The Roots’ Bboy Smash “Boom” is one of the many seriously Ill Bboy Hits (along with “Web“, “Din Da Da”, “Melting Pot” and more) to emerge from The Roots’ 1994 album “The Tipping Point“. Every time the legendary Philly collective drops an album, there is something, if not multiple pieces, for the Bboys and Bgirls.
Another in a pattern of homage to Hip-hop foundations, “Boom” samples Kool G Rap & DJ Polo’s “Poison”, and not only the beat, but also Black Thought’s opening verse reflects the style of the 1989 Hip-hop classic.
“The Tipping Point”, in the typical style of The Roots, pays homage not only to Hip-hop in this example but also to political, philosophical, and even economic ideals, using a mugshot of Malcolm X (in his criminal days prior to converting to Islam) as the album art, and naming the album for the best-selling book by Malcolm Gladwell.
Why two Malcolms? Not sure, but Malcolm Little (as Malcolm X was known in the days of the photo) symbolizes in this instance a leader in the prelude to his leadership days, and is a snapshot into the life of an individual that affected the direction of race politics in America. But Malcolm X, into his final days, when he’d come to be called El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, embodied a journey from street crime and a potentially idle existence to the head of a new front in the fight for racial equality, and a lasting symbol.
Malcolm Gladwell, in the book for which the album is named, argues that “little things can make a big difference” and in one interesting point (from a New York Times review):
Gladwell discusses the Power of Context. One reason crime declined in New York is that officials put into practice the much-debated broken-windows theory, which held that if subways were cleaned of graffiti and windows were repaired, people would begin to obey the law. Altering the context altered the result.
In any case, the symbolism is rich, the beats are Ill, the lyrics are as dope as ever. We highly recommend taking in the full album.
From a Review of “The Tipping Point” in Stylus:
The Roots fill a much vaguer niche, shifting (or vacillating) between mainstream rap’s rootsy consciousness in their role as Jay-Z’s live backing band; the middle underground backpacker set’s princes; and the captains of Philadelphia’s neo-soul movement, as personified by Jaguar Wright and Jill Scott.
. . . Like an album-length extension of Brother D’s 1980 proto-rap single “How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?” The Tipping Point asks both music makers and partygoers how the world will ever become a better place when they’re too busy dancing to improve it. If they think that sounds heavy, they should remember this is a record that shares its name with a book about the nature of change.
