After a massive success, should you attempt to replicate what worked the last time, or should you push forward, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle a second time? That question plagued Roots co-founders Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter as the Philadelphia hip-hop band embarked on its fifth studio album, 2002’s Phrenology. Their answer? Try both. After years of trying to earn their respect in hip-hop, the group had finally found a hit with “You Got Me”, the Erykah Badu-driven, Scott Storch-produced single from 1999’s Things Fall Apart. With “You Got Me”, The Roots finally figured out how to make a hit with broad appeal, mostly by focusing on an element the group had largely overlooked at that point: melody. Sure, listeners liked to nod their heads to a good beat, or rap along to clever lyrics. But as the members of The Roots discovered with “You Got Me”, nothing is as sticky as a good, solid, sing-along chorus. With this in mind, Questlove, Black Thought and the rest of The Roots began work on Phrenology by tapping into the neo-soul scene the group had helped form. Through his work with D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, which often involved giant jam sessions at his West Philly house, Questlove had positioned himself as part of the vanguard of a newly popular sound. And on Phrenology, The Roots enlisted two graduates of Philly’s revitalised R&B scene: Musiq Soulchid appears on the sexy single “Break You Off”, and Jill Scott—who’d written the chorus for “You Got Me” and performed on its demo—shows up for the melodious track “Complexity”. But the members of The Roots were always inclined to zig while others zagged, and instead of strictly going the R&B route on Phrenology, they gambled on an early-2000s resurgence of Black rock. Cody ChesnuTT was recruited for a rap remake of his song, “The Seed”, resulting in “The Seed 2.0”, a guitar-driven track in which ChesnuTT employs his soulful vocals to describe creative conception. Of course, no Roots album would be complete without Black Thought’s verbal gymnastics, which he displays on “Thought @ Work”—a tribute to the verbal dexterity of influential Golden Age rapper Kool G Rap—as well as “Quills”, a showcase for Thought’s uncanny MC skills. Yet one of the most powerful and poignant moments on Phrenology is “Water”, a sprawling tough-love letter to bandmate Malik B., who was battling mental illness and addiction. It’s a highlight on an album that demonstrates not just the group’s commercial viability, but also its artistic integrity.