predictable criticism of the Roots (vv related)
keithvanhorn
3,855 Posts
i don't mean to come off as the Roots' PR man, but enough already! every [white] journalist reviewing rap music over the past two years follows the same formula : regional rap and/or street rap ='s 4 stars ; no guns or drugs in the lyrics = shitty review plus a mention of how white their fans are. was anyone at this concert? sounds like a solid lineup to me.http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2006/05/live_the_roots.phpLive: The Roots Forget to Call Jay-Z
?uestlove should use his Def Jam money and buy a different T-shirtIt almost doesn't seem fair to compare any other live rap show to the Roots. If the whole live-rap-band thing was just a gimmick, they'd be terrible, just like every rapper who decides out of the blue to do shows with a live band ends up being terrible. But they approach the rap part of the show just as seriously as they approach the live-band part; they might let everyone in the band play solos, but they always come back to the beat. The live-band thing does give them a looseness that they wouldn't have otherwise; it lets them switch up styles and go on extended digressions into rock or funk or Afrobeat without making a big thing out of it. Black Thought isn't a particularly compelling rapper on record, all pristine breath-control and brow-furrowed formalism. But those qualities make him a great live performer; his voice is strong and precise, he doesn't need a hypeman to be heard, he never fucks up or forgets his lyrics or loses his place, and he knows when to shut up and let someone else take over. He's not a star, but he is a truly dependable worker-bee. Everyone in the band is a borderline virtuoso, which can lead to wanky showboating (I'd give Kamal $10 to ease up on the constant jazz-funk organ fills), but it can also lead to some jaw-dropping pyrotechnic shit. They've played together for well over a decade now, and they're all locked in enough to follow each other's cues, and they put on three-hour shows like it's nothing. All those virtues was on display at Radio City earlier tonight, and the show somehow still managed to disappoint. This is a rough town.Here's the problem: you can't promise a huge mystery-guest extravaganza and then not deliver. A few months back, Jay-Z signed the Roots to Def Jam, and they've been hard at work on their supposed masterpiece Game Theory ever since; the half-decent first single dropped earlier this week. The group's two shows at Radio City Music Hall were touted as their big Def Jam coming-out party, the nights that ?uestlove would flex his Rolodex and bring the stars out of hiding like he did at Dave Chappelle's Block Party. The two nights were divided between rap (tonight) and R&B (tomorrow night), with Talib Kweli, Common, and Nas being the only preannounced guests for tonight. In this XXL interview, ?uestlove talks about the difficulties of cramming all the guests he was planning into the measly three-hour window that Radio City allowed. It's been fun trying to guess who might show up over the last couple of weeks: Kanye? Lupe? Rae and Ghost? Lauryn Hill? The big, huge question mark was Jay-Z. Jay signed the Roots and used them as his backing band on the Unplugged album and Fade to Black, and he would've been a big no-brainer for this show, but he didn't show up. Neither did Kanye or Lupe or Rae or Ghost or Lauryn Hill. The people who showed up were Talib Kweli and Common and Nas. And Big Daddy Kane, who was great but who wasn't really a shock. That was it for big guests; the only others were a couple of dudes who I didn't recognize who ran out and rapped two verses even though their mics were off. (Slum Village? You'd have to ask someone who cares about Slum Village.)The guests themselves were mostly good, other than Kweli, who still can't ride a beat to save his life and who insisted on subbing in a weak-ass freestyle for his best verse ever. Nas came out first, as the band segued from that song on Phrenology that samples "Apache" into "Made You Look," which also samples "Apache" and which sounded badass. Nas only held the stage for about fifteen minutes, but that was enough time to do "It Ain't Hard to Tell" and "The World is Yours" and "If I Ruled the World" and leave swirls of dust spinning behind him. (In a charitable moment, he also called Black Thought "one of the most incredible lyricists in the game.") It was hard for any of the other guests to live up to that, but they tried. Kane absolutely burned through "Set It Off" and "Warm It Up, Kane," and he looked crazy dapper, but his mic was fucked up and he only got a few minutes onstage. I don't much like Common, but he is a commendably dedicated live performer, running around the stage and generally staying on beat, though he too insists on busting lame freestyles. The problem with multiple guest-star shows, though, is that they make it hard to see the actual headlining group; you're always looking off to the side of the stage and wondering who's going to come on next, like it's a pro-wrestling match that you know is going to end in outside interference. And it doesn't much help that all the guest rappers except Kweli are exponentially more charismatic than Black Thought.Still, this was a Roots show, not too different from all the other Roots shows I've seen over the years. It started out particularly strong, with just Thought and ?uestlove onstage, doing a fierce runthrough of "Web." By the third song, though, ?uestlove was doing dueling drum-solos with the percussionist, and things were