The Roots - I Remain Calm

[msnead6975]

@thetlg Glad you like them, Vast Aire is part of a group called Cannibal Ox that dropped the album "The Cold Vein" a little ways back. I like your list as well, I think Talib Kweli is pretty underrated.

[AntraxBenitez]

LE LE LE LETS GO THE ROOOOOTS

[WarsameElite]

MARK OF J

[DaFenceBoyz]

These are my favorites: 1. Rakim 2. Black Thought 3. Mos Def 4. Pharoahe Monch 5. Common 6. Kool G Rap 7. Del tha Funkee Homosapien 8. Nas 9. Andre 3000 10. Qwel

[cbcbc96]

actually, Illogic over nas, mos def is 11

[cbcbc96]

1. Eyedea

2. Del Tha Funky Homosapien (Including any other personas)

3. Kendrick Lamar

4. Nas

5. Tupac

6. Andre 3000

7. Kool Kieth (Including any other personas)

8. Slug

9. Rakim

10. Mos Def

[KrfNYC2]

@cbcbc96 C'mon man...

[switchconotech]

@cbcbc96 saltines?

[tcoreyb]

That is one funky bassline, for true

[badazone1]

his shout to the equal team is graf crew here in philly reppin to the fullest TET crew

[loganajoshua]

1 PAC

2 Biggie

3 Mos Def

4 Rakim

5 Jay Z 

[lokip0000]

@loganajoshua lol.no.

[msnead6975]

My top 10 would be.... 01. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien 02. Tonedeff 03. Nas 04. Black Thought 05. Kool Kieth 06. Rakim 07. Chuck D 08. Big Daddy Kane 09. Vast Aire 10. Aesop Rock

[thetlg]

@msnead6975 11-15

11) Chuck D

12) Canibus

13)Del the Funkee Homosapien

14)Pharohe Monch

15)Skillz

[thetlg]

@msnead6975 Just listened to Tonedeff and dude is definitely fire. Kool Keith is also a dope old-school cat. Must check out Aesop Rock and Vast Aire to see how they are. Overall good list with some definite sleepers in there.

[BigL2502]

black thought and pharoahe monch are criminally underated...

[thetlg]

@bigelow Never heard of Last Emperor but all the rest are good. Any recommended tracks from him?

[bigelow345]

@thetlg He's from philly. Look for The Legend of Bigfoot album by him, or Lost Tracks (I think this one is a compilation album though).

[birdman987654321]

@bigelow345 You my friend... are a champ. Just discovered the last emperor because of you. Some of the best stuff ive heard in a while

[thetlg]

6-10

6)Big Daddy Kane

7)Biggie/Tupac (couldn't decide who went first)

8)Andre 3000

9)Mos Def

10)Talib Kweli 

Agree? Disagree??

[thetlg]

How can ANYONE sleep on Thought's lyricism? The man is a magician with the mic and IMO better than anyone not named Rakim. My top five would be

1)Rakim

2)Black Thought

3)Krs-One

4)Kool G Rap

5)Nas

Old school definitely rules!!

[bigelow345]

@thetlg good list my 1-5 would be

1. Black Thought

2. Last Emperor

3. Big Daddy Kane

4. Big L

5. Rakim/Eminem

6-10 is hard to decide

[thetlg]

@bigelow345 Em is good but not on their level to me. Big L is a good one to add but probably not in the top 5 of all time and definitely not above Nas or Big or Pac or even Krs One. Overall great list though

[supakev97]

@thetlg 1. Rakim 2. Nas 3. AZ 4. Lauryn Hill 5. Common 6. Gza 7. Scarface 8. Black Thought 9. Kool G Rap 10. Hova

[thetlg]

@supakev97 Good list. I forgot about Gza and AZ and Common. Scarface is one of illest too as well as Lauren Hill. Hov is good but not better than Krs-one or Big or Pac in my opinion

[Kognition21]

One Lil Wayne fan doesn't know what real is.

