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Mtv News: Roots' ?uestlove, Black Thought Delve Into Phrenology

"For the most part, none of us were in the studio at the same time for most of the recording," he said. "It just came to be in the process of layering. Everybody came in and did their thing, and we just layered it up. Ahmir will come in the studio and lay three or five joints in a one- or two-session period, then the next time I'll come through the studio it will be like, 'Yo, put the joints on Ahmir was working on a couple of days ago.' It might be two to three that I'm feeling that I wanna build upon. I might wanna drop that or ask him to come and add more to the foundation."

During a soundcheck a few months ago, the Roots came up with Phrenology's first single, "Break You Off."

"We were doing a pilot for some TV show and we were jamming with Musiq," Black Thought remembered. "We just came up with it and it felt real smooth. ... It was sexy from the start. We couldn't really take it nowhere else but keep it for the ladies. In a nutshell, the tune is about me meeting a young lady who's already involved and she's in a relationship. I'm coming to break her off, basically giving her what's missing."

" 'Me and Mrs. Jones' for the new millennium," ?uest interjected. "The basic direction the album was going was so far to the left — it wasn't like anything out there — we kind of needed a balance. We are smart businessmen and we know medicine tastes better with a little sugar in it. This seemed like a logical choice because it was something easy to get into."

There are a couple of neat Behind the Scenes videos worth watching. Has anybody seen an insightful review? Where is intelligent hip hop criticism these days? (Besides Boondocks of course.)

Posted by Adam on December 6, 2002 11:50 PM |

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http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20021205/RVRECO/Arts/thearts/theartsMusicHeadline_temp/4/4/6/

Newcomer Cody Chestnutt fronts The Seed, a hammer-dumb soul number about keeping it real and making a baby: "I push my seed in her bush for life." Where was Baraka when this icky doggerel was going down?



http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1459036/20021206/roots.jhtml?headlines=true

"It's not even about sex. He's singing about cheating on his wife and impregnating another woman behind his girl's back and naming the baby Rock and Roll."



"But he's speaking in metaphorical terms," clarified ?uest.

Posted by: sudama | December 6, 2002 11:29 PM

A close friend and I have been arguing recently about this song. I do see it as an allegory for music-making. But maybe it's hard to read "bush" in metaphorical terms. You can hear the original version at www.codychestnutt.com--and sample other tunes from ChesnuTT's "The Headphone Masterpiece."

Posted by: lilliput | December 7, 2002 10:11 AM

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