Philadelphia’s very own dynamic Hip-Hop group, The Roots, will drop their first ever concept album on December 6th of this year (2011). The album, titled undun, will re-tell the short life of Redford Stephens (1977 – 1999). To who is Redford Stephens? We don’t know. However, what we do know is that Redford Stephens will play the character of a child who has opted for path in violence. Drummer ?uestlove explains is that:
“undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn’t born criminal. He’s not the nouveau exotic primitive bug-eyed gunrunner like Tupac’s character Bishop in “Juice”… he’s actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment… At the end of the day… isn’t that what we all do?”
undun is set to be shorter in length, with the band members believing that it will allow listeners and fans to experience the album “as a continuous work”. The reasoning behind this, ?uestlove explains is that:
“As a DJ, I am the King of playlists, but I don’t want our albums to feel like a playlist or a mixtape for that matter. We want to tell stories that work within the album format and we want the stories to be nuanced and useful to people.”
The first single “Make My” featuring Def Jam labelmate Big K.R.I.T. dropping on iTunes November 1st.
undun track list:
1. “Sleep”
2. “Make My”
3. “One Time”
4. “Kool On”
5. “The Jump”
6. “Stomp”
7. “Lighthouse”
8. “I Remember”
9. “Tip the Scale”
10. “Redford”