[poetiknutrol]

Great song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RashidBlack]

Dat nigga Thought flows like a river, I deliver styles like Dominoes, eyes closed I inhale equality follow me now son, listen my division's advanced I surpass 1/2 da rap mass da otha half want my autograph...

Black Thought is one of the greatest MC's PERIOD

[eachneverydaynosleep]

Black Thought deserves more respect one of the GOATS

[babykhris2009]

Damn Shorty No Mas where are you?? Love you on da hook

[t0iletrees]

K I L L M O V E S

[lakerland42]

ahhh take me back to college! The early 90's!

[fdmtech]

Straight up Bomb music!

[MrOvaovaova]

that second verse from Thought - One of the best of all time!

[ljohnson0725]

wow philly/Delaware in the house son!!!!!!!! what happen to hip hop, ol yeah niggaz sold there souls to the devil. one love.

[ooooooooooooO111]

@ljohnson0725 the devil being money , corporate america and killing one another for both the two directly .

[Yesandsowhut]

Lyrically I  GOT THE BOMB

[cementprint]

record is so smooth ... all i need is my doobie and it fills the equation.

one of my fav jazzy hip hop album

[fallon7284]

one of my favorite verses of all time. playing in my car for the first time in yeeeeears.

[fallon7284]

one of my favorite verses of all time. playing in my car for the first time in yeeeeeeears.

[90mv]

thought is a beast and has the best name for a rapper

[kennyrogers17]

hell ya the roots are one of the roots of all of hip hop/soul/jazz

[aleaz23]

words dont describe how much i love this album

[aleaz23]

flow

[bishop80s]

the roots are the shit

[africanmaan]

man i can not get enough of this song this is like my 6th time listening to it just this week

[KrfNYC2]

Black Thought is so nice...and Malik B is mad underrated. The whole Roots crew is underrated.

[whatimeanttosaywas]

That nigga Thought.....man...words can't even do justice.

[Metaltigercprlt]

This song is pure art.. I love this one and I love the way Black Thought switches up his flow several times in his verse. An exposure of lyrical greatness and this beat is SICK!

[Quagmire97]

I know my friends listen to good rap and they have never even heard of the roots or black thought! This dude need to get mor famous. This is the rap we need on the radios, not fuckin Lil Wayne or Soulja Boy.

[CrassPunk99]

I thought Illadelph was a bit better.

I still love this album though.

[utubeaccount00]

illadelph halflife was probably their best album this one felt a little sort

[chicagoconnoisseur]

@utubeaccount00: I respectfully disagree. This album was so on point, it was absolutely ridiculous. I mean, come on now, the title track utilized bagpipes in the beat. That was never before done and never has been duplicated to my knowledge. Absolute greatness!!!!

[maximodiseho]

The roots es para mi opinion uno de los mejores grupos de Rap de la historia del Hip Hop. Un saludo.

[blueshinobi09]

Genius! Both Malik and Black ripped this shit as always. What gets me is Hub's bassline. What in God's name goes through that dude's mind?!? Must be the weed :)

[HipHopGuardian]

YES =]

[JahariKavi]

malik and thought both went hard on this...can't really decide who went harder....thought brought more charisma, but malik had that nice flow wit the lyrics....classic shit

[behtashbg]

black thought = G.O.A.T.

[nemesis700]

malik b was better than him on this track

[gargamel55]

you must be crazy... Thought ripped this shyt. Malik's verse was nice.. but it was nowhere close to Thought.

[nemesis700]

musta forgot to reply to your shit..but really tho, people are sleepin on malik...he clearly had the better verse, listen again

[gargamel55]

@nemesis700 .. Nah.. Im not sleepin on him at all. Malik is definitely nice. But Thought just totally destroyed this track.

[chicagoconnoisseur]

@nemesis700: Yeah, Malik killed it. But at that time the focus was more on Thought. On Illadelph Halflife and Things Fall Apart Malik got more attention.

[gravybiscuits57]

what sucks is that kids now a days only know lil wayne and gucci mane and couldnt even have an idea of who black thought is...but im glad i do and love my family for getting me into good music! ROOTS!