back to normal. The first time I saw the Roots, all the solos just about took the top of my head off, but that was eight years ago, and Hub is still playing the same damn five-minute bass solo. By this point, they've spent so many years touring that anyone with even a passing interest in seeing the group live has already seen them a couple of times, and these naked displays of virtuosity aren't surprising anymore. They played with a bigger band than usual last night, fourteen musicians onstage including DJ Jazzy Jeff, but it didn't add much to the show beyond a cluttered mix. The one big difference was Rahzel. Every time I've seen the Roots live before, they've had DJ Scratch as their beatbox, and that guy is incredible. But Rahzel's solo is just breathtaking; there's no way to figure out how that guy is doing all that stuff with just his mouth. He talked like a magician ("Ladies and gentlemen, the beat and the chorus at the same time!"), and he did a riduculously great mini-set of old dancehall songs, somehow reproducing the beats and the vocals simultaneously. For the last hour of the show, he was the only star onstage.Oh, and Dave Chappelle and Erykah Badu walked out onstage just as the show was ending. They didn't do anything.Voice review: Oliver Wang on the Roots' The Tipping PointVoice review: Dave Tompkins on the Roots' PhrenologyVoice review: Miles Marshall Lewis on the Roots' Things Fall ApartPosted by Tom Breihan at 01:06 AM, May 19, 2006
?uestlove should use his Def Jam money and buy a different T-shirtIt almost doesn't seem fair to compare any other live rap show to the Roots. If the whole live-rap-band thing was just a gimmick, they'd be terrible, just like every rapper who decides out of the blue to do shows with a live band ends up being terrible. But they approach the rap part of the show just as seriously as they approach the live-band part; they might let everyone in the band play solos, but they always come back to the beat. The live-band thing does give them a looseness that they wouldn't have otherwise; it lets them switch up styles and go on extended digressions into rock or funk or Afrobeat without making a big thing out of it. Black Thought isn't a particularly compelling rapper on record, all pristine breath-control and brow-furrowed formalism. But those qualities make him a great live performer; his voice is strong and precise, he doesn't need a hypeman to be heard, he never fucks up or forgets his lyrics or loses his place, and he knows when to shut up and let someone else take over. He's not a star, but he is a truly dependable worker-bee. Everyone in the band is a borderline virtuoso, which can lead to wanky showboating (I'd give Kamal $10 to ease up on the constant jazz-funk organ fills), but it can also lead to some jaw-dropping pyrotechnic shit. They've played together for well over a decade now, and they're all locked in enough to follow each other's cues, and they put on three-hour shows like it's nothing. All those virtues was on display at Radio City earlier tonight, and the show somehow still managed to disappoint. This is a rough town.Here's the problem: you can't promise a huge mystery-guest extravaganza and then not deliver. A few months back, Jay-Z signed the Roots to Def Jam, and they've been hard at work on their supposed masterpiece Game Theory ever since; the half-decent first single dropped earlier this week. The group's two shows at Radio City Music Hall were touted as their big Def Jam coming-out party, the nights that ?uestlove would flex his Rolodex and bring the stars out of hiding like he did at Dave Chappelle's Block Party. The two nights were divided between rap (tonight) and R&B (tomorrow night), with Talib Kweli, Common, and Nas being the only preannounced guests for tonight. In this XXL interview, ?uestlove talks about the difficulties of cramming all the guests he was planning into the measly three-hour window that Radio City allowed. It's been fun trying to guess who might show up over the last couple of weeks: Kanye? Lupe? Rae and Ghost? Lauryn Hill? The big, huge question mark was Jay-Z. Jay signed the Roots and used them as his backing band on the Unplugged album and Fade to Black, and he would've been a big no-brainer for this show, but he didn't show up. Neither did Kanye or Lupe or Rae or Ghost or Lauryn Hill. The people who showed up were Talib Kweli and Common and Nas. And Big Daddy Kane, who was great but who wasn't really a shock. That was it for big guests; the only others were a couple of dudes who I didn't recognize who ran out and rapped two verses even though their mics were off. (Slum Village? You'd have to ask someone who cares about Slum Village.)The guests themselves were mostly good, other than Kweli, who still can't ride a beat to save his life and who insisted on subbing in a weak-ass freestyle for his best verse ever. Nas came out first, as the band segued from that song on Phrenology that samples "Apache" into "Made You Look," which also samples "Apache" and which sounded badass. Nas only held the stage for about fifteen minutes, but that was enough time to do "It Ain't Hard to Tell" and "The World is Yours" and "If I Ruled the World" and leave swirls of dust spinning behind him. (In a charitable moment, he also called Black Thought "one of the most incredible lyricists in the game.") It was hard for any of the other guests to live up to that, but they tried. Kane absolutely burned through "Set It Off" and "Warm It Up, Kane," and he looked crazy dapper, but his mic was fucked up and he only got a few minutes