mama's gun

Erykah Badu went through changes to work out emotional baggage and free minds from penitentiary philosophy in this clever conscious ascension.   She released her debut album Baduizm in 1997 (featuring the Grammy Award winning single "On & On"), which won a Grammy for Best R&B Album and went triple platinum.    She recorded the double platinum  Live  while pregnant with her son Seven (the father was Outkast's André Benjamin); and the album came out later that year when he was born.  She took some time off with her new son; and, in 1999, she won another Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for her collaboration with The Roots on  "You Got Me" from their album Things Fall Apart.  

'Mama's Gun' was produced with the  Soulquarian musical collective at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.  D'Angelo's Voodoo and Common's Like Water for Chocolate were being recorded there at the same time with engineer Russell Elevado using vintage equipment to achieve a warmer throwback soul sound.  Badu took on a more active production role:   "Each [song] I had to take a lot of time on and make sure everything was right on it before I let it go. That's why it took so long. I mean, I was producing, as well as writing, as well as singing, and directing the video, I mean, all things I chose to do. And every time I would complain, people would say, 'Well, you said you wanted to do it all!' and I'd be like, 'I know, I know.' It was a one-woman show this time, but it was great. It was a good experience. And I got it all done! I got it all done. It wasn't on time. But it was on time, you know what I'm saying?...[It was] definitely more complicated [writing and producing]. I mean, I was the one calling the shots, but I had a lot of people who were involved with playing music and coming up with ideas, and helping out and adding to the project. All the creativity had to come from me, which was very hard. So if I had studio time booked, and locked out for a week to finish the album and I had no ideas, I mean, the day I mastered the album, I had just finished two songs. I just came straight from the studio to master it. I didn't get to hear it or critique it or anything. So it just came that day. It's kind of hard, doing it all yourself. When you don't have, like, a lyric writing team and all that." 


The sessions featured  Erykah Badu on vocals, background vocals, production, and art direction;    Leonard "Doc" Gibbs on percussion;   Larry Gold on cello and string arrangements;   Roy Hargrove on trumpet and horn arrangements;   Pino Palladino on bass;   Emma Kummrow  on violin;   Shaun Martin on keyboards;  Roy Ayers on vibraphone;   Peter Nocella on viola;   Charles Parker and Gregory Teperman on violin;   Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson on drums;   Bilal Oliver, Geno "Junebugg" Young, and Yahzarah on background vocals.   Betty Wright was a songwriter. vocalist, and arranger.   The production team included executives Erykah Badu, Kedar Massenburg, and James Poyser; as well as Questlove, J Dilla, Snook Young, Shawn Martin, Kerry "Krucial" Brothers, and Karma Productions ( Ivan "Orthodox" Barias and Carvin "Ransum" Haggins).   

Badu reveals:   "Most of the time, you don't even know your mamma have a gun, you know? And when she pulls it out, and shows it to you, it's something serious. And the way life is to me right now, we're at a very detrimental time. Our sons and daughters are going to need something to take with them for protection. So they can put my album in they holster, or on they lap, or on they seat. It would be a better thing to have, you know? So that's the explanation...It's hard to explain [how I've changed]. I have a two-year-old son, and I see him every day, so I can't see really how tall he's gotten. But other people can. I can tell I'm in a different place than Baduizm, but I don't know exactly how far...I see the world differently now. Actually, when I first had the baby, I was breast-feeding him for two years straight. So we were together for two years of his life, every single day, all hours of the day. So I was two people, and I eventually morphed back into one. Now he's like a part of me. He's very independent as a result of it, and I was worried about the opposite. I was very worried that he was going to be so attached, since we were together every day, but I guess it made him feel comfortable, you know, 'She's around all the time, she's here for me.' It made me feel like a very responsible person. You know, tidy, you know, and now my health is better, because I'm now responsible for someone's whole reason for being. That helped... I'm very interested in metaphysics, science, spirituality, and the occult, or anything like that. I'm not satisfied with the explanations I get from tv or from school. I mean, it just seems like, no, not that it seems, but there is so much more to the universe and to us. So I just studied, and memorized. I might go out and look for information like that. Sometimes people will give me books, more so now than before. You know, being in the entertainment business, people will think they know you and what you're interested in. I've gotten so many books and paintings and cards with ankhs, candles, and incense that I'll have enough to read until at least a hundred. I'm interested in it, and I feel that it's good to share information...Personally, I don't choose any particular religion or symbol or group of words or teachings to define me. That's between me and the most high. You know, my higher self. The Creator. But I do learn a lot from each thing, because everything is necessary. We're all here for a reason, not just to group up with your own group. I'll have more information next album on that...Some would call me a women's liberalist. I mean, I don't think so. I think I'm speaking from a woman's perspective, and I just happen to be a woman. I know more about women's issues than men's issues. And I'm speaking to brothers on there, too. There's a song called "Time's A Wastin'". But, I mean, the album's for everybody, really. But I do have more practice with women's situations than men's."

