The song itself is very upbeat and inspiring. With its skillful blend of different drums and snares, the song is meant to uplift the listener and help cope with the negatives and downs people go through every day. The message this song hopes to deliver to its listeners is one that should be interpreted as a reminder to be near those closest to you during hard times and moments of peril, because ultimately, they are the people who would be able to relate to you best; a return to your roots in short. Due to the nature of the song and its humbling tone, the rap group was approached by Spike Lee to compose a song for his upcoming biopic based on the life of Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington. The group then recorded "Revolution", which appeared on the oldies-dominated movie soundtrack.
The music video released along with the song was recorded in black and white, starting out with images of death, Desolation, and sadness. The blending of different drums and trumpets makes the song easy to move along with, as it resembles music developed in Southern Africa, which gives the song more of a return- to- your- roots type of vibe, but was more prevalent in their second album titled Zingalamaduni. The repetition of the word “home” throughout the song signify the need and want people have to return from whence they came. Viewers will also notice the attire of those in the video mimic those worn in Africa, which add to thought of returning home to your roots. Its been documented that the remains of the first human were found in Africa, thus leading many Scientist to believe that Africa is the region where we all share our roots. Images of a woman washing her clothes on the front porch using her hands and bucket are images meant to bring the viewer back in time, where things were much more simple and less complicated like those complications mentioned between lines four and ten. Images of shackles laid upon the wrists of a man are meant to symbolize the ancestors of the speaker, which he mentions were slaves and hung from the trees throughout the slave day in Tennessee.
This song set the stage for what was supposed to be a very promising career for Arrested Development. Today, If you try to look up their group name you will most likely get the information for a now popular
television series instead of information on the Grammy award winning