''How I Got Over'' is the ninth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American hip hop band

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...

. It was released on June 22, 2010, by

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The ...

. Produced primarily by band members

Black Thought Tariq Luqmaan Trotter (born October 3, 1973), better known as Black Thought, is an American rapper, actor and the lead MC of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group the Roots, which he co-founded with drummer Questlove (Ahmir Thompson). Regarded ...

Questlove Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thou ...

Dice Raw Karl Jenkins, better known as Dice Raw, is an American hip hop artist, from Philadelphia. He is associated with The Roots, and the now defunct musical group Nouveau Riche. He hooked up with the band while still in high school after Kelo, a member ...

, and Rick Friedrich, ''How I Got Over'' features a subtle, somber sound and lyrics concerning themes of self-determination, existentialism, and African-American middle-class angst. Although primarily a hip hop album, its music also draws on

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

,Vozick-Levinson, Simon
Review: ''How I Got Over''
''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

''. Retrieved on June 19, 2010.

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

, and

neo soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contempo ...

styles. The album debuted at number six on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 51,000 copies in its first week. It was also met with widespread critical acclaim and named by several publications as one of the best albums from 2010. Music critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

later called ''How I Got Over'' the Roots' "most substantial" album and the best of the 2010s.

Recording and production

In 2008, The Roots stated that their final album would be ''

Rising Down ''Rising Down'' is the eighth studio album by the American hip hop band The Roots, released on April 28, 2008, on Def Jam Recordings. The album's title is adapted from William T. Vollmann's book '' Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Viol ...

'' (2008), until drummer and producer for The Roots,

, stated via his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account that the band would release an album called ''How I Got Over'' in the summer. ''How I Got Over'' was recorded during The Roots' tenure as the house band for ''

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by comedian Jimmy Fallon. About pag ...

''. It was recorded in sessions at several

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

studios—A House Called Quest, Fruity Loops, The Boom Room, and The Studio—and at MSR Studios in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. On June 23, 2009, ''Billboard'' reported: "Among the tracks expected to make the cut are 'Walk Alone,' the vintage R&B-leaning 'Make a Move,' 'The Day' featuring Icelandic vocalist Patty Crash and a cover of Frank Zappa's instrumental classic 'Peaches en Regalia.' 'How I Got Over' is also expected to include a version of

Cody Chesnutt Cody Chesnutt (stylized as Cody ChesnuTT; born October 21, 1968) is an American R&B and neo soul musician from Atlanta, Georgia. Biography Chesnutt's music blends elements of rock, funk, soul, hip hop, and blues. After relocating to Los Ang ...

's 'Serve This Royalty;' the singer-songwriter rose to fame in 2002 when the Roots re-recorded his song 'The Seed' for their album ''

Phrenology Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...

''". From the tracks initially expected to make the album, only 'The Day', 'Walk Alone' and the title song 'How I Got Over' made the final track listing. Similar to the previous The Roots full-length, 2008's ''

'', the album features a wide array of guest singers and rappers.

John Legend John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and record producer. He began his musical career by working behind the scenes, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Ever ...

appears on the single 'The Fire' and alternative rock group

Monsters of Folk Monsters of Folk was an American supergroup, consisting of Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes, Will Johnson from Centro-matic and M. Ward, solo artist and half of She & Him. The band was formed in 200 ...

help The Roots remake their own song, 'Dear God' into an updated '...2.0' version which was released as the most promoted single. The album also feature a track that samples

Joanna Newsom Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Northern California, Newsom was classically trained on the harp in her youth and began her musical career as a keyboardist in the San Francisc ...

's "Book of Right-On," a track featured on her 2004 release

The Milk-Eyed Mender ''The Milk-Eyed Mender'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom, released on March 23, 2004, by Drag City. Background Newsom wrote all the songs on the album except for "Three Little Babes", a traditional Appalach ...

, as well as new overdubs for the track, The Roots' version appears under the title 'Right On' here.The Roots Enlist John Legend, Others For "How I Got Over"
. HipHopDX. Retrieved on June 7, 2010.

Release and sales

The album was set to be released in February 2010, but was subsequently pushed back to June 8, 2010. Their ninth album, it was released June 22, 2010 on

. The album debuted at number six on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart with first-week sales of 51,000 copies. It also entered at number three on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''s

R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated Jan ...

and

Rap Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated Jan ...

charts,R&B/Hip-Hop Albums - Week of July 10, 2010
''Billboard''. Retrieved on June 26, 2010.Rap Albums - Week of July 10, 2010
''Billboard''. Retrieved on June 26, 2010. and at number four on the

Digital Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

chart.Digital Albums - Week of July 10, 2010
''Billboard''. Retrieved on June 26, 2010. In Canada, the album entered at number 14 on the Top 100 Albums chart.Top 100 - For the Week Ending 1 July, 2010

Jam! Jam! was a Canadian website which covers entertainment news. It was part of the Canoe.com online portal, formerly owned and operated by Quebecor through its Sun Media division, and now owned by Postmedia Network. Jam! was the only media outlet ...