'Mama's Gun' shot to number seventy-six on the UK pop chart, fifty-six in Austria, thirty-three in Switzerland, nineteen in Sweden, eleven on the UK R&B chart and on the US pop chart, seven in the Netherlands, and number three on the US R&B album chart.  

http://www.erykah-badu.com/

"Bag Lady" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.  Badu says:   "Uh, I wrote "Bag Lady" a few years ago. After Baduizm, in '97, so about two and a half years ago, right after I finished Baduizm, when I started my live show. I actually started writing it because I was inspired by my own personal growth. You know, I was happy I was able to assess things a little bit better. And I figured out that the reason I couldn't get through the day as well as I can now is because I had too many things on my mind, on my plate, you know, for one person to have. So I started to eliminate some of the things that were too heavy to carry and unnecessary. So that's where the words came from. Actually, it started with a melody I was humming, and usually the words find they place, they be waiting to get on a song. So they just kind of come through me some kind of way. I mean, they can use the album for whatever they need or what they want. Hopefully my music is medicine, some type of antidote for something or some kind of explanation or just to feel good." 







"Penitentiary Philosophy"
Badu reflects:   "Penitentiary Philosophy", when I think of the title, Mama's Gun, I saw the album artwork, I just felt like that should be first. The reason I wrote that song, the music came first, of course, it was a session that James Poyser, Ahmir Thompson from the Roots, Pino Palladino, and I were in. Three peeps and me, we were just clowning around, and we're like, 'Hey, let's do this...' and I freestyled the lyrics. The first draft was very close to what you hear now. I knew the reason for the song but I didn't know what it meant yet. I just found that out. "Penitentiary Philosophy", we lock ourselves into our own philosophies, our own religions, our own walks of life, and if we fail, we condemn ourselves and then we get sick. I think that if we can find a way to clear our minds free and be a little freer and not lock ourselves into things, because I think we're afraid of change. I think a lot of people have lost respect for the individual, you know, the individual, the person who doesn't conform. It's a jail. It's like, if you don't be this way when you go to work, so and so is gonna talk about you. If I don't do this, someone was like, 'We live a commercial every day for the world.' It's unnecessary. And I'm tired of doing it. So I wanted to write a song about it. 





"Didn't Cha Know?" was nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Song




"Cleva"









'Mama's Gun' 
full album:


1. "Penitentiary Philosophy"   Erykah Badu, James Poyser,
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson   6:09
2. "Didn't Cha Know?"   Badu, James Yancey   3:58
3. "My Life"   Badu, Poyser   3:59
4. "...& On"   Badu, Jahmal Cantero, Shaun Martin   3:34
5. "Cleva"   Badu, Poyser, Yancey   3:45
6. "Hey Sugah"   Badu, N'dambi   0:54
7. "Booty"   Badu   4:04
8. "Kiss Me on My Neck (Hesi)"   Badu, Jack DeJohnette, Poyser, Yancey   5:34
9. "A.D. 2000"   Badu, B.J. Wright   4:51
10. "Orange Moon"   Badu, Brah Lon Lacy, Martin,
Eugene "Snooky" Young   7:10
11. "In Love with You" (featuring Stephen Marley) Badu, Marley   5:21
12. "Bag Lady"   Badu, Brian Bailey, Ricardo Brown,
Nathan Hale, Isaac Hayes, Craig Longmiles, S. Martin, Andre Young   5:48
13. "Time's a Wastin'"   Badu, Young, Martin   6:42
14. "Green Eyes"   Badu, Vikter Duplaix, Poyser   10:04



https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLorbxqHG7IW5R24axOWEIst13YYmjiIg_