onstage. I don't much like Common, but he is a commendably dedicated live performer, running around the stage and generally staying on beat, though he too insists on busting lame freestyles. The problem with multiple guest-star shows, though, is that they make it hard to see the actual headlining group; you're always looking off to the side of the stage and wondering who's going to come on next, like it's a pro-wrestling match that you know is going to end in outside interference. And it doesn't much help that all the guest rappers except Kweli are exponentially more charismatic than Black Thought.Still, this was a Roots show, not too different from all the other Roots shows I've seen over the years. It started out particularly strong, with just Thought and ?uestlove onstage, doing a fierce runthrough of "Web." By the third song, though, ?uestlove was doing dueling drum-solos with the percussionist, and things were back to normal. The first time I saw the Roots, all the solos just about took the top of my head off, but that was eight years ago, and Hub is still playing the same damn five-minute bass solo. By this point, they've spent so many years touring that anyone with even a passing interest in seeing the group live has already seen them a couple of times, and these naked displays of virtuosity aren't surprising anymore. They played with a bigger band than usual last night, fourteen musicians onstage including DJ Jazzy Jeff, but it didn't add much to the show beyond a cluttered mix. The one big difference was Rahzel. Every time I've seen the Roots live before, they've had DJ Scratch as their beatbox, and that guy is incredible. But Rahzel's solo is just breathtaking; there's no way to figure out how that guy is doing all that stuff with just his mouth. He talked like a magician ("Ladies and gentlemen, the beat and the chorus at the same time!"), and he did a riduculously great mini-set of old dancehall songs, somehow reproducing the beats and the vocals simultaneously. For the last hour of the show, he was the only star onstage.Oh, and Dave Chappelle and Erykah Badu walked out onstage just as the show was ending. They didn't do anything.Voice review: Oliver Wang on the Roots' The Tipping PointVoice review: Dave Tompkins on the Roots' PhrenologyVoice review: Miles Marshall Lewis on the Roots' Things Fall ApartPosted by Tom Breihan at 01:06 AM, May 19, 2006
Comments
solid. that's close to two years ago though and hovers around the time white bloggers unified in their quest to show the world that they are keeping it real.
1. Jigga performed two songs for their encore.
2. Dave Chappelle did a 15 minute stand up set.
3. Slum Village showed up for a J Dilla tribute.
It's been that long since the Roots have released anything.
Seems to me like the Roots backlash was at its peak surrounding Phrenology.
The slept on missing link between Sun Ra and Big Daddy Kane.
(Even though it supposedly came after, I'm pretty sure there was time travel involved.)
Thank you journalist.
So he was mad that they were good, but not as good as they were the other 8 times he saw them, then he was mad that they didn't bring out his panty dripping dream guests, then he was mad that the guests they did bring out were getting in the way of him focusing on the band (who wasnt as good as they were the other 8 times...)
That must have been exhausting.
-----------------------------
Ya know it's good to read the opinions of someone who touts Lil' Wayne's coming into his own (on his fuckin' fourth album no less, which means his other garbage should've remained unreleased) and loves the brilliant Crack Snowman muthafucka from Georgia.
Maybe the Voice should spring for a critic and dump this ghetto hip-hop fetishizer they got.
Perhaps Stephin Merritt is available.
Posted by: Anger Unmanaged [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 19, 2006 04:15 PM
------------------
"All the guest rappers except Kweli are exponentially more charismatic than Black Thought." "In a charitable moment, he also called Black Thought "one of the most incredible lyricists in the game."
Tom, there are two things that you obviously don't - but need to - know. (1) Real hip hop supporters don't give a s**t about "charisma." We give a s**t about what an emcee sends into the mic. Period. If you want to be taken seriously, nix the cosmetic fixations ("brow-furrowed formalism?" WTF?) (2) What you call charitable moment was actually a truthful one. (Is there some reason why you think Nas is blowing Black Thought, or ...)
I mean, What? He take your woman? Refuse to give you an autograph or play a Hampton party? Your last name, and your use of phrases like "totally awesome" and "badass," lead me to assume that you're white, so I'll let you in on something. There is a very fine line between that "keep-it-real," pull-no-punches, critical journalistic mode that you seem to be going for, and the kind of disrespect that might earn you an a*s whipping.
At any rate, I'd pay YOU $10 to DEFINE a jazz/funk organ fill.
Posted by: Serious [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 19, 2006 08:10 PM
That Roots article is what's wrong with the internet...the above post is what's right about it.
Oh wait, that was ironic. This person must be white.
Rock on, kids!
May 20, 2006
Hip-Hop Review | The Roots
The Roots, With Nas, Common and Talib Kweli, at Radio City Music Hall
By KELEFA SANNEH
Too many memorable rhymes and not enough guitar solos. These are hardly the standard complaints about hip-hop, but if they happen to be yours, then the Roots are the group for you.
