2976042, Let’s talk about Richard Nichols’ absence on this project... Posted by Dhernsol, Sun Oct-23-16 04:46 AM
(No disrespect intended.)
The Roots’ musical output between 2010-2014 generated a lot of mixed reactions among fans, largely due to the conceptual nature of the albums and lack of Black Thought.
This will be The Roots' first record without Nichols as executive producer, and I think it will signal a shift in their recording dynamic. There is a very telling Black Thought interview from 2014 where he speaks on the recording process of ATYSYC, Undun, HIGO… and how Rich, Dice Raw and P.O.R.N. were the "recording nucleus" of the group during that period:
"Well we don’t really record together per se, you know. My manager, Richard Nichols, who also executive produces a lot of The Roots stuff, he works with Greg P.O.R.N., who’s an MC who’s always featured on Roots albums, and Dice Raw, Karl Dice Jenkins, who is just pretty much my writing partner, the three of them collaborate often on music that will become The Roots music before it’s officially Roots music. They’ll collaborate, as far as what their ideas are, for beats that may or may not work, and Dice will start coming up with choruses, and he’ll try and come up with a verse of his own, and P.O.R.N. usually comes up with one of the first verses out of our crew that I hear on any of our records. For all intensive purposes, they’re kind of like the – they’re the recording nucleus of The Roots. If we need to outsource a producer, or a musician, to get something right sonically, they’re kind of able to do that before Questlove and I have to approve everything or really come into the picture. Like I said, it’s an ongoing thing – whereas I’ve been working on this album – there’s some stuff that I recorded 6-8 months ago. Some beats that I’ve been listening to, a couple of different arrangements that I’ve been taking under consideration for the past year and a half or so. But, these – Rich Nichols, Dice Raw, Greg P.O.R.N., they’ve been actually working on this album for 3 years. It’s just weird. It’s a weird, dysfunctional – we’re like dysfunction junction… but it works out in the end, kind of thing."
https://rapverbiage.com/2014/03/08/black-thought/
And there is a VIBE interview from 2011 where Black Thought talks about having his lyrics "edited" by Nichols for the greater good of the concept of the record:
"Everything I originally submitted to Richard and the band had to be written over. Every verse that you hear on this record began as a different verse. Richard would manipulate those words so they would fit into the concept. He switched them around in a way that I could rock with. But nine times out of ten I would have issues with his editing. Everyone, including Questlove had to deal with being edited. We all had to learn how to take outside criticism."
Perhaps (hopefully) this new record will be less constrictive and more... liberating? For the longest time, I have been wanting a more organic Roots album where the entire band is simply recording together in the same room. And from what I’ve seen on Instagram over these past few days, it looks like this may actually be happening finally.
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