How I Got Over
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Album Summary
How I Got Over, the ninth studio album from Philadelphia's own The Roots, came into the world on June 29, 2010, released through Def Jam Records — and what a moment it was. Recorded during a period of deep creative maturity, with the band already firmly planted as the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the album was shaped primarily by the masterful hands of Questlove, who served as the principal architect of the sonic landscape. The production carries that signature Roots warmth — live instrumentation woven through with a contemporary urgency, jazz-soaked rhythms anchoring some of the most thoughtful hip-hop of that era, a sound that could only have come from a group that had been living, breathing, and bleeding music together for nearly two decades.
Reception
- The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, standing as one of the highest chart positions The Roots had ever achieved and a testament to the group's sustained commercial and critical momentum.
- Received widespread critical acclaim from music publications and tastemakers alike, with reviewers praising the album's cohesive production vision, its socially conscious lyricism, and the seamless marriage of live performance sensibility with modern hip-hop aesthetics.
- Demonstrated strong commercial performance that affirmed The Roots' rare ability to speak to both the underground faithful and the mainstream record-buying public simultaneously.
Significance
- How I Got Over stands as a landmark expression of conscious hip-hop in the early 2010s, with Black Thought and company threading themes of perseverance, spiritual resilience, and social struggle through every bar with the kind of conviction that only comes from artists who have truly lived what they are speaking about.
- The album deepened The Roots' role as torchbearers for the fusion of live instrumentation and hip-hop production, pushing that tradition forward with a sonic sophistication that few of their contemporaries could match or replicate.
- The titular motif — rooted in the classic gospel tradition of overcoming adversity — gave the album a transcendent, almost devotional quality that elevated it beyond the boundaries of genre and cemented its place as one of the defining artistic statements of The Roots' storied career.
Tracklist
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A143 A Peace Of Light 91
1:50
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A144 Walk Alone 86
3:54
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A145 Dear God 2.0 81
3:51
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A146 Radio Daze 177
4:16
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A147 Now Or Never 92
4:34
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A148 How I Got Over 122
3:33
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A149 DillaTUDE: The Flight Of Titus 95
0:42
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B150 The Day 94
3:44
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B151 Right On 93
3:36
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B152 Doin' It Again 171
2:23
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B153 The Fire 174
3:41
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B154 Tunnel Vision 94
0:40
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B155 Web 20/20 102
2:46
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B156 Hustla 85
2:56
Artist Details
The Roots are a Philadelphia-born neo-soul and hip-hop collective who came together in the early 1990s, bringing something to the game that nobody had seen before — a full live band rooted in jazz, funk, and soul, laying the foundation under some of the most conscious and rhythmically sophisticated rap music the culture has ever produced. Led by the visionary drummer Questlove and the poetic MC Black Thought, they built their reputation from the streets and stages of Philly before the world caught on, eventually becoming the house band for The Tonight Show and proving that hip-hop had the depth and musicianship to stand alongside any genre in history. Their significance runs deep — they bridged the gap between the old school and the new school, kept live instrumentation alive in an era of drum machines, and reminded the world that Black musical tradition is a living, breathing, ever-evolving thing.
