Consistency in hip hop these days is a rarity. Everyone has changed their style and while being fresh is all a part of making music; some walk that line to what most call “selling out”. One group that does sell out — just about every live show that they have had — has managed to stay consistent while monitoring their changes to be musical developments and progression. Of course, I’m talking about the one and only Legendary Roots Crew out of Philly. A bad Roots album is a rarity and consistency is all a part of the itinerary for ?uestlove and the gang. Rising Down is no exception and while musically it shows The Roots exploring new dimensions, it is still the same great sound, powerful message, and brand of home cooking from the kitchen of hip hop.
Black, Mos and Styles start the album off with a bang on “Rising Down” touching on a range of topics from surveillance in the country to crooked pharmaceutical companies. The ?uestlove production is fine and allows these 3 artist that you would never expect to be on a track together to cut it loose. “Get Busy” is a highlight track that presents a BANGING beat that’ll rattle the trunk, make you want to beat someone up, and become a rapper all in the 3 minutes and 33 seconds that it is on for. My Peedi Peedi fandom keeps rising and his flow on this joint gives me no reason to stop. Moreover, Dice Raw drops a gem of a verse including the unreal line: “I’m Kinda like W.E.B. Dubois, meets Heavy D and the Boys”. Needless to say, Black is great on every track, but really unloads on “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)”.
Could the fact that “@15″, a track that displays Black Though freestyling at age 15, comes before “Black’s Reconstruction” mean anything? Take it for how you want it, but not only does it show Black ‘reconstructing’, the whole theme of the album is about the world ‘reconstructing’ or at least be in a need of reconstruction. With that aside:
That’s everywhere niggas, Am I the muthafucking legendary?
Yeah niggas, make it very clear niggas
Been looking at y’all in my rearview
Mirror niggas want to be a millionaire, I’m already there niggas
I’m the debonair nigga, a bear taking more than my share
Lookee here, yeah, I know it ain’t fair nigga
Neither is a bald eagle even with a hair trigger
Haystack, try and find a needle up in there nigga
Leave you up in there nigga, show me the puppet
That don’t need a puppeteer nigga, shed another tear nigga
I’m in the field with a shield and a spear nigga
I’m in your girl with her heels in the air nigga
Sure, the ignorant person will say: “look at the use of the N Word” and while it is excessive, in a Post-Imus lens it proves extremely relevant. Take into account the brilliance of this entire song and how Black Thought did it in one take (according to ?uestlove) and how angry he is throughout this entire song. The fact that the entire Don Imus situation was blamed on hip hop one way or another surely pissed Black Thought and the rest of The Roots off, thus, the beautiful backfire of “75 Bars” (check out the video, it adds more ‘umph’ to the song).
“Singing Man” is an extremely dope song in concept as it displays Porn, Black Thought and Truck North telling stories from the different perspectives of s a terrorist, a campus shooter, and a child forced into war. “Criminal” speaks on the justice system and the systemic racism instilled specifically against those of a darker skin, while the perfect and appropriate ending of Rising Up is of the ‘go-go’ variety featuring the self proclaimed go-go hip hop artist Wale.
The overall feel of the album is great conceptually, but it does lack replay value because it is so dark. Even the happiest of tracks (”Birthday Girl”, which is on special editions) are about ridiculously sad and depressing stories. While the extremely enraged and dramatic Black Thought is fantastic, the much more upbeat sound of the band is more enjoyable. Some of the features also seem unneeded including the Common and Kweli features. Its length may also be a flaw and tends to drag on, in particular with the ‘meh’ back to back of “I Will Not Apologize” and “I Can’t Help It”.
The Roots will never change who they are and what they do despite what record label they are on, how many members they may or may not lose, the number of awards they have, or how many fans show up for a concert. They are who they show themselves to be; no games, no gimmicks. “The Show” (featuring a very sub-par verse from Common) is about just that: working, working, and working. The military beat of the song instills that hip hop is unpredictable, and even though a landmine might blow up right before your eyes, you have to keep marching on to the next checkpoint.
