I've been toying with this idea for quite a while but not sure where to start, with what artist, what album. But I've settled on starting with The Roots. Sorry if we're in Roots overload this week, but whatever. We'll see how it goes, the format may need tweaking (track by track posting?), but let's get back to "in-depth music discussion"



Over the next week, give Organix multiple listens (I'm thinking 3 at minimum, 5 would be better) and come back here and post thoughts. Impressions? What works? What doesn't? Favorite tracks? Weak cuts? Rating?


The Roots: Organix
released May 9th 1993

1. "The Roots Is Comin'"
2. "Pass the Popcorn"
3. "The Anti-Circle"
4. "Writer's Block"
5. "Good Music (Prelude)"
6. "Good Music"
7. "Grits"
8. "Leonard I-V"
9. "I'm Out Deah"
10. "Essawhamah?" (Live at the Soulshack)
11. "There's a Riot Going On"
12. "Popcorn Revisited"
13. "Peace"
14. "Common Dust"
15. "The Session (Longest Posse Cut in History, 12:43)"
16. "Syreeta's Having My Baby"
17. "Carryin' On"

Next week we'll move on to Do You Want More

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"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

off top, the only tracks I dig are "Leonard I-V" and "Popcorn Revisited". I like "The Session" but it gets tiresome after a while due to the length of the song and mediocre emcees. I didn't get this album until 96 when I bought Illadelph. I'm gonna give the album a few spins and come back with more convo.

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Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

while I was on my way to work in anticipation of this post.
It's really intriguing/endearing to look back at how Thought and the others were rhyming. It's obviously very indicative of the time period but it's so... simple. But the nostalgia hit me heavy and I was all smiles at first. But yeah... more thoughts later after I've done more processing.

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"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

and that was back in a time when I had a ton more free time and insisted that if I listen to an artist, I listen to their entire discography timeline and don't move on until I had.

But I'll try to get to it and offer up some kind of thoughts even if they aren't very valuable considering my lack of history with it to look back on.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

The Session is dope. Definitely long but the beat/vocal styles keeps it funky.

Pass the popcorn and Grits i like, from what I remember.

Always been a good album to me. Nothing to be embarrassed about
Nice prelude to DYWM

This is one of my favorite albums from them; I'd say it's 3rd, after "Illadelph Halflife" and "DYWM". I'd never heard anything like it before I heard it, and was completely in love with the amateur-ness (?) of the album (or, as some people refer to it as their demo). I dug the jazz-rap sound and vibe, and it always makes me thing I'm in a basement in a makeshift poetry club. I listen to it often, and generally only listen to the whole album instead of random songs. I'm gonna do the "listen to it 3 times" challenge and see if I have any new thoughts.

nm

--

"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

I haven't listened to that album in a while - will be interesting to check it again

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

album is wack as fuck.

!

--

"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

for the hundreds of times I've seen them live

I'll never understand why they don't rock Good Music, just once...

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If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

like much rawer than i remember the first time i heard it back in like 05

Even Thought's bars at times are just... sloppy.

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"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

i mean raw as in like a demo kinda way
which i guess it is
its more street poetry like

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"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

Even though I didn't know about the Roots until their first single from their 2nd album "Distortion To Static" b/w "The Lesson Pt.1" 12inch, I back tracked and found their EP (which I have on vinyl & cd) and their 1st album (my cousin found "Organix" '97 vinyl pressing in a record store in ATL).

I've never been a big fan on hip-hop bands back in the early 90's cause they all the groups that did this sounded like jazz or rock bands playing breakbeats that djs use to spin but not what hip-hop producers would make); but overall "Organix" was kind of a mix between that and a newer sound that would evolve into "DYWM".

I would suggest it to a Roots fan but not to a listener of just '90s rap though.

https://tinyurl.com/y4ba6hog

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"We in here talking about later career Prince records
& your fool ass is cruising around in a time machine
trying to collect props for a couple of sociopathic degenerates" - s.blak

I'm not a big fan of live bands in rap. Very few can make it work and
on this album The Roots just didn't have the sound I like. I'm not
gonna knock it too much though because Quest did say it was basically a
demo. BT wasn't as nice as he is now so the freestyle vibe from most of
the rhymes weren't connecting with me. I'm also glad Quest stepped away
from the mic. With that said, They've come a long way and I love and
respect the progression the crew has made over the past 20 years.