late registration

Kanye West fulfilled the promise of his expansive ambition and touched the sky with the musical medicine of this shining sophomore spectacular.  The blockbuster success of his debut album 'The College Dropout' had raised expectations for the followup.  He decided to change things up by bringing in soundtrack composer Jon Brion.  West would relate:   "People tried to put pressure on me, but I wouldn't accept it. They try to overwhelm me with the comments, like 'sophomore slump' and all that, but all I did was work through it ...   I actually wanted to work with [Jon Brion] so I could be like the rap version of [Fiona Apple]. That was one of my main goals. The albums that inspired me for Late Registration were [her] first one, Tidal and Portishead's Dummy, but especially [Fiona's] lyrics and how [she] sing[s]...One thing that I like to do is use words that have never actually been used in a rap song before. I also like to take words that have negative connotations and show their real meaning. Like the word "pop." This is a pop album, but pop has a negative connotation if you're a "real artist." The title of The College Dropout--that's what that was. What is so negative about dropping out of college? Why do we automatically shun people who drop out of school?"

Brion relates:    “It was completely apparent that he was open to investigating new ideas.  I was playing something on a track and he was completely psyched, and then he left after a few hours and said, ’I’ll see you tomorrow.’ ... When he hears something he likes, he knows it.  He has vision, and when the guy makes quick, intuitive decisions, he just has it. I’d watch him take a rough track that I had worked on and completely stand it on its head in 10 minutes — and it’s just better. It was mind-boggling...On your sophomore record, that’s the ultimate time to not fuck with the formula, right?  And he gets me — a guy who has never made a hip-hop record in his life — and gives me half the reins? That is not an egomaniac...There are colors and ideas that make [the album] different from average hip-hop, but Kanye is already different from the average hip-hop guy. He’s got this sense of pop record-making which is really solid, and he likes tracks with a lot of things going on in them — which is not necessarily common for hip-hop. He was already barking up that tree.”


Kanye West was the executive producer, primary artist, and producer of the project with Kyambo Joshua also listed as executive producer,  Devo Springsteen also produced, handled strings, and vocals;   producer Jon Brion did the brass arrangement and string arrangements;  and Warryn Campbell and Just Blaze were producers as well.     The project included several featured artists and vocalists:    Paul Wall, Cam'ron, Brandy, Common, Consequence, Lupe Fiasco, The Game, GLC, Jay-Z, Adam Levine, Nas, Really Doe, Jamie Foxx, Tony Williams, Charlie Wilson, Keyshia Cole, DeRay Davis, and John Legend.   


West says;   "I didn't pick [the people I picked] because of their name or whether they're marketable; it was because their voices meant something to me. It did something to my soul when I heard them. I remember [Maroon 5's] Adam Levine voice, I remember being at the Grammys and right when the band opened up and they started singing, his voice sounded like a bird flying through the room.  So, if anything, I would be anti-doing it -- I'm popular, he's popular, it only seems like something the label would put together. Brandy doesn't have an album out right now. It's not about 'Ok, let me get the hottest person out,' but her voice is classic, and when you hear it you know who it is. What she's singing was just so appropriate.  Paul Wall, he hadn't even put an album out yet, but he's just a lyricist.  Anybody on this album that was spittin' rhymes is a super lyricist, anybody that was singing was singing."

'Late Registration' matriculated to number fourteen in Australia and Germany;  eleven in New Zealand;  nine in Switzerland;  four in Norway; three in Scotland;  two in Ireland and the UK;  and made its debut at number one in Canada and the US.    It sold over a million copies in its first two weeks.    The album was nominated for the Grammy for Album of the Year and won the Grammy for Best Rap Album.  It also topped The Village Voice‍ '​s Pazz & Jop critics' poll.    West would consider:    "If I can go back and use this played-out word for a second, there's no bigger form of bling than this.  There is nothing more stuntastic than rapping in front of an orchestra...I'll take opinions from anyone from Jay-Z to a janitor, and I might value the janitor's opinion more.  I want it so no one can front on it. People say you can't please everyone all the time. I don't believe that. I think you can. I'm not like, 'Oh I'm Kanye West.' I'm like, 'Oh you don't like it? Oh wow!' To the point where I know you have to like it...Just having to speak to people and learn a different dialect. That's what I try with my music - this will affect more people if I word it like this...Maybe it is [because I want to be liked by everyone]. It's maybe the trademark of a show-off...Really good people like me are scared of falling off. I'm totally scared of falling off. Just imagine it. Just imagine if I woke up one day and I was wack. What would I do then?...I'm the closest that hip-hop is getting to God. In some situations I'm like a ghetto Pope...How ill is it to have someone that talks that much shit and then backs it up?  And what if I didn't back it up? How exciting would that be, also? It's like I'm walking on this tightrope. It's like the reason why you go to a circus - it's more entertaining. It's like, damn, what if he falls? And if I do make it, it's like, damn, he made it! But either way you're saying 'damn'. Everybody else is just walking on the ground."








