Things Fall Apart (album)

For the Nine Inch Nails album, see Things Falling Apart.
Things Fall Apart
Studio album by
the Roots
ReleasedFebruary 23, 1999 (1999-02-23)
Recorded1997–1998
StudioElectric Lady (New York City)
Genre
Length70:32
LabelMCA
Producer
The Roots chronology
Illadelph Halflife
(1996) 		Things Fall Apart
(1999) 		The Legendary
(1999)
Singles from Things Fall Apart
  1. "You Got Me"
    Released: January 22, 1999
  2. "The Next Movement"
    Released: 1999

Things Fall Apart is the fourth studio album by American hip hop band the Roots, released on February 23, 1999, by MCA Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Electric Lady during 1997 to 1998, coinciding with recording for other projects of the Soulquarians collective, including D'Angelo's Voodoo (2000), Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun (2000), and Common's Like Water for Chocolate (2000). According to Spin magazine, the album became a landmark moment for the Roots and the collective, as it "swelled the Roots clique into a movement-style posse".[5]

The album has been considered by music writers as the Roots' breakthrough album, earning praise from major publications and critics,[6] while becoming the group's first record to sell over 500,000 copies.[7] It includes the song "You Got Me", which won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, while Things Fall Apart was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album of the same year, losing to Eminem for The Slim Shady LP.[8] Rolling Stone called it a "top-flight record",[9] while AllMusic cited it as "one of the cornerstone albums of alternative rap."[2] The album takes its title from Chinua Achebe's novel of the same name,[10] which in turn took the phrase from William Butler Yeats's poem "The Second Coming".[11] On April 5, 1999, Things Fall Apart was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 500,000 units and on April 22, 2013, 14 years after its release, the album was certified Platinum by RIAA for shipments of 1,000,000 units.[7]

  1. ^ "50 Greatest East Coast Hip-Hop Albums of the 1990s". The Boombox. October 20, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Huey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Anon. (February 14, 2020). "Common". uDiscover. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  4. ^ Pitchfork Staff (September 28, 2022). "The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 26, 2023. ...Things Fall Apart sounds like—if not pop exactly—then the impressionistic shape of art-pop to come. –Marc Hogan
  5. ^ Aaron, Charles (June 2008). "The Spin Interview". Spin. Vol. 24, no. 6. pp. 83–88. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
  6. ^ Brackett & Hoard 2004, pp. 702–03.
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference RIAA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Santana's Grammy glory". BBC News. February 24, 2000. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Touré was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Welte, Jim. "The Roots: Things Fall Apart". Ink Blot Magazine. Archived from the original on November 3, 1999. Retrieved December 18, 2006.
  11. ^ Washington State University study guide Archived June 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine