The Cover Uncovered: The brains behind The Roots album ‘Phrenology’
The versatility of hip-hop is one of the leading factors in its success. The genre can branch into various other sounds, and the development of neo-soul is the perfect personification of that. Though its origins are widely debated, there is no escaping that one of the leading pioneers was The Roots.
In a recent Instagram post, author Dan Charnas wrote, “Some people say neo-soul is D’Angelo and Badu. Some say it started with Me’Shell, the Heavies, or even Sade. Some people say neo-soul is soul plus J Dilla’s rhythmic influence. But in truth? Neo-soul is the sound of Ahmir Thompson’s left hand and right foot.”
Ahmir (Questlove) Thompson is the beating heart of The Roots and is responsible for many of their creative decisions and directions. When the band recorded Phrenology, neo-soul was reaching its peak, and following the success of the album’s predecessor, Things Fall Apart, there were question marks surrounding what the album should sound like. “Let’s just do everything that we’re not supposed to do,” Questlove said the band decided.
The result was a large-sounding album that still had neo-soul at its foundation but branched off into quicker and exasperated music. It lets the band play quickly, experiment more, and get more collaborators on the project. When there was so much going on within an album, designing a cover was naturally tricky, so they contacted the artist Tom Huck to see if he could help.
“I was teaching at the time,” he said, “Somebody from the record company called the school. They saw my work in a gallery in LA and called me up. The funny story is the secretary brought me a Post-it note that said, ‘Call MCA Records immediately!’ I thought, ‘Oh my god, they fucking got me for downloading music!’”
With the name of the album decided, Phrenology would always be a big part of the cover, but The Roots chose various sections that they wanted to go into the brain, each of which represented either them, music, or both. It was a long process, to say the least.
“It was very chaotic doing it,” said Huck, “The band wanted a certain look and they wanted me because I do that antique look of woodcut. There’s that age-old look to my stuff. They wanted those old phrenology drawings of the head. They had a list of the faculties that they wanted to go into the brain.”
The band were eventually happy with the design, which has since become a more comprehensive representation of the music at the time but also the development of neo-soul. However, Huck was frustrated with the final image. He was an artist who had been asked to do an album cover, something he hadn’t done before, which meant there were specific aspects he had forgotten to consider.
“I designed it as an LP cover. I was a little bit freaked out because one of the stupid things I forgot about was I didn’t design it with the idea of the damn parental advisory sticker. I hated it when I saw it on the CD. I just hate that stupid sticker.”
Phrenology was a crucial moment in neo-soul, as it’s an album that defined The Roots as pivotal icons in the movement. It also has a cover that fans everywhere recognise. It remains the only album with a parental advisory sticker that has offended someone who enjoys swearing.
