On the occasion of Undun-perhaps 2011’s last real contender for album of the year-we asked Roots drummer and bandleader Questlove to pick his top five hip-hop concept albums. More Prince albums Sign O’ the Times (Super Deluxe) 1999: Deluxe Edition. But even if your definition requires a stronger narrative arc (something often indiscernible in prog-rock efforts), hip-hop still offers a wealth of examples: Jay-Z’s American Gangster, Outkast’s Idlewild, supergroup Deltron 3030’s Deltron 3030. Prince and Paris now 19-year-old brotherborn Prince Michael Jackson II and formerly known as Blanket before he started going by Bigi in 2015remained under T.J. Indeed, most hip-hop LPs could be called concept albums if one uses the broader definition of the term: They usually have a dominant theme-think of Kanye’s trilogy of College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation-along with skits around that theme. Prince Paul looms large over the history of hip-hop concept albums: All his original solo releases can be considered as such, and he produced one of the first classics of the genre, 1991’s De La Soul Is Dead. (This wouldn’t be a Slate article if I didn’t make a comparison to The Wire, but Questlove himself has pointed out that the character was inspired by that series’ Avon Barksdale.) The name Undun comes from the Guess Who song of the same name, but the primary influence the group has cited is Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves-a record that self-appointed “Dean of American Rock Critics” Robert Christgau called “the closest thing to a true rock opera you’ve ever heard.” Both albums concern a well-intentioned protagonist who is driven into the drug trade and toward his own untimely death. These photos from the ‘90s show that it wasn’t all grunge and flannel, but that there were different aspects to the decade that you can find only if you look closer. Rocker, David Bowie says, 'Rock has always been the devil's music. The Rock rhythm and style is itself an invocation to demonic powers to participate. One Nite Alone is the twenty-fifth studio album by American recording artist Prince. In fact, the concept album, in the sense of a pop opera, is perfectly suited for hip-hop: Rap is a more verbal art form than rock, and rappers tend to be better storytellers than rockers. How the satanic messages get onto the albums is a mystery, but the testimony of Elaine, a former Satanic High Priestess gives a good clue - at least as far as the usual Rock albums are concerned. The phrase “concept album” might conjure up rock classics like Tommy, The Wall, and Ziggy Stardust, but The Roots’ Undun-out this week-reminds us that hip-hop too carries a proud legacy in that field.
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