. Retrieved on 2 January 2020. It also charted at number three in Switzerland, at number 117 in France, at number 61 in the Netherlands, and at number 35 in New Zealand.Album Performance: ''How I Got Over''
acharts. Retrieved on 2 January 2020. In its second week on the ''Billboard'' 200, ''How I Got Over'' dropped to number 17 and sold 21,000 copies. It fell to number 25 on the chart and sold 14,000 copies in its third week. By November 3, 2010, the album had sold 151,000 copies in the US.

Critical reception

''How I Got Over'' was met with widespread critical acclaim. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 86, based on 23 reviews. According to the website, it was the 15th-best reviewed album of 2010. Reviewers praised ''How I Got Over'' for its slow-grooving music, the contributions of its guest artists, and the substance of its lyrics.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's Andy Kellman described the album as "deeply planted in realism ... gracefully and cleverly sequenced", while ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' critic Nathan Brackett highlighted The Roots' incorporation of

elements into an " in the pocket" sound. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

''s Nate Patrin deemed ''How I Got Over'' "a particularly efficient album ... the Roots' shortest (a lean 42 and a half minutes), one of their most lyrically straightforward, and a work of strong stylistic cohesion". In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Jon Pareles Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.the economic downturn of the late 2000s. "Even in its boasts, ''How I Got Over'' is selfless: an album of doubts, parables and pep talks", Pareles wrote. James Shahan from '' URB'' found it "dark and tragic in places, but also enlightening and empowering", and ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' journalist

Charles Aaron Charles Aaron is an American music journalist and editor, formerly for '' Spin'' magazine, where he worked for 23 years. Personal Charles Aaron was born in Rockingham, North Carolina, and raised in Asheboro, North Carolina and Rome, Georgia. He ...

said "you'd have to rewind early-'90s Scarface or

Wu-Tang Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close affil ...

for such convincingly cold-eyed hip-hop existentialism". Writing for ''

MSN Music ''MSN Music'' was a part of MSN's web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. The website also served as a digital music store from 2004 to 2008. History I ...

'',

was impressed by how the rappers on the album had expressed "garden-variety upper-middle-class anxiety" in a forthright, thoughtful, articulate, and enjoyable manner, while musical elements such as Kamal Gray's keyboards and Questlove's drums "embodied" the "fortitude and even optimism" of the lyrics. Eric Henderson was less enthusiastic in ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'', finding the lyrics inconsistent and "mildly self-delusional" while calling the album "stylistically the most inert, contemplative, offputtingly soft music they've possibly ever released". Critics also included the album in their top-10 records lists for 2010; it was ranked at number seven by ''

Vibe ''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down productio ...

'', number five by both ''The A.V. Club'' and Todd Martens from the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', number 10 by both ''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

'' and

Jim DeRogatis James Peter DeRogatis (born September 2, 1964) is an American music critic and co-host of ''Sound Opinions''. DeRogatis has written articles for magazines such as ''Rolling Stone'', '' Spin'', ''Guitar World'' and ''Modern Drummer'', and for 15 ...

, and number three by

BBC Music BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio o ...

. Christgau named ''How I Got Over'' the year's best album and wrote in ''

The Barnes & Noble Review Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

'', "in 2010 what sounded best was the Roots' brave and sometimes painful change-of-life hip-hop, a multivalent reflection on the pop lifer's danger years, the late thirties." He later called it the "most substantial" album of the Roots' career and the best album of the 2010s. ''How I Got Over'' was also nominated for a

2011 Grammy Award The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights pri ...

in the category of

Best Rap Album The Grammy Award for Best Rap Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums with rapping at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories ...

, but lost to

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

's ''

Recovery Recovery or Recover may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books * ''Recovery'' (novel), a Star Wars e-book * Recovery Version, a translation of the Bible with footnotes published by Living Stream Ministry Film and television * ''Recovery'' (fil ...

''.

Track listing

Continuation from ''Rising Down'' The track listing was confirmed by

Okayplayer Okayplayer is an online hip-hop and alternative music website and community, described by ''Rolling Stone'' as a "tastemaker" and "an antidote to dull promotional Web sites used by most artists". The community was founded by The Roots' drummer ...

Personnel

Credits for ''How I Got Over'' adapted from liner notes.Track listing and credits as per liner notes for ''How I Got Over'' album * Executive producer: Richard Nichols * A&R: Lenny S., Karl Jenkins * A&R operations: Leesa D. Brunson * A&R administration: Mark Tavern * Mastered by: Dave Kutch * Marketing: Chris Atlas, Paul Resta * Management: Shawn Gee, Richard Nichols * Business management: Shawn Gee, SEFG LLC * Creative management: Richard Nichols, CoolHunter LLC * Art direction: Richard Nichols, Kenny Gravillis, Todd Russell * Design: Gravillis, Inc. * Art, photography coordination: Kristen Yiengst, Tai Linzie * The Roots photography: Ben Watts * Styling: Rebecca Pietri, www.hommepourfemme.com * Gromming: Fahim * Legal counsel: Brad A. Rubens * Business affairs: Randy McMillan, Antoinette Trotman, Ian Allen * Sample clearances: Deborah Mannis-Gardner for DMG Clearances, Inc. * Engineer: Josh Burnette

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2010 albums Albums produced by Questlove Def Jam Recordings albums The Roots albums