The Witzard

I Admit by Aaron Livingston Philly Reggae-Soul singer Aaron Livingston has laid down some vocal tracks for 2 separate Roots albums, The Tipping Point (2004) and their latest effort, undun . Therefore making Livingston an "Honorary Roots Member" and putting him amongst the [fine] company of John Legend , Mos Def, Blu , Dice Raw, Sugar Tongue Slim , and Peedi Crakk. Aaron Livingston 's most recent full-length project, an RJD2 -produced album titled The Abandoned Lullaby was released back in Fall 2011. While Livingston's solo discography may appear to be pretty "scattered," he's also recorded tracks with Hot Sugar , The Mean, Young Vipers , and Hezekiah... as well as Greatest Hits, Vol. -1 . That aforementioned "Odds & Sods" compilation album is available for $5.00 (FREE) download over at Bandcamp , along with a slew of slightly-dated, yet fleshed out loosies. "I Admit" was unveiled on Thurs. May 3rd , but kind of cast a...

Let's face it, "orchestral" and "concept album" are basically taboo words in The World of Hip-Hop ; Terms which are not generally met with the most positive fanfare. Though, there are of course exceptions for every rule: Kendrick Lamar 's incredible 2011 mixtape street album, #Section80 - A fictionalized account of this generation's all too real prescription drug dependency and alarmingly high tolerance... and The Roots' just-released [Dec. 6] landmark 13th commercial effort, undun . Over the course of it's 14 tracks, ?uestlove & The Roots Crew effectively flesh out the life story of one Redford Stephens , undun 's titular character. Stephens' primary traits were grafted from a number of real life inspirational sources including The Guess Who , Sufjan Stevens' "Redford" character (Michigan) , Black Thought 's own friends-family, and a few small-time Philly drug dealers. Frequent Roots collaborators Dice Raw,...