The Roots - how i got over

Do you remember when you were between the ages of 5 and 10 and your parents used to groove to music from the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Earth Wind and Fire, Gil Scott-Haron or Frankie Beverly and Maze?And as you got older you remember these bands but more importantly you remember the way they made your parents feel as you begin to develop the same feelings for music the way they did?

In my opinion this can be said about the Roots Group for our generation. More specifically about their latest Album “How I Got Over”, which will be their ninth studio album.

In these days where the lines have been skewed between what is considered real Hip Hop or just stuff to make a buck. The Roots continue to remain tangent to these arguments by consistently giving us a broader spectrum with a firm foundation rooted in the Hip Hop Culture. Introducing new and innovative ways of building this culture up, to me, has been The Roots greatest accomplishment.

There is hardly a question when it comes to Quest Love and his masterful skills on the drums, which provide that authentic boom bap that is sometimes missed in today’s Hip Hop. Just listen to tracks such as “Doin’ it Again”, “Web 20/20” and “Radio Daze.”

Verbally, Black Thought put it best when he said “The unsung, underrated, under-appreciated / The one the underachievers had underestimated Finally graduated,” though it is the sad truth about this fire spitting MC from Illadelph. Let me be the first to tell you that he has not lost a step in his skills and I feel safe to say he is at the top of his game. Consider this – you have featured artists on the album sound as if they’ve stepped their game up just to hang with Thought – now that’s really saying something. “To me” Phonte sounds like he walked away from this project with a whole new prospective of what it means to be an MC.

Tariq Trotter’s raspy vocal gives us no reason to count him out as one of the most prolific MC’s of our times, with lines such as “Straining to carry the weight of my brain like a genius/ Knowing I’m sowing seeds, let’s see whose thumb is the greenest/ If I said it I mean it, I did it because I need it”. Don’t think just because this is rumored to be their last Album that Black Thought can’t still eat MC’s like a carnivore, proving that cats can’t walk while chewing their gum and all. With “Web 20/20,” featuring Peedi Peedi and Truck North, he lets would be competition know “Sucker like you just has to get blasted/ Ashes to ashes, Frasier to Cassius/ No homo, y’all some pains in the asses”. So please don’t take Riq Geez as a lightweight MC. PLEASE

The most standoutish artist featured on this album is Blu. I say that in the respect of when I first heard Mos Def introduced on De La Soul’s “Big Brotha Beats” – expect more from Blu in the near future. His poetic cadence and fluid flow on “Radio Daze” and my personal favorite, “The Day,” provides a breath of fresh air for the new generation of Hip Hop artists to inhale. With lines like “…lost in a mass mess task-less dilemma to match somebody’s status” from “Radio Daze” or “Handpicked to live this life we take for granted like a child with and upright bass, we can’t stand it” from “The Day.”

Other artists that appear on the album are Dice Raw, Phonte from little Brother Foreign Exchange fame, Patty Crash, John Legend provided his melodic vocals on “Doin’ it Again”, Peedi Peedi, STS, Truck North, and Monsters of Folks, who accompanied The Roots on a remake of their song “Dear God.”

From start to finish this album has everything a Hip Hop fan needs – consider this a classic and place it in heavy rotation in your car, your PC or even your iPod while your walk around the house doing lil’ odd jobs. I can’t wait until the same feeling I have for The Roots overcomes my 6-year-old son the same way it did for me when my Father used to play Cutis Mayfield.

Contributor:
The 5th illa (etc.)