undun is released

Why it matters

undun came out December 6, 2011, on Def Jam. It is The Roots' eleventh album. The Roots at this point had become the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (where they had moved in 2009 and where they would stay through the eventual Tonight Show move in 2014). They were still releasing studio albums while doing the late-night gig. undun is a concept album, structured as the reverse-chronological life of a fictional character named Redford Stephens, who dies in the opening track and whose life unwinds backwards across the next ten. The conceit is unusual for rap. The execution is patient. Black Thought handles most of the rapping. The production is closer to chamber-music than to standard hip-hop arrangement: Sufjan Stevens contributes a piano piece, the closing four-movement suite is largely instrumental. The album is one of the most ambitious structural exercises any commercial rap group has attempted in the streaming era. It is also short (38 minutes). You can listen to it as a single sitting and the structure will reward you. The Roots have done many things. undun is the one I would recommend if you have not heard them in a while.