The Roots were one of the first groups to celebrate the intersection of hip hop and jazz, back in the late 1980's.
You got musicality (they're a band!), you got Black Thought, you got lyricism, what else can you ask for?
These guys know what they do.
So, their voices are indeed worth listening.
In "What they do", they criticise the opportunism they saw in the mid-90's hip hop scene: "The principles of true hip-hop have been forsaken / It's all contractual and about money makin'."
This was 1996. Hip hop has come a long way since then, to the point that, in 2018, it is the most listened genre in America and has also taken over the world.
The Roots are still active, and that's what's incredible: they remain true to "the roots".
It is nice going back to revisit their sound & their thoughts expressed on "What they do".
Even if you disagree with what they say in the lyrics, you gotta respect them for saying it - first because they've been in the scene for more than 30 years, they got enough history and talent to be able to analyse the situation - and also because they're not only pointing fingers, they're standing out for what they believe through their music.
And yes, their music is still as awesome as ever, 'cause that's "what they do".
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About the curator: Ana Clara Ribeiro
Music, art and entertainment have always played a big role in the life of Ana Clara Ribeiro. She grew up in Gurupi (an inland city in Tocantins, the youngest State of Brazil), listening to all kinds of music, reading, writing, watching stuff and connecting them to her personal beliefs and other ideas she read about.
As she became a lawyer and a writer, all the topics to which she is constantly exposed continued to give her insights about life, people and the universe, through the lenses of art.
Nowadays, when she isn’t analyzing lawsuits or producing content about Law, Marketing, Business or Music, she is certainly doing something related to her various personal and professional projects, always to the sound of a playlist as eclectic as her life.
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