http://www.kanyewest.com/

http://genius.com/albums/Kanye-west/Late-registration






"Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix)" (featuring Jay-Z) was a top ten hit in the UK.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92FCRmggNqQ




"Gold Digger" (featuring Jamie Foxx) became a number one smash hit in the Australia, New Zealand, and the US.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vwNcNOTVzY




"Heard 'Em Say" (featuring Adam Levine)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elVF7oG0pQs




"Touch the Sky" (featuring Lupe Fiasco)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkwQbuAGLj4




"Drive Slow" (featuring Paul Wall & GLC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWoUCDTfWqA








'Late Registration' 
full album:
https://myspace.com/kanyewest/music/album/late-registration-5124
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFF195FED01B3530E
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQio_0iIGCTOK2iU-Ve-ojnfwHz--A4xE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f27wmaAgUl0


All lyrics written by Kanye West. 


1. "Wake Up Mr. West"   Kanye West 0:41
2. "Heard 'Em Say" (featuring Adam Levine) Kanye West, Jon Brion* 3:23
3. "Touch the Sky" (featuring Lupe Fiasco) Just Blaze 3:57
4. "Gold Digger" (featuring Jamie Foxx) Kanye West, Jon Brion* 3:28
5. "Skit #1"     0:33
6. "Drive Slow" (featuring Paul Wall & GLC) Kanye West 4:32
7. "My Way Home" (featuring Common) Kanye West 1:43
8. "Crack Music" (featuring The Game) Kanye West, Jon Brion* 4:31
9. "Roses"   Kanye West, Jon Brion* 4:05
10. "Bring Me Down" (featuring Brandy) Kanye West, Jon Brion* 3:18
11. "Addiction"   Kanye West, Jon Brion* 4:27
12. "Skit #2"     0:31
13. "Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix)" (featuring Jay-Z) Kanye West, Jon Brion*, Devo Springsteen* 3:53
14. "We Major" (featuring Nas & Really Doe) Kanye West, Jon Brion*, Warryn Campbell* 7:28
15. "Skit #3"     0:24
16. "Hey Mama"   Kanye West, Jon Brion* 5:05
17. "Celebration"   Kanye West, Jon Brion* 3:18
18. "Skit #4"     1:18
19. "Gone" (featuring Cam'ron & Consequence) Kanye West 6:02
20. "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (bonus track) Kanye West, Jon Brion*, Devo Springsteen* 3:58
21. "Late" (hidden track) Kanye West 3:50


bonus
"We Can Make It Better" (featuring Common, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli & Rhymefest) 3:52
"Back to Basics" (featuring Common) 1:39

done by the forces of nature

The Jungle Brothers did their own dang and brought an afrocentric positivity to the funky methamorphosisms of this ambitious hip hop house hybrid.  The trio of Michael Small (Mike Gee), Nathaniel Hall (Afrika Baby Bam), and Sammy Burwell (DJ Sammy B) had changed the game with the jazz rap innovations of their debut 'Straight Out The Jungle', the opening salvo from the Native Tongues collective, which led to a deal with Warner Bros. Records.  The major label juice led to an increasing quality in the production of their sound.  

'Done By The Forces Of Nature' was produced by The Jungle Brothers at Calliope Studios in New York City and mixed at Apollo Studios with executive producer Kool DJ Red Alert.  The sessions also featured contributions from such guest performers as:    A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, KRS-One, Monie Love, DJ Towa Towa, and Caron Wheeler.  Dr. Shane Faber provided keyboards and engineered along with Gregg Mann and Greg Curry.  Abdullah Rahman did the artwork.  


