Electric Lady

Seven Soulquarians albums, from the loose crew of players and producers who worked out of Electric Lady, the Greenwich Village studio Jimi Hendrix built. The core was Questlove, D'Angelo, J Dilla and keyboardist James Poyser, all Aquarians, hence the name. Around them were Common, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Q-Tip, Pino Palladino on bass and Roy Hargrove on horns.

The records run in release order, 1999 to 2002, because that is how the sound built up. Things Fall Apart is the Roots tightening into a band that could play like a sampler. Voodoo, Like Water for Chocolate and Mama's Gun came out of overlapping sessions at Electric Lady, with players drifting between rooms and onto each other's albums. Fantastic, Vol. 2 is the Detroit side: Dilla's drums land slightly behind or ahead of the beat, and Questlove has talked about relearning his own playing around that feel. Bilal's 1st Born Second carries the same people into 2001. Electric Circus closes it out as Common's strangest record, a commercial flop that has found its listeners since.

If you only have time for one, play Voodoo. It came five years after his debut, the whole scene passed through its sessions, and it is where Dilla's loose timing became a live band's.