undun (2011)
The Roots new album undun is the hip-hop bands 10th studio album. To make ten hop-hop albums and still maintain relevancy is a testament in itself, including the fact that many of the members are in their 40s. And fact is this could possibly be their best effort sounding hungrier and more authentic then ever with this effort that is a concept album. Citing existentialist themes they presented a fictional character, Redford Stephens, who is the every African American male who due to circumstances becomes what they want him to be playing off as the urban tragedy that seems so common. The authenticity, to which it is presented, makes it, we see this character and we love him because we see us, he had to make the same choices like us and struggle like us. With The Roots and their maturity there isn’t an inch of it that is glorified. It just a presentation of a man that is all of us who tried in vain to get over and there is something beautiful in that struggle…
Told in a reverse narrative, the first track “The Un” begins with a contradiction. A moody organ synth plays to the sound of a pulseless EKG monitor suggesting death to the distant sounds of a baby crying…birth. This can suggest a lot in converging life and death, but to me it was saying that it is all endless cycle. The next track, “Sleep” opens with the bars, “like when autumn leaves fall down from trees, there I goes…I lost a lot of sleep to dreams.” Black Thought opens saying, “all that I am, all that I was, is history” concluding his verse, “Oh there I go, from a man to a memory.” This portrays a dead man’s own reflections, wondering if his family will even remember him. The next track “Make My” actually portrays the death and paranoia that lead to it as at this point he has been shot. This is all played out to an ironically calm track, that comes off as one of the albums best, especially sonically as it concludes with a minute and half breakdown. The next track, “One Time” opens up with Phonte, formerly of Little Brother, sounding as fresh as ever. He really captures the desperation of the track with the line simply stating, “I never hope for the best,” the tone of the track has a real bravado to it, indicating in terms of the story that our hero completed a big score. Black thought’s verse confirms this, “capture this moment, this is smash and grab…” then later saying, “I guess If I ever got lucky it was one time, then I went missing…”. “Kool On”, suggests better moments of happiness, a sorta calm before the storm that was the first four tracks.
The sheer economy of the album can be felt. Only 39 minutes long every line really matters. Another possible reason for its short running time can be correlated to the short life of our character Redford. The next track “The Other side” lyrically is the most aggressive on the album. Summing up the hunger and desperation Black Thought raps:
“But when that paper got low so did my tolerance
And it ain’t no truth in a dare without the consequence
Listen if it not for these hood inventions
Id just be another kid from the block with no intentions
On the dock of that bay serving a life sentence
Even if I’m going to hell I’m gonna make an entrance
Yeah let em know I’m getting cheese like omletes is
But I’m the toast of the town like Thomas is”
“Stomp” maintains this aggression laying out our hero’s own code of ethics. Going into my late favorite track “The Lighthouse”. The hook metaphorically describes feelings of alienation and subsequent self hate, I think stemming from not being able to trust no one. Long time Roots guest rapper, Dice Raw raps:
“Take a look at the man in the mirror
We start fussing
Only one person gets hurt when throwing the punches
Me
And the man behind the glass just laughs
The waves come over my head and just crash
My hand start bleeding water starts receeding
A feeling comes into my heart I start believing that
I actually might survive through the evening
Survive on my own thoughts of suicide that’s competing
With thoughts of tryna stay alive which been weakened
By the feeling of putting on a smile while being beaten
The fear of drowning still diving in the deep end
The waters carried me so far you can’t reach ‘em
And it feels like there’s no one”
The next two tracks are the last tracks that contain any lyrics as the rest are instrumentals. “I Remember” is as the title suggests a reflective look back on life growing up, set to a somber beat. “Tip the Scale” the last track and yet temporally the first, presents life as a series of choices. Yet as the song progress you feel that on the street, these choices aren’t realistic, as it a sad heads or tails choice between prison and jail. So your only hope is to tip the scales your own way in the meantime. Dice Raw’s verse reflects the two choices quite straightforwardly here:
“You either done doing crime now or you done in
I got a brother on the run and one in
Wrote me a letter he said when you comin
Shit man I thought the goal’s to stay out
Back against the wall
Then shoot your way out
Getting money’s a style that never plays out
Till you in a box
And your stash money’s paid out
The scales of justice
Ain’t equally weighed out
Only two ways out
Digging tunnels or digging graves out”
The last four tracks are all instrumentals that say just as much as the artists’ words do. “Possibility” and “Will to Power” play as one track, starting off slow (possibility) before exploding in percussion and chaos (will to power). Redford is a sentimental piano ode to a life of tragedy. And the albums last track, “Finality” is a strings section that finalizes a poetic life of tragedy before a low piano note thunders and resonates…
I have offered my own interpretations, but I think many conclusions can be drawn. The one thing I am adamant about is the existential overtone. Never told in the third person each sixteen can be seen as the Stephens own thoughts and the album only concerns itself with them. Muddled at times, clear at others, each lines gives us a glimpse into the his mind. The problem the album then poses is a complex one, if life is existential in that it is a series of choices that we are free to make, how can one realize this freedom of will in the face of one’s soci-economic status. Sartre could never explain this, and reading Richard Wright or Ralph Ellison I think the question is really interesting when posed to the African America experience. It is a challenging album yet at the same time it embodies everything great about hip hop. It’s intricate, doesn’t lie, and tells stories about us for us.