Baby Bam:   "Back in the days before we became a group, I was b-boying and popping on cardboard mostly for fun and to get loose to the breakbeats!...Most of the breaks and grooves we used to make records are what we heard at block parties, neighborhood jams, and on boom boxes. It was the sound of those records that we understood and identified with...Those breaks speak a language to us that we can communicate our ideas and tell stories about our experiences with...The art of breaking and the culture is a positive recreation. It saved a lot of youth from gangs, drugs and a life of crime...It gave the youth something positive to do with their life that they could feel proud of and respect. This was before the sponsored events and media attention. I think it’s important for people to remember that when they’re battling in competitions."

Mike G:   "Hip-hop parties were more about the actual people. When you think about hip-hop now, you think about the artists. Back when I was growing up, it was more about the people. It was still break dancing friendly, electric boogie friendly and graffiti friendly. We still encompassed music from all different styles...That's what generated the jams, you know. Bob James. 'Funky Drummer' by James Brown. Roger Troutman and Zapp. That's what made up a DJ's crate in those days, those records. It wasn't necessarily the Run-DMCs and the LL Cool Js. That came right after that...We may not have had the greatest record sales, but we have had an impact on the business, as far as crossing different genres with each other, house music, drum-and-bass and so forth. Those things are just as important as a Jay-Z or Master P, who actually took the music and the business to another level...We weren't as sophisticated as we should have been.  There were a lot of things that were overlooked because we were trying to keep our creative edge. In this business, if you don't have your business edge intact, it leaves your creative edge out in the open. I think we all had a good idea about the business but I don't think we knew how the business could help us...In high school, myself and Af, we were friends and having fun with it and it led to what we're doing now. We created a strong friendship first, which helped us communicate with each other later. If you don"t have communication in business, it leads to problems later."


 'Done By The Forces Of Nature' peaked at number forty-six on the US R&B/Hip Hop album chart.  It has gone on to become an influential underground classic.  








"Doin' Our Own Dang" (with De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Q-Tip, and Monie Love)






"Beyond This World" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B7rjB2IWHs





"What U Waitin' 4?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeiQ8mc_Uts





'Done By The Forces Of Nature' 
full album:

https://myspace.com/bushcampclik/music/album/done-by-the-forces-of-nature-15245563

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ALBTKoXRg38BA5hElBUgnsaq_vg8TQY_7a



All songs composed by the Jungle Brothers, except "Doin' Our Own Dang", which was composed by De La Soul, the Jungle Brothers, Q-Tip, and Monie Love.

"Beyond This World" – 4:08
"Feelin' Alright" – 3:35
"Sunshine" – 3:44
"What U Waitin' 4?" – 4:02
"U Make Me Sweat" – 3:59
"Acknowledge Your Own History" (with Vinia Mojica) – 3:38
"Belly Dancin' Dina" – 3:41
"Good Newz Comin'" – 4:37
"Done by the Forces of Nature" (with Jungle DJ Towha Towha) – 3:47
"Beeds on a String" – 3:32
"Tribe Vibes" – 3:53
"J. Beez Comin' Through" – 3:32
"Black Woman" (with Caron Wheeler) – 3:54
"In Dayz 2 Come" – 3:54
"Doin' Our Own Dang" (with De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Q-Tip, and Monie Love) – 4:16
"Kool Accordin' "2" a Jungle Brother" – 1:55

things fall apart

The Roots stepped into the realm and found their greatest success with the organic neo soul hip hop jazz hybridization of this ambitious artistic statement. Ahmir ‘Questlove/?uestlove’ Thompson and Tariq ‘Black Thought’ Trotter met at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and began performing on street corners with Black Thought rapping while Questlove drummed on buckets.  They originally called themselves "Radio Activity" and then "Black to the Future" before becoming the Square Roots.  They dropped the Square because another group in Philadelphia was using the name and released their first album 'Organix' in 1992 on the independent Remedy label.  'Do You Want More?' and 'Illadelph Half-Life' followed on DGC Records. 

