…And Then You Shoot Your Cousin

…And Then You Shoot Your Cousin
Studio album by The Roots
Released	May 19, 2014 (2014-05-19)
Recorded	2013–2014
Genre	Alternative hip hop
Length	33:22
Label	Def Jam
Producer	Black Thought, D.D. Jackson, Damion Ward, Joseph Simmons, Karl Jenkins, Mike Jerz, Richard Nichols, Ray Angry, Trapzillas, Questlove, The Wurxs
The Roots chronology
Wise Up Ghost (2013) …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin (2014)
Singles from …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin
"When the People Cheer" Released: May 6, 2014 (2014-05-06)

…And Then You Shoot Your Cousin is the eleventh studio album by American hip hop band The Roots. The album was released on May 19, 2014, by Def Jam Recordings.^[1]

According to Black Thought, the album is conceptual like the previous one, but unlike Undun, …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin features several characters in this story, not just one.^[2] Black Thought described the album as a satirical look at violence in hip hop and American society overall.^[3]

Release and promotion

In July 2012, Questlove said on his Twitter account that the title of The Roots' next album would have the initials &TYSYC and that it was being recorded, with a different sound to expect than from Undun.^[4] In the November 12, 2012 issue of The New Yorker, Questlove revealed that the album is tentatively named & Then You Shoot Your Cousin.^[5] In a June 2013 interview with Fuse TV, Questlove said he would prefer to release an album in the first quarter of the year, and that he also had "...two or three secret, major musical projects that I'm working on that I can't really talk about."^[6] In February 2014, in an interview with XXL, Black Thought said that the album would be a concept album in the spirit of Undun, saying:

"We’re close to being done on it, it’s coming soon, hopefully sometime this Spring. It’s called And Then You Shoot Your Cousin. It’s conceptual; it’s another concept album in the spirit of Undun, but it’s not just about just one kind of character, we create quite a few different characters in this record. It’s satire, but in that satire it’s an analysis of some of the stereotypes perpetuated in not only the hip-hop community, but in the community. I don’t know if that makes any sense."^[7]

He also said that the concept album would be centered around more than one character, saying: "We created some of these characters that we kind of see. We as artists, musicians, Philadelphians, New Yorkers, we as black men, we’re familiar with very many of these characters, and we kind of introduce them to the rest of the world in a manner that makes them more easily understood than maybe seeing it."^[7] He also explained that the album would be on the shorter side, saying: "Hopefully you’ll get something new from it every time you listen to it, you’ll hone in on something different. It’s short enough to do that, to take in, to digest in one sitting, so to speak. I think right now it’s at maybe 34 minutes; there may be one or two musical things added on to the record that I know is the record at this point. But I don’t think it will be any longer than 36 or 37 minutes in its entirety. So in that, it’s short enough to digest, but it’s gonna be dense. So dense that maybe in one sitting you’ll listen to it and only listen to the piano and string arrangements, and then you’ll listen to it again and you’ll get into the actual words that are being said, and you’ll listen again and get into some of the other musicality. There’s very many layers to this record, but it doesn’t take place over very much time."^[7] On April 7, 2014, DJ Kast One premiered their first single from the album, "When the People Cheer", on Hot 97.^[8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	70/100[9]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
The A.V. Club	B-[11]
Robert Christgau	A–[12]
Exclaim!	8/10[13]
The Guardian	[14]
New York Daily News	[15]
Rolling Stone	[16]
Slant Magazine	[17]
Spin	6/10[18]
XXL	(XL)[19]

Upon its release, …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 70, based on 26 reviews.^[9] Andy Kellman of AllMusic felt that it may be the most challenging album from The Roots because of its experimental elements and variety of guest vocalists.^[10] Christopher R. Weingarten of Rolling Stone likened it to a hip hop version of Nine Inch Nail's 1994 album The Downward Spiral because of its downbeat, existential theme: "With zero aspirational tales, the Roots' 11th album explores a hopelessness where the trap is something you're stuck in."^[16] Omar Burgess of HipHopDX said that although the music is occasionally discordant, it is also "depressingly good, which makes it a bit of a confusing product in a Hip Hop landscape bifurcated by Golden Era romanticists and the turnt-up set. Here, the crew essentially mock both factions, making good on their description of the album as a satirical look at both Hip Hop and the larger community."^[20] Robert Christgau wrote in his review through Medium that it is more consistent musically than undun and is "a touching, upsetting meditation in which a sketchy gangsta wannabe embodies the limits of all striving. Every time the musique concrete squelches in, I remember how fraught the world is. Every time Raheem DeVaughn croons about our need for angels, I feel thankful for what I got."^[12]

Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club said, "With their 11th effort, The Roots have managed yet another album individualistic like little else in hip-hop, but unlike their best work this one’s more interested in scholastic provocation than genuine pathos."^[11] Jesse Cataldo of Slant Magazine said, "A depiction of disorder and chaos, ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin places almost no focus on the hard-working everymen of the traditional soul milieu, zoning in on the desolate and the down and out, nightmare scenarios in which dreams of riches molder inside condemned buildings. While this approach sacrifices some potential subtlety in exchange for a broader, stereotype-tweaking social crusading, one perhaps a bit too enamored of its crusader status, it's hard to deny the effect, the album's approach integrating neatly into an overall sense of claustrophobic dread."^[17] Reed Jackson of XXL said, "For some, its exaggerated makeup may be a turnoff. And, honestly speaking, it does take some work to grasp what ATYSYC is really about. It features no songs—except maybe the bouncy closer “Tomorrow”—that will hit you immediately like “You Got Me,” “The Seed 2.0” or “Here I Come.” But it’s well worth the time and effort. The Roots have not only proven once again that they are one of hip-hop’s most consistent acts, but also one of the genre’s most important."^[19] Hilary Saunders of Paste said, "...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin is a short album, and one with sparingly few “hits.” But conceptually, The Roots prove their mastery of mixing high and low culture for diverse audiences. It’s a headier album, but one rife with significance."^[21]

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 19,786 copies in the United States.^[22] In its second week the album sold 5,856 more copies bringing its total album sales to 25,642.^[23]

Track listing

Chart positions

References

External links

• Official website