Things Fall Apart
A live band that workshopped with some of the greatest DJs (Jazzy Jeff) and sample-slayers (Jay Dee) of all time, an album with powerful emotional depth and blow-your-headphones rap spitting, a mood that showed flashes of bleakness and life-affirming wonder in tandem. The breakthrough that made the Roots titans of the Grammy set is also a sign that their contradictory impulses actually worked to their cohesive benefit.