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Ever since Slick Rick told us his children’s story, and even more so when Tupac dropped his Grammy-nominated, All Eyes on Me album, with tales of the “Thug Lifestyle”, and California Love, I’ve been smitten by the Hip hop genre. And for someone who grew up in a relatively middle class upbringing, with stints in polar opposite cultures and a variety of ethnic groups, the struggle and existential angst that oozed out of my half broken walk-man wasn’t something you could say I directly could always relate to.  However, despite my appreciation for other genres, there was something specifically attractive about Hip hop music.

Then Tupac and Biggie died, and arguably the west coast and east coast grip on the sound of hip hop gave way to the southern era. An age of southern Hip hop artist, and music that definitely gave you funk, and soul, but in my opinion, further dumbed down an art form that was already under severe commercial attack(Barring a few exceptions).

If there was any breath in the genre of Hip hop, it was now, virtually extinct. Where you may have been able to point to a wider variety of conscious artist in the 80, or early 90′s, with the turn of the millennium, it seems like Hip hop is now even more so a narrow lane of superficiality, short sightedness, and the echoes of guns, bling, and hoes. The holy trinity of all that is commercially expedient.

I’m not attacking the freedom of choice all artist have to make in the music they choose to create, nor am I marginalizing the corporate forces at play in shaping an environment that arguably stifles true art.  I’m also not discounting a time and a place for everything, and that can also be represented in music.  I guess I’m just mourning the fact that such a powerful medium cant be better shared by a broader range of voices, and sounds.

Over the last few years, as my hunger and thirst for wrestling with the bigger questions in life has expanded, so has my desire for music that was both conscious, not whack, and soul searching. Baring a few exceptions, and since Lauryn Hill went underground, my music palate has grown to other genres and styles of music that seem to better embrace a larger breath of subject matter in their music.

But a few days ago, my brother started playing the new Roots album: How I got over in my hearing and I just had to sit up.

For those of you who enjoy Hip hop, or any music that punches past your epidermis, speaks too the human condition, and contains a much needed politic, societal, and spiritual activist tinge, I highly recommend you check out this new album.

Here’s a great review from Anthony Fantano at The Needle Drop Music Review Website. I’ve also included a couple of my favorite songs from the album. Let me know what you think, and also feel free to recommend your favorite music, Hip hop or otherwise, that actually has something important to say