Overall Rating: 78/100
Standout Tracks:
Get Busy featuring Peedi Peedi, Dice Raw, & DJ Jazzy Jeff
Criminal featuring Saigon and Truck North
Rising Up featuring Wale and Chrisette Michele
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13 Comments
Excellent review Deez! This one’s my fav from you so far… even though I’m not feeling this album. I love The Roots, but this album was too “outside of the box” for me. I listened to it again last night and I guess I still don’t get it.
Fo reeeel eh Kev? Did you read the linear notes? Made me enjoy the album that much more. Check out the video for 75 Bars if you haven’t yet either
I really feel your reviews Sean! It’s great to have you on the team!
I think the sound of the album is a lil bit too dark and I can’t say It’s another Roots Classic but you right, they are who they are and there are some hot songs on the LP.
Good review. I agree replay value is low, but when I listen to it, its gets played without any skips. Mos Def, Saigon, and Wale make me want more music from them. Black Thought is always on point…and Styles P is the best member of The Lox (I know off topic a bit)
Kev, get 75 Bars up there for a stand out track!!! actually, they can go listen to the album and listen to that track cuz it needs to be heard
Yeah, I put the 75 Bars video up instead of the audio.
yeah yeah, the Roots.. as much as it pains me to admit it to myself, they’ve fallen way down low on my meter of favorite acts, whereas they used to be on top. I don’t know how the rest of y’all feel, but my problem is that I keep having “Things Fall Apart” as a benchmark in my mind, but it’s not the same problem why cats give Raekwon a hard time for not reaching the level of “Cuban Linx”, for example; the problem here is that they have radically changed their style ever since and I could never agree with anyone suggesting it’s been for the better. Rap music I like most is the one that’s close to its soul-funk-jazz forefather, so it has a deep groove and usually quite lush melodies. “Things fall Apart” was the epitome of that; it was like a “Sun goddess” or “Places and Spaces” in the realm of rap, whereas their new style is too left-fieldish for my taste. Don’t get me wrong, I love myself a bit of rock n roll every now and then, but it’s gotta be dope. If you take “Phrenology”, the whole album sucked. “Game Theory” was better, but they somehow tried too cross over too desperately again and it sounded monotonous all over. Same goes for this one, in my opinion all songs sound the same and not one, except maybe for that with mos and Styles, stand out. It’s a nice album, I don’t regret I bought it, but I can tell you right now that, as it was the case with “Game Theory”, I’ll listen to it maybe three times and then I’ll forget about it, whereas their early soulful and jazzy albums still rock me today
“If you take “Phrenology”, the whole album sucked.”
WHAT…THE…FUCK
alright, maybe that’s a bit harsh, you can’t use a word like “suck” when you talk about the Roots, but all I can say is that myself and damn ear all the die-hard Roots fans I know were massively disappointed by that album. And here even the argument that “a so-so Roots album is still better than most of the shit out there” didn’t work, I just didn’t find listening to it a pleasant experience
but yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have said it sucks.. it was still a good effort in terms of musicianship, just didn’t hit the right chords in my opinion
yo Deez, maybe it will make you feel better if I tell you that I bought the album regardless. I always buy the Roots albums cos I always give em the benefit of the doubt, only with “Phrenology”, I had more doubts on my mind after checkin it than anything else
maybe I wasn’t ready. tell you what, I’ll bump it gain right now, after all this time, to see if I ain’t changed my mind
right, i changed my mind: not the WHOLE album sucks… but MOST of it does. Honestly, I tried hard, but it just doesn’t get me. Black thought is on point as usual but the music just makes me cringe. i like maybe two songs and that’s it
man… Water,Rock You, Rolling With Heat, Thought @ Work, The Seed, Sacrifice… wow. I can see a lotta peopel not liking the album though, I think musically it was a huge step up for them. And I felt like this album is just part of the continuous process for the Roots. This is still great music
oh that’s definitely true. I mean regardless of whether people individually feel it or not, one thing that’s for sure is that these cats are really about making music. and bands that try to think outside of the frame should be encouraged, that’s why I still buy all them Roots albums, even if I always wish they’d be a little bit more like their stuff of old, but hey