Things Fall Apart | The Roots

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 Brown Sugar (1995), Erykah Badu's Baduizm (1997), and Common's One Day It'll All Make Sense (1997). 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".

The album has been considered by music writers as the Roots' breakthrough album, earning praise from major publications and critics, while becoming the group's first record to sell over 500,000 copies. 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. Rolling Stone called it a "top-flight record", while AllMusic cited it as "one of the cornerstone albums of alternative rap." The album takes its title from Chinua Achebe's novel of the same name, which in turn took the phrase from William Butler Yeats's poem "The Second Coming". 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.

AllMusic critic Steve Huey hailed Things Fall Apart as "one of the cornerstone albums of alternative rap", believing that it was "the point where the Roots' tremendous potential finally coalesced into a structured album that maintained its focus from top to bottom". Writing for The Root in 2018, Panama Jackson described "Act Too (The Love of My Life)" as "one of the best beats in hip-hop history...it's so ethereal and beautiful and fit perfectly with the verses". In 2020, the album was ranked number 416 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Track Listings

Disc 1 Side 1

1     Act Won (Things Fall Apart)
2     Table of Contents (Parts 1 & 2)
3     The Next Movement
4     Step Into the Relm
5     The Spark

Disc 1 Side 2

1     Dynamite!
2     Without a Doubt
3     Ain't Sayin' Nothin' New
4     Double Trouble

Disc 2 Side 1

1     Act Too (Love of My Life)
2     100% Dundee
3     Diedre Vs. Dice
4     Adrenaline!
5     3rd Acts: ? Vs. Scratch 2... Electric Boogaloo

Disc 2 Side 2

1     You Got Me
2     Don't See Us
3     The Return to Innocence Lost
4     Act Fore... the End?

Disc 3 Side 1

1     Table of Contents - (Part 3)
2     What You Want
3     Quicksand Millennium
4     We Got You
5     You Got Me

Disc 3 Side 2

1     You Got Me
2     Act Too (Love of My Life)
3     Ya'll Know Who
4     The Lesson (Pt. 3) (It's Over Now)
5     New Years @ Jay Dee's