******************************************
Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

It's not about the beats, not about the rhymes, but about the vibe they were trying to achieve. They were really committed to this "Organic Hip Hop Jazz" concept but it led to some things that weren't really working like Black Thought's scatting. I didn't think it was bad, I never really had the desire to turn it off, and the nostalgia made me smile as I reminisced on the early 90s, but the album to me goes by very quickly. And that speaks to the unremarkableness of it. They only individual song that caught my notice when it started/ended was Common Dust. Repetitions is used HEAVILY and it's effective to a degree but... there's too much repetition. Thought was just okay as well. The raps are unfocused and seem pretty interchangeable from song to song. I mentioned early that Thought was sloppy at times in the way he put his bars together. The only lines that stood out were the ones where he said "we're not De La Soul and not Digable Planets" which was interesting because both were making better music at the time. He needed to mention Tribe as well. The best tracks are probably "Pass the Popcorn," "Leonard I-V," "Essawhamah?" and "Common Dust"

Their progression has been incredible since this album.

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"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

I listened to this record twice before trying to listen to it three times. It's average at best. It was a demo, which worked. But it was very unfocused. Thought being unfocused sounds like a shocking revelation now. But he was unfocused on this. And I love Questlove the drummer and not the rapper

Favorite Tracks: Good Music, Essaywhuman?!?!

Weak tracks: The interludes, Anti-Circle, Grits, Popcorn Revisited

Rating: 3 out of 5

1) It's a demo
2)The music has that jazzy sound that alotta artists were trying to achieve around the time
3)Black Thought even in his freestyling state isn't worse than most other emcees at the time
4)Going with last two points, it has be judged within the context of the time it was created
5)It's a demo

All that said tho, there are at LEAST 3 stand-out tracks, which is what you can
expect from most average ALBUMS... and this is a demo!

If anything, this is just to show the potential of the band, and even in light of that,
I find it some cool easy listening on a lazy day. Still worth throwing on every now and then.

+
+
+
+
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Everything's turning out perfectly

When I was listening I said to myself... I wish I had 1993 ears, and not 2014 ears. BUT there are albums from this same year that I will put on right now and they sound as good as ever. Sounding good outside of it's proper context is the mark of a great album. Organix isn't, in my opinion. Yes it's a demo... but it was released and isn't above critique.

What in your eyes are the 3 stand out tracks?

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"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

This album wouldn't stand up well against those albums and BT wouldn't be one of my favorite emcees during that time either. The leap in his emceeing from organix to Illadelph is incredible looking back at it now. By the time 96 rolled around dude was top 5 easily. Top 5 for me in 96 was Nas, Andre, Redman, Black Thought and Ras Kass.

******************************************
Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

--

"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

this and do you want more.

its before they did their de la soul is dead thing (though admittedly black thought never had that much of a sense of humour) and got all We Are a Serious Rap Crew on everyone.

but this is when they were more carefree, more relaxed, less concerned with what other rappers would think of them, and whether they were being hard/real enough (see: illadelph halflife).

ive not heard organix in years but i remember liking how relaxed they sounded back then, much more playful, without ever sounding whimsical or jokey or 'lite'. it wasnt like they were some poor jazz-rap act who couldnt cut it as rappers. its also when they still sounded really like a BAND on record.

i still like the roots' albums, and of course, its not like their songs now sound like they were made on an MPC or fruity loops, but on organix, they sounded all the way live. the other best live sounding thing they did was those bootleg sessions of the group doing motherless child and affirmative action etc.

this post requires you to go back and listen to the album.

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"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

As has been stated before, this was really created as a demo – not just in the traditional sense that we associate with that term, but quite literally as a DEMONSTRATION of what the group was capable of doing in a live setting at the time. So as a result, it's a great encapsulation of what they were bringing to the table at that time – but it's not necessarily something that I want to revisit today. I did, and I had trouble getting through it, myself.

If I had to pick a favorite track, it would probably be "Popcorn Revisited."

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