Black Thought Revisits The Roots’ ‘Things Fall Apart’ 15 Years Later

Black Thought Revisits The Roots’ ‘Things Fall Apart’ 15 Years Later

In 1999, The Roots released their magnum opus to that point, Things Fall Apart, their biggest commercial and mainstream album of their careers at the time. The Philly-based crew grabbed the likes of Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Eve, Beanie Sigel, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Common and J Dilla to lend their talents to the project, creating one of hip-hop's jazziest, most musical and most cohesive albums of the past two decades.

Fifteen years later, The Roots are at the height of their fame, having just transitioned alongside Jimmy Fallon last week into their new lane as the house band for The Tonight Show, one of the most prestigious and high-profile gigs a band could achieve, coming off one of the best albums of their career in 2011's concept album undun. But it was that fourth album that put the Legendary Roots Crew on the map for good. "It doesn't seem like that much time has passed, but I guess so much has happened in my life and all of our lives since that record came out," Black Thought tells XXL. "Time flies. I feel like I've had two and a half careers since Things Fall Apart, you know?"

With the anniversary of the album coming yesterday (Feb. 23), Thought hopped on the phone with XXL to talk about some of his favorite memories from the recording of the album, the Philadelphia music scene in the late 1990s, and the mysterious case of a disappearing Mos Def. Hint: it involves fish sandwiches. Check it out. —Dan Rys (@danrys)
Filed Under: Anniversary, black thought, Feature, Questlove, The Roots, Things Fall Apart
Categories: News
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