As Gary A. Swaby said last week, there will be “special guests” contributing to the Throwback Thursday feature and if there is one word to describe me “special” is quite fitting (in more ways than one).
My pick for this week is a song from The Roots.
“What They Do” was a single from their third album “Illadelph Halflife” (released in 1996) and the track sums up their distain for the fake elements in hip-hop. Raphael Saadiq is also featured, singing the hook for the song.
The video is also based on this concept with clever sub-titles to school us on the flashy lifestyles that most rappers like to portray in their videos.
(On another note: Shame on Vevo/YouTube for only having a version of the video without the subtitles. I guess they didn’t like to be called on their own “ish”.)
I bought “Illadelph Halflife” about 5 or 6 years ago and I highly recommend to anyone who likes good music to do the same also.
Purchase:
