the new roots album rising down

Great cover.

the fall out boy song is trash man. why defend it?

looks like c-murder

"why defend it?"

youve defended worse. of course its shit, and will get deleted from the album soon as i stick it on my ipod, but its not offensively shit. just asininely shit. and hearing the track with mos and styles p makes me not care so much cos that track is so good.

the FOB collabo also inspired a pretty funny blog from BOL on xxlmag which is a good thing.

I wonder if they got the title from William Vollman

Think it came from Pete Wentz's cock "rising down" Black Thought's throat

Future Roots album titles:
Freakonomics
Guns, Germs and Steal
A Brief History of Time
Rich Dad, Poor Dad

-- Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, July 18, 2006 9:50 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(haha, awesome typo on my part)
-- Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, July 18, 2006 9:51 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

Do You Want A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME?!?!?!?!!

youve defended worse

name one thing

just because the artist is 'credible' doesnt mean you should give garbage a pass

"I'll never listen to this, but because i like the roots i won't have you saying anything bad about it"

youve defended worse

name one thing

-- deej, Sunday, March 16, 2008 11:09 PM

lollipop? *ducks*

""I'll never listen to this, but because i like the roots i won't have you saying anything bad about it""

lolzer. i dont even like their last few albums. maybe a few tracks on each one but things fall apart was the last album of theirs i thought was solid pretty much from start to end.

has this leaked yet?

I heard a rumor that there's this store where you can buy it on disc in about 32 days.

i hear you have to hand over some sort of currency at those shop places though.

well, as you said upthread, you didn't even like their last few albums, so maybe you can wait another month to hear the new one.

i still buy their albums cos im devoted like that. even if i do DL them too. i didnt like their last few albums, but i DO absolutely love the new albums title track. must have played it about 50 times today.

the roots are so gay

youre gay.

SO WHAT

just dont be ashamed of it, thats all. enjoy this gay rap music.

All the songs with Dice RAW on them = all the best Roots songs.

the first roots/dice track on DYWM is the absolute fucking shit.

Supposedly Dice was only 13 when they recorded Organix?

theyre doing pretty well with this not leaking so far. i like get busy a lot but peedi crack isnt as good on there as he could have been. i wanted him to really go nuts like on that song he did on beanies third album.

Got the advance on Friday. I don't love this as instantly as i loved game theory, but it's growing on me. sonically, it's very similar. still pretty dark and sparse, lots of sharp, whooshing keyboard lines.

oh, fwiw: the roots are one of my favorite bands evah.

Looking at the notes right now -- Malik B is on this record. One track, "I Can't Help It," is listed as: "A possible response to Phrenology's 'Water'"

questlove and his liner notes....

"Birthday Girl" has been booted off the album.

http://drownedinsound.com/articles/3146262

I can't even imagine that song on this album. Prolly because that song is indeed trash, and this record is pretty fucking great.

Agreed. And it's a loud headphone album. I first listened in a background way and it didn't make much of an impression. The sharp quality of the drums and little synth stutters etc really make it. This feels like no. 2 of what may be the Roots' greatest run...

it seems really good but oddly boring?

i like get busy and the faux-afrobeat track a lot

There's some serious rhyming on this.

I like the fake Portishead one and "75 Bars" of course. A little draggy in parts, but probably the most cohesive rap album of the year so far. That's all on first listen, I bet it will open itself up later. This band got so good. Anything up to, like 2004 is downright unlistenable to me.

it seems really good but oddly boring?

Stay with it a little more. Loud headphone album is OTM.

I've had "I Can't Help It" on repeat for close to an hour.

There's some serious rhyming on this.

Oh yeah, "serious" is right. This record has zero sense of humor, not even from the guests who are not exactly known for being angry. Kweli might not even be known for being relevant right now, but his rhyme on "Lost Desire" has to bring him up a notch at least. When did he get all raspy? That voice has something different than before, a certain... awesomeness. By the time he gets to, "This is war, we expect some losses / And we comin' for the heads of the bosses," I was totally checking the tracklisting twice to make sure that's really Kweli, cause you know, I didn't hear much about murdering the people in charge and accepting casualties on that Black Star album, you know? Even Common steps in to say, "Yeah, I'm pissed off, too," and fits in pretty well with all the rest of the deeply creased foreheads. Seems like songs that are angry, negative, political, and explicitly racial bring out good things in all of them.

