Anti-Climacus

YOU GOT ME: Since the Phillies won the World Series, a song from a Philadelphia-based group seems appropriate, and who better than the Roots? It's hard to believe now, most of their built-up goodwill having long since been squandered on ill-conceived projects, but around 1999, The Roots were poised to take over hip-hop. And what wasn't there to like? A hip-hop group who played their own instruments, and clearly had musical ability to spare (Do You Want More?!?!, their second album, borrows liberally from the jazz tradition). The apex of their career was "You Got Me", with its Erykah Badu-sung hook; it was the third re-write of the same basic song about love, fame and trust (the first two being "Silent Treatment" and "The Hypnotic"). But where the first two erred by containing too much narrative (and that presented in a confusing manner), "You Got Me" is minimal: the situation presented in the first verse, the complications in the second, and the considerations to weigh in the third. I like the video because, well, it's a cool concept, but it colors a reading of the song too much: the greatness of the track is that it doesn't tell you whether it ends well or badly. Black Thought has the angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other, and the words of his girlfriend ringing in his ears. Does he believe her? It's happy or sad, depending on how you want to hear it.

Relatedly, this is a great deconstruction of the average hip-hop video, though it does indulge in the clichés as it mocks them.