. From their 1993 debut, Organix, to today, the group have been lauded and celebrated as one of the most consistent and innovative in music. It is no surprise that Undun, given its concept and the exceptional music within, resonated with critics and showed that The Roots had lost none of their genius.
The first review that I want to bring in is from AllMusic. They were incredibly positive and deep in their review. They made some interesting observations and points that hasn’t occurred to me before:
“The Roots' umpteenth album is titled after a Guess Who song mutilated by countless lounge bands since 1969. It incorporates a Sufjan Stevens recording, mixtape-style, for the purpose of starting a four-part instrumental suite that closes a program lasting only 40 minutes. Based on those details, it would not be irrational to think that the band’s well of inspiration might be dry or tainted. While the well might be slightly tainted, it is full. Undun is based on the life of Redford Stephens, a fictional product of inner-city New York who was born in the mid-‘70s and tragically passed in 1999, the point at which the album begins -- with a quiet EKG flatline. Appearances from MCs Big K.R.I.T., Dice Raw, Phonte, Greg Porn, and Truck North, as well as contributions by singers Aaron Earl Livingston and Bilal, flank principal voice Black Thought, yet this is no hip-hop opera or anything close to a typical concept album. The existential rhymes, seemingly created with a shared vision, avoid outlining specific events and focus on ruminations that are grave and penetrating, as if each vocalist saw elements of himself and those he has known in Redford. What’s more, Undun probably shatters the record for fewest proper nouns on a rap album, with the likes of Hammurabi, Santa Muerte, and Walter Cronkite mentioned rather than the names of those who are physically involved in Stephens’ life. (The album’s app, filled with video clips and interviews with Stephens’ aunt, teachers, and peers, provides much more typical biographical information.) Musically, Undun flows easier and slower than any other Roots album. The backdrops ramp up with slight gradations, from soft collisions of percussion and keys (“Sleep”), to balmy gospel-soul (“Make My”), to Sunday boom-bap (“One Time”). There's a slight drop into sinewy funk (“Kool On”) that leads into a sustained stretch of stern, hunched-shoulder productions, highlighted by the crisply roiling “Lighthouse,” that match the cold realism of the lyrics. The strings in the slightly wistful “I Remember” and completely grim “Tip the Scale” are a setup for the Redford suite, which is nothing like padding. It glides through the movements, involving mournful strings, a violent duel between drummer ?uestlove and guest pianist D.D. Jackson, and a lone death note that fades 37 seconds prior to silence”.
Just before wrapping things up, it is worth introducing a review from Entertainment Weekly. In another hugely glowing review, this is what they had to say:
“The Roots currently occupy a strange yet comfy bifurcated existence as the hardest-working, most-sought-after band in hip-hop, and the resident music-makers on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Thankfully, the safety and security of a regular gig at 30 Rock (with benefits, no less!) has emboldened rather than stifled the group’s raging ambition. The Philadelphia vets’ 13th studio album, Undun, is the group’s first concept album, and the culmination of everything it has worked toward musically and lyrically. It’s a subtly assured magnum opus that broadcasts its aspirations from the mountaintops.
Conceptually, Undun resembles Christopher Nolan’s Memento. It begins at the end, with the death of its hustling protagonist, and unfolds backward to reveal how he reached such an end. The ghostly instrumental “Dun”—with its distant echoes of anguished screams and heavenly strings— and the hypnotic “Sleep” kick the album off on an appropriately elegiac note. As befits a project about a dead man’s shattered dreams, it’s a haunted, shadowy album of regrets and retrospection. The backward structure and opening death lend a tragic air to even upbeat tracks like “Kool On,” which swaggers joyously like a lost vintage track from Sly And The Family Stone.
Undun ultimately registers as a melancholy, exquisitely downbeat cautionary tale about the dangers of street life. Previous Roots masterpieces like Things Fall Apart and Phrenology were defined by aggressive, borderline-heroic over-reaching. With the tight, concise, ferociously focused Undun, however, the immensity of the project’s ambition is matched by its seamless, masterful execution”.
If you have not already got a copy of Undun, then go and grab it on vinyl. It is such a remarkable album that keeps you engrossed from start to finish. Not only is its plotline arresting; the music is so rich and varied – from its snare drums to the choral arrangement and strings, it is absolutely brilliant! Almost a decade old (Undun was released on 2nd December), the album has lost none of its power and potency. Do yourself a favour and grab this…
ON vinyl