So yeah, the Roots are serious. Game Theory is a great record, and yeah it's angry, and it's ACTION PACKED. This one doesn't puch you as hard at first -- maybe the kick drum just doesn't get as much atention in the mix -- but it has better rhymes, more personal observations, and scarier ones. Black Thought's rhymes are especially close to the line between "paranoid" and "it's not paranoia if." That bit at the beginnig of the record is perfect -- I don't know what they're saying exactly in that old taped phone conversation, but essentially it's someone telling BT that he needs to be careful because he has a tendency to go off and sound scary-angry and freak people out, and he should "channel that energy" or some such, and BT responds by losing his shit so bad that my eyes bugged out a little the first time I heard it. Like, "Jesus christ, dude..." And yeah, that's about the tone of the record.

Oh, and also very notable -- smallest count of groan-worthy Black Thought rhymes on any Roots record yet. He may have finally discovered that elusive mystical thing called The Second Draft.

Kweli might not even be known for being relevant right now, but

"relevant" or not, i'll stand by his Eardrum record from last year, really liked that one.

i haven't heard this new Roots album yet; loved the last one though, and will pick this up in the next week or two, i'm sure. i busted out Organix a couple nights ago and it still holds up in a young, primitive sort of way.

"Anything up to, like 2004 is downright unlistenable to me."

*speechless.

i still love the beat of the title track but find the lyrics a bit too 'right on' now.

this is aite but aint touching game theory for me - gt was alot funkier & actually had some fun mixed in with all the dark shit

also wtf with the synths

lol grand funk railroad break

fela kuti joint was better when canibus spat on it

peedi on long time >>>>>>>>>>>> peedi on get busy

dice is a++++ 4eva tho lol "kinda like w.e. dubois meets heavy d and the boys"

first three tracks (after the intro) = classic roots.

rest of the album = not so classic.

yeah one of the tracks is a direct jack of 'livin in a new world' off game theory but done all coldplayfied

rest of the album sounds like phrentippingpointtheory all rolled into one.

doesnt bang like game theory

that's reason number one why it's not as good, and reason #2 is that there's no "Baby" or "Long Time" or anything like side 2 of GT to lighten the mood even a little, and if you listen to this five, six times in a couple three days like I did last week, the shit starts to get depressing.

I mean, come on, ppl. "Long Time." Come on.

People liked Game Theory? Have I just stumbled onto a rare herd of Grammy voters in the wild?

That album was mostly a boring slog with a few good moments in it, but (at least for me) far too much into the "We are mature artists and are making a serious, mature album that will edify you." I like the Roots better when they're angry rather than when they're trying to enlighten me.

we are all grammy voters.

Game Theory > Rising Down

How is this even being disputed? There's not a terrible track on GT.

Although

Game Theory > Rising Down > everything else the roots ever did except "Don't Say Nothing"

bullshit

whiney wtf have u even heard illadelph

I have heard every roots album, yeah

Illadelph is prolly no. 3 or 4 for me.

or 5.

1. Game Theory
2. Rising Down
3. Things Fall Apart
4. Illadelph Halflife
5. The Tipping Point
6. Phrenology
7. Do You Want More??!?!?!?!?!?!??!??!?!?!!?!?!?!??
8. Organix

But I haven't heard Tipping Point and Phrenology since they came out.

7. Do You Want More??!?!?!?!?!?!??!??!?!?!!?!?!?!??

insane

Let's read this fascinating Wiki entry on their numbering system

The Roots albums starting from Organix have consistently to their most recent album released, Rising Down, featured the track listings on the back of their CDs and LPs in a continuous order. [8]

Organix the Roots debut album lists tracks 1-17 followed by Do You Want More?!!!??! listing tracks 18-33 and the Roots third album, Illadelph Halflife, lists tracks 34-53.

The Roots fourth album Things Fall Apart lists trcks 54-70 and was the first to contain a hidden track. This hidden track is number 71, Act Fore...The End. Thus the tracks listed on the outside of Things Fall Apart number to 70, with track 71 being alluded to underneath the disc hub. This track is located at approximately 7:10 into track 70 Return to Innocence Lost.

A five track EP entitled The Legendary contains numbered tracks 72-76. It contains no hidden track.

The complete tracks 77-86 can only be found on the Roots Limited Edition 2 disc pressing of their first live album to date entitled The Roots Come Alive. Disc 2 is no longer in print and contains tracks 81-86. Track 80 is a hidden track and appears on Disc 1 after You Got Me(lasting approximately until 8:50) and Encore (8:51-13:48) track 80 appears at approximately 14:24, it completes Disc 1.

The Roots 2002 album, Phrenology, lists tracks 87-100. It contains two hidden tracks. 101. Rhymes and Ammo which appears after 2 :20 soundless tracks are played. The disc then counts backwards with 101 beginning at -7:19. Track 102, Thirsty, appears at -2:46. Thirsty is the last track on Phrenology.

The Tipping Point lists tracks 103-112. Tracks 113 is a hidden track fading in at approximately 4:38.