[DrDictionary8]

@gravybiscuits57 f@*ken oath mate

[DexChick90]

@gravybiscuits57 agreed. the only time you can use lil wayne/gucci mane in the same sentence with black thought is to say something like this lol.

[PepperQueso]

@behtashbg

It's not even a competition. No living rapper comes close. 

[rarenature]

If you threw this CD up in the sky it would turn into sunshine.

[drewhrt2]

one of the best hip hop records of all time

[frontinondebra]

Organix is up there too

[shortys912002]

Black Thought is just so damn good.

[frankwhite432]

who produced this album?

[shortys912002]

I'm not sure. Its usually Questlove that does the producing for the roots, but some tracks somebody else could have.

[Revolutionary45]

Big Up the Real Hip Hop none ov this fake shit that the radio churns out allday bleaching our kids with lyrics about guns n sex

[PurpleNinja747]

Yo thats the truth right there big up to you

[Revolutionary45]

any1 that supports the real hip hop knows what im saying

[u89worlds]

live by this

[trappedinlife29]

J-Lo and LL cool j stole a sample from this I think..fuckers.

This is the best Roots album IMO

[KtothaRizzle]

nah, the original sample of the ze ze ze thing is from Afrika Bambataa's Planet Rock mate

[techbonus]

Right, and it was being given a nod here by another Philly MC, -Shortie No Mas-

[stapleboy7]

This is definitley their best album

[ERIC122475]

any1 know the name of song with dice raw on it and rahzel beatboxin?

[pistan360]

The lesson part 1

[ERIC122475]

thanx...

[bamhammer]

Damn.. I miss this album.

[byron84]

Miss it? It still exists, and I have an invite for my time machine to go back to 93 when roots was puttin in work at philly clubs

[mattafh]

One of the greats from The Roots ! .. Love this album !!!

[xlmidi]

black thought and malik b sounded dope together!

[Spookimitsu]

BT is the illest.

[ledpaul713]

this album is on point...

"My rated X, larynx, wrecks your context

I'm complex, confusin, lyrically amusin, I drink brews

then when I'm groovin I'm no longer human", just ill wit it

[elchasai]

i was 15 when this shit dropped, im 28 now and i feel like a kid when i listen to it. i used to thrash rash parties like i was disturbed, used to make plots against the herring bone i heard, now all i do is disperse the verbers so now you know im perfect pertty perfect never ever shall you misinterpret i move styles like vowels. thank you melhex.

[okaythenbob]

This is my favorite roots album I would have to say. Malik needs to get clean and come back!

[kylereinhard1]

I think this is my favorite of theirs too, although I really couldn't explain why if anyone asked me. Stuff like Phrenology and Things Fall Apart are probably better, but there's a certain rawness about this one that always amazes me after every listen.

[okaythenbob]

I think the Black Thought Malik B. combination was the best thing the roots had going for them.

[turknator]

Hammer Band.

[Houston4ClosurePro]

this my jam... i memba' back in the game when this drop'd me n' my boyz didn't like it the first listen... by the time we were in Peru it was dope! Classic hip hop, no doubt!

[Dharni]

No hatin' just lovin' this shit. Respect.

[whatimeanttosaywas]

I can't listen to this track just once. Thought & Malik both rip this shit to shreds! It's a mandatory 10 play minimum. Jay Z? Nigga please! Jigga wishes he had this much talent!

[noname6317]

I am a fan of Jay-Z and The Roots. Jay-Z has just as much talent. Look out all the respect The Roots show Jay-Z.

[whatimeanttosaywas]

This was my favorite Roots joint until "Don't Feel Right".

[Rbutler835]

One of the few albums I have where I listen to every song more than once. Excellent post.

[Underdogjoe]

get the fuck outta here!

[eddied29]

i FUCKIN love this album!

every song on it is fantastic

[thefunny121]

this is the shit

[LavenderLady1426]

classic! luv it!!!

[MainOffenderKZ]

thats sick man