 'Things Fall Apart' was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York and credits The Roots as composer and primary artist;  with ?uestlove as assistant engineer, composer, mixing, mixing assistant, and producer; Scott Spencer Storch as composer, engineer, keyboardist, and producer;  Anthony Tidd as composer and guitarist;  James Poyser as composer, keyboardist, and producer;  Smart Abdul-Basit as composer; Erykah Badu as guest artist and on vocals;  Byron Berline, Black Thought, and Larry Brown as composers;  Bob Powers on synthesizer;  Mos Def as guest artist and on vocals;  Jazzyfatnastees as guest artist;  Chaos assistant engineer and producer;  Common as guest artist and on vocals;    D'Angelo as guest artist and on keyboards;  Marie Daulne on background vocals;  Eve Of Destruction as guest artist;  Todd Fairall as engineer;  Larry Gold on viola; Kenny J. Gravillis and Russell A. Robinson on artwork and design;  Igor Szwec on violin;  Ursula Rucker as composer and on poetry;  Buster Williams, Jill Scott, E. Smith, Kamiah "Little Klang" Gray, Leonard Hubbard, Karl Jenkins, and Doc Pomus as composers;  Kamal as producer; and Francesca Spero and Richard Nichols as executive producers. 

The album takes its title from the novel by Chinua Achebe which quotes the phrase from William Butler Yeats's poem 'The Second Coming'. Black Thought would reveal at the time: "The sound hasn't really changed as much as it has broadened. It's become more refined, and it's more universal...When I say organic, and when I say jazz, I just mean music, like hip-hop music, in its rawest form: no additives, no preservatives, grown from the foundation naturally...We have used sampling on every record. But no record that we put out has been predominantly samples. Most of the time we are sampling ourselves. We will come up with an original move, play it, sample it and then loop it. The fact that we are able to play our own music brings a different flavor into the mix, kind of like the Beastie Boys do their shit, you know what I mean?...When we do samples, we are sampling ourselves. That's how we are still able to say we are 100% live...Things Fall Apart represents the state of music in general right now and how things are stagnant. No, I take that back, I wouldn't say things are stagnant. Things are moving swiftly, but it's in the wrong direction...Let's just deal with hip‑hop: that's my demographic. I make hip‑hop first and foremost. The shit that's coming out that people are calling hip‑hop, music purists wouldn't consider hip‑hop music at all, because a lot of it goes against all ethics of the original art form. First and foremost, hip-hop is about being original. Ninety percent of this shit that I hear on the radio, or at a club, or thumping out of people's cars is some unoriginal shit: formulated, and just recycled and recycled. Nobody is making any more original music, to the point where we are exhausting all of our resources. Everything you hear, you immediately know who originally made the music, you immediately realize that the original record that the music came from was far better. It's a step down, and that's not adding on, that's not bringing shit to the table. The principles of hip‑hop mean adding on like this: I got this dope style that nobody ever used before, or I thought of this shit and I thought of this rhyme, or I thought of how to break the syllables down this way. That is what hip‑hop is about, and that has long been lost. It's about motherfuckers bringing that shit back. So that is what I'm talking about."

'Things Fall Apart' went to ninety-two in the Netherlands, eighty-four in the UK, sixty-four in Germany, forty-one in France, forty in Switzerland, seven in Canada, four on the US billboard 200, and number two on the US R&B album chart.   The album was originally released with five different covers.   Fourteen years later, 'Things Fall Apart' was certified platinum. 






http://theroots.com/





'You Got Me'  features vocals by Erykah Badu and Eve (of Destruction) and was co-written by Jill Scott, who originally did the guest vocals.   MCA Records made the band re-record the vocals with the more well known singers to give it a wider appeal as a single.  The song won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.  The single went to number forty-six in the Netherlands, thirty-nine on the US pop chart, thirty-seven in New Zealand, thirty-one in the UK, twenty-eight in France, twenty-five in Germany, nineteen on the US rap chart, fifteen in Switzerland, and number eleven on the US R&B chart. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJCHeEQV454

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQm5gNo-5Vo










 'Things Fall Apart' 
full album:

https://myspace.com/theroots/music/album/things-fall-apart-8134786‎



01 Act Won (Things Fall Apart) 00:00
02 Table of Contents (Parts 1 & 2) 00:54
03 The Next Movement 04:31
04 Step Into the Realm 08:41
05 The Spark 11:30
06 Dynamite! 15:23
07 Without a Doubt 20:09
08 Ain't Sayin' Nothin' New 24:24
09 Double Trouble 28:58
10 Act Too (The Love of My Life) 34:48
11 100% Dundee 39:43
12 Diedre vs. Dice 43:36
13 Adrenaline! 44:23
14 3rd Acts. vs. Scratch 2...Electric Boogaloo 48:51
15 'You Got Me' 49:42
16 Don't See Us 54:02
17 The Return to Innocence Lost 58:32