Game Theory contains tracks 114-127. Track 127 Bread and Butter is only available on iTunes and the Japanese CD edition.

Rising Down was released on April 29, 2008 containing tracks 128-141. Track 142 is a hidden track. The Pow Wow 2.

Notes:

The two volumes of Homegrown! count from a negative number and reach 0. A CD entitled The Roots Best of Mixtape mixed by DJ J. Period does not follow the chronologically numbered tracks and is numbered 1-50. This album was a promotional mixtape put out to promote Game Theory in 2006.

Tracks that appear in the live performance on The Roots Come Alive that were from previous albums retain their original numbers. The earliest being track 10. Essaywhuman?!! (Originally on Organix, performed live) and most recent a live performance of Things Fall Apart's "You Don't See Us", number 69.

Old Roots just does nothing for me. Live Bonnaroo jams for the college quad. I gotta have LOOPS.

The last two minutes is more than I thought about the Roots all year

and yet you rated phrenology over do you want more, dumbass

wow you sure do keep talking about how you dont care about the roots

yeah, I've heard a lot of albums by bands that do nothing for me, but I've never heard 6 albums by a band I don't care about before they even made one Iike.

I like, I meant to say. or "iiiiike".

See also: Of Montreal

Alex do you want me to detail the circumstances that I've listened to every Roots album?

noooo

http://www.legendisland.com/Forum%20Pictures/stop-posting.gif

Whiney G. Wikipedia

The Whiney G. Wikipedia, rather

i'd be more interested in knowing the circumstances with which you listened to all the shitty of montreal albums

actually

lollege

shit man i hope when i'm 30 i'm not recounting tales of listening to the 9 previous national albums or something

I'm actually exaggerating about Of Montreal.

Can we start a thread on Flo Rida now?

no.

man how was i ever not feeling peedi on get busy

n-n-now on ya mark UH HUH get set! go cop every thing you ever heard by p crakk! dice raw and black! fuck tha internet! buy a baseball bat break a bootlegger neck!

I love how ppl are like "Whiney how dare you be familiar w/shit if you don't love it completely"

1. Game Theory
2. Illadelph Halflife
3. Rising Down
4. Things Fall Apart
5. The Tipping Point
6. Phrenology
7. Do You Want More??!?!?!?!?!?!??!??!?!?!!?!?!?!??
8. Organix

Fixed. But Whiney was pretty much right. I like Rising Down, but parts feel a little forced. The "darkness" and the "politics" have already become boring review fallbacks for this, which I don't think are that apparent. LIke everyone else says, the Dice Raw parts rule. Black Thought is middling to good, as always.

putting tipping point or phrenology above do u want more but not things fall apart makes no sense

i mean rating those two above either tfa or dywm makes no sense regardless but still

yeah wtf w/differing opinions people!

I gotta say I'm 100% with Whiney on this. The Roots could have kept on doing what they did before, and ?uestlove makes a fine producer and I could have kept on enjoying his talents without the Roots, but the last three records really are a different, better band than the one who so long ago left me not especially wanting more, but thanks, maybe a mint and a toothpick please?

Dudes used to be straight Bonnaroo.

I'm the
(beat box)
Rhyme displayer.
The vocal
(beatbox)
Player.
(beatbox)
I wont chill,
(beatbox)
So show us some freakin skill.

Essaywhuman, Essaywhuman, Essaywh-uman, Essay whuman,
Essay whuman,Essay whuman, EssayWh-uman, Essay whuman.

nothing about silent treatment is bonnaroo
thats some straight sade raps

deej I for one would be interested to hear you give a more at-length take on which roots albums are better than other ones and why, not because I am particularly invested in the roots but because this thread has all the makings of a really interesting discussion between people who're familiar with & passionate about a body of work so to be a totally overearnest geek about it, why don't you give it ten minutes and really get into it you know

i havent listened to like organix in 5 years and tipping point i listened to once. i havent listened to phrenology (UGH the seed) since the year it came out.

ill get into some more tomorrow but i have to wake up tomorrow @ 6 for work :-(

anyone rating any of the roots albums (ESP game theory) over things fall apart is suspect.

or a corny indie fuck.

"any of the shit that sounds like trip-hop or synthy coldplay rap"

this is pretty much the whole album barring get busy/75 bars/rising down.

first 3 albums weren't "totally bonaroo" until well after they were released, no? isn't it like saying blind willie johnson or whoever is totally steve buscemi in ghost world?

haha

the photo on the cover of Things Fall Apart >>> Things Fall Apart

Questlove mixing Dilla and Dilla samples on Hot97 -- basically making my weekend:

http://www.missinfo.tv/index.php/ququestlove-throwback-mix-hot97/