In the year 2000, music was at a very interesting time, to be certain. Boy bands had taken over the world (again!), rap and pop music were leading the charts, and the dawn of a new millennium brought some interesting albums along. From the likes of Radiohead’s Kid A to Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory, the year showcased no shortage of records that were influential over the next two decades.
Of course, Taproot’s debut full-length Gift wasn’t necessarily revolutionary. A fairly tried and true nu-metal band that came along right when bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn were hitting on their commercial promise, Taproot never quite achieved what many of their peers did, at least in a commercial and critical sense, but that doesn’t make their career unsuccessful. Far from it, actually. Collectively having sold millions of records worldwide can’t be considered a failure, and the band’s first two albums saw them playing festivals like Ozzfest, too.
It’s with that being said that their 2000 debut full-length, Gift, was a solid success story. While not reaching a coveted Platinum or even Gold certification, the record still managed to sell a couple hundred thousand copies to date. Buoyed by singles “Again and Again” and “Smile”, among other standout tracks, it was a solid opening act for the young band, who were once courted by Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst before a much-publicized falling out. Armed with the solid, if fluctuating voice of Stephen Richards (one of nu-metal’s more interesting vocalists) and a solid rhythm section, it wasn’t long before the band started hitting up huge tours with some of the biggest bands in the scene back then.
While the band is somewhat active today, Taproot can lay claim to many things – one in particular is the smash success of their signature song “Poem”, which is still their most successful to date as well. It all had to start somewhere, though, and fortunately for Taproot, time has been somewhat kind to their debut album Gift, which turns 20 today.
