Songfacts®:

• This high-energy, soul-tinged tune is the title track of the ninth studio album by American hip hop band The Roots. The Late Night With Jimmy Fallon house band debuted this in June 2009 on the show and often perform it as the warm-up song before it is taped.
• Roots drummer and co-producer ?uestlove told MTV News that the album finds the Philly collective exploring some fairly un-hip-hop themes. "How I Got Over is basically a coming-of-age record," he said. He added that the band wanted to touch on some thought-provoking themes, a practice he said is more typical of rock than hip-hop. "There hasn't been a real precedent of anyone being at the crossroads [in hip-hop]. I hear [it] a lot in rock records... where it's sort of like, 'I'm at a point in my life where I don't know what to do and things are happening around me.'"
  ?uest went on to explain that the group wanted to get candid about the issues confronting them at this stage of their career. "You really don't hear any hip-hoppers talking about some sort of existential existence of God or even dare use the word 'midlife crisis' in any of their verses. So we wanted to make a completely honest record," he said.