The New The Roots Album Will Make Your Day

Screenshot of the protagonist in The Roots' "undun"

A new album from The Roots will drop December 6th that is relevant to our course. It's called "undun" and tells the story of a young inner city youth who makes a decision that "undoes" his entire life. There is a single released for the album and a few videos online. Here is how the album is described on the rap band's website:

"undun is an existential re-telling of the short life of one Redford Stephens (1974-1999). Through the use of emotives and Redford's internal dialogues the album seeks to illustrate the intersection of free will and prescribed destiny as it plays out 'on the corner'. Utilizing a reverse narrative arc, the album begins as the listener finds Redford disoriented--postmortem--and attempting to make sense of his former life. As he moves through its pivotal moments he begins to deconstruct all that has led to his (and our own) coming undun."

The idea of "the intersection of free will and prescribed destiny as it plays out 'on the corner'" clearly relates to our own discussion of environmental determinism beginning with Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives, but strikes an interesting balance between individual responsibility and social failure. Here's how the band further describes the story of Redford:

"undun is the story of this kid who becomes criminal, but he wasn't born criminal… he's actually thoughtful and is neither victim nor hero. Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment... At the end of the day... isn't that what we all do?"

"undun" album cover

Since the album is not out yet, there's not much to go on. But I love the cover. It reminds me of our discussions of Riis and Vergara, and how despite the lack of basic services provided to inner-city communities by municipal governments, the urban poor nonetheless often transform their own neighborhoods, like the boys here making a playground out of these abandoned mattresses.

One of the songs that has been released with an accompanying video is called "Make My." The title clearly references the famous line from Dirty Harry spoken by Clint Eastwood's vigilante protagonist to a partially wounded black bank robber who is contemplating reaching for his gun. The song though clearly recontextualizes this classic showdown.

"Making my day" has a different meaning for the protagonist of "undun." He is clearly struggling to survive below the poverty line and wondering how he will be able to survive:

"They told me that the ends would justify the means
they told me at the end, it would justify the dreams
That I’ve had since a child, maybe I’ll throw in the towel
And make my, make my, make my, make my
Departure from the world"

I'm not posting the "Make My" video teaser one line, though you can find it here. (It does interestingly revise the classic showdown scene as an instance of a young black man killing another young black man.) Instead, I'll close by sharing the video for the track "tip the scale," which references the scales of justice that seem tipped against inner city minority youth:

Smart Cities v. Jaywalking

There was an interesting article in the NYTimes this weekend about "Not-So-Smart Cities" that I thought relevant to the class. The author was responding to an experiment in New Mexico in which a company is building a city populated entirely by robots in order to test out new technologies for running cities more efficiently. This project is part of what is called a movement in urban planning focused on designing and constructing "smarter cities." You might have seen IBM commercials about "building a smarter planet":

In fact, IBM has a series of infomercials about building "The Smarter City" specifically.

The argument for smarter cities is well summarized by the author of the NYTimes piece, "that armed with enough data and computing muscle, we can translate cities' complexity into algorithms" and thus create a more efficient system for living. The basic argument of the NYTimes opinion article, though, is that a city governed by machines will always be inherently flawed, since humans are more dynamic and will never be entirely predictable. The author invokes the urban activist Jane Jacobs to make his argument.

Jane Jacobs's famous battle with Robert Moses over the Lower Manhattan Expressway is worth retelling here, as it pits two ideas of the "city" against each other. Moses was an urban planner and was the prime mover in the development of modern-day New York, responsible for a number of major bridges and expressways in and around the city. He certainly represents an early proponent of the "smart city" model, prioritizing efficiency of movement throughout the city above all else. His most famous projects were expressways.

Jane Jacobs was a community activist. She most famously fought against Robert Moses's proposed plan for the Lower Manhattan Expressway that would have destroyed a large part of the historic immigrant neighborhood of Little Italy. (This is where Jacob Riis took many of his photographs of tenement life on the Lower East Side.) Many families and businesses would have been displaced by the construction of the expressway. For Jacobs, the chaotic and beautiful life of the sidewalks in such neighborhoods was the heart of the city.

Capturing the City

Building Something Out of Nothing

"The Empire City, the City That Never Sleeps and the City of Sky Scrapers" are just a few common nicknames that are used when talking about this colossal city: New York, New York. Home of the ever shinning bright lights, yellow taxis, Yankee Stadium and outrageously priced Starbucks Coffee. One can mention the "Big Apple" to almost any person in the world and they will highlight Broadway, Saks Fifth Avenue and the infamous Central Park. However, underneath all the glitz and the glamor, the flashing lights and exhilarating celebrity sightings lies a darker shameful past that can still be seen today.

Since the mid-20th century New York City developed into one of the most powerful cities in the world. It has become the center for trade, communication, commerce and sets many of the world’s trends. In addition, New York has opened its arms to the many thousands of immigrants who have left their homes in attempts to achiev

Picture taken by Jacob Riis

e the "American Dream" or escape racism and persecution. But with that, comes negative side effects. Majority of immigrants were illiterate, uneducated and not familiar with American customs. Because of that, immigrants and other racial minorities where forced to live in squandered, overpopulated housing areas called Tenements. There all of the immigrants tried to make a home out of nothing. They do not possess the luxuries that privileged people have, but in their own way they formed a community.

This picture truly demonstrates the diversity of the many cultures that can be found in the slums of New York City. It was taken by Jacob Riis, who during his career attempted to highlight the true horrors of the poverty. However, this is picture at least in my opinion, does not highlight the horrors of extreme poverty but rather shows the good that can come from it. These people in this photo have taken something as abstract as an alleyway, something that most people would over look, and transformed it into something of importance. This alleyway is a gathering place for their community. The men sit nonchalantly amongst the grime and the filth as though it does not bother them. It is their home and they are trying to make the best of it. Their posture shows how they are not flustered by the presence of visitors, rather, they are intrigued by the people who have come to visit them. Though some may view the laundry hanging from the buildings as conventional, it decorates the building and adds character to the community, bringing the tenements to life.


Photograph by Camilo Jose Vergara



New York City is a "Dog Eat Dog" world. People are continually trying to climb up the social ladder, leaving those who were underprivileged and are not able to adapt fast enough behind. In Kevin Rudolf's song "In the City" he states that "they will eat you alive in the city, while the pull up in fancy cars" meaning that the wealthy, although they embody elegance, are able to rip others apart at their free will. However, in this modern picture of poverty in NYC, we are shown the complete opposite. The kids have turned an abandoned lot with cracked pavements, overgrown weeds and a dilapidated building into their own full court arena. They are not afraid of this spaces ugliness for they have acknowledged their circumstances and have decided to make the best of them.

Overall, through these pictures we are shown that one does not need extravagant luxuries in order to become closer to others and form a sense of community. Perhaps, that is what makes these photographs so beautiful. They have found use for the ugly, broken down and ruined items in their lives. They have claimed it as their own and have refused to remain helpless and suppressed because of their circumstances.

Bellow, I have attached a music video and song lyrics of the song "Across 110th Street" by Bobby Womack. I think this is song is interesting because it show an artist point of view from living in the ghetto. He was always surrounded by temptations avoided them which eventually allowed him to escaped poverty.

Music Video

Across 110th Street Lyrics