The Roots, the long-running live hip-hop band from Philadelphia, came to Radio City Music Hall on Thursday night for the first of two sold-out shows. Each night had preannounced guest stars, and Thursday's were the rappers Nas, Talib Kweli and Common. (Friday's scheduled guests were Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Ang??lique Kidjo and J*DaVeY.
To accommodate their guests, the Roots split Thursday's concert in half. The short first half resembled a hip-hop variety show, held together by a nimble backing band. The long second half gave the Roots a chance to emphasize their own best-known songs, filled out by instrumental digressions. In this case, though, what seemed short lasted 90 minutes; what seemed long lasted an hour.
Jay-Z once famously paid the Roots a backhanded compliment when he said that he admired their music but couldn't afford to imitate it: "My bills through the roof/ Can't do numbers like the Roots." But Jay-Z has also helped broker a closer relationship between the band and mainstream rappers. He performed with members of the Roots at his popular "MTV Unplugged" concert, which was released as a CD, and at his brilliant "Fade to Black" concert, which was released as a movie. Now he's their label boss: the Roots recently signed with Def Jam, of which Jay-Z is president.
That's the odd thing about the Roots: even though they seem like one of hip-hop's most self-sufficient acts, they sound best when they're collaborating with outside rappers. Perhaps that's because their own rapper, Black Thought, is rather dull. But when Nas grabbed the microphone to rip through four of his best, the musicians matched his nimble rhymes by nimbly hopping from beat to beat. For "It Ain't Hard to Tell," they started out emulating the original track, then switched to the remix for the second verse.
Common's set was a bit looser, though his rambling rhymes are a good match for the Roots' rambling rhythms. Talib Kweli's rhymes came across as hoarse shouts ??? perhaps smaller clubs suit him better. Between guests the Roots did some of their own beats and rhymes. Black Thought knows how to lock in with Ahmir Thompson, known as ?uestlove, the group's drummer. At one point, Mr. Thompson playfully pushed the beat off-center by adding a pause at the end of every bar; Black Thought stumbled for a second, then adapted and recovered.
Then came the second half, along with 17 of the scariest words in the English language: "We got my man Rahzel, the incredible Godfather of Noise, about to hit y'all in the head." That meant it was time for an interminable demonstration of beat-boxing. Listeners also got two of the Roots' biggest hits (the love songs "You Got Me" and "Break You Off"), a long guitar solo and ample time to wonder if any more guest rappers were forthcoming (none were).
By night's end, it was clearer than ever that the Roots are the best backing band in hip-hop. No doubt this isn't the crown they want, but it's theirs, and they should be proud of it.
and with that one error, Tom Breihan once again proves that he's another douche who started listening to hip-hop last year. This is why I hate the internet, because it provides a forum for ignorant uninformed newbooties to come off like experts.
Perhaps this little primer will help Tommy:
Straight from brooklyn, from out the projects,
It???s dj scratch, so girls fix your kotex.
The ruler; not slick rick, but the ruler on the mix,
With ten or more tricks.
Take flicks, prick, but please don???t miss this:
Watch my dj cut with his dick.
Yeah, slick ain???t it? see your moms fainted,
Technique 1200, and watch scratch train it.
I???m-a step off and let scratch collect dough,
While you hear my jam with the funky piano.
(hear my jam with the funky piano) [scratched 4x]]
(here with the movement of his hands)
(who is the best? ) [scratch] (me!) [scratch]
(stop lying) (go ask her mother) {all 4x}
[scratch]
Pmd:
A brief description, yeah, bust my dj on the mix.
No line switch, two transform, cuts wit his lips.
And feeds up and down is extra weak,
He strictly cross-fades club mixes every week.
Won???t break a sweat, the man???s sharp on the blade.
Real name george spivey, sports a high-top fade.
Brothers starin??? shocked while the brother is rockin???.
No arrows on the record or marks, or needle poppin???.
From table to table, sports a gucci cable.
Epmd???s the group, def jam is the label.
Now i???m-a step off while scratch collects his dough,
Or rock a funky scratch to the funky piano.
(hear my jam with the funky piano) [scratched 4x]
(here with the movement of his hands)
(who is the best? ) [scratch] (me!) [scratch]
(stop lying) (go ask her mother) {all 4x}
[scratching]
(good god!)
and he is not the guy who mouth-scratches for the roots[/b]
Because he thinks it makes it somehow makes him more legitimate. That's my guess anyway...
Seriously--I e-mailed Noz about this the other day. Dudes wanna get ass-hurt that he called the Roots boring (which they are) and then completely ignore this gaffe, which is the part of the piece that's genuinely offensive.
Seriously, he should never write about rap again. This is the same dude that brought us "Rawkan". Tom if you're lurking out there, you are the reason why the internet sucks.
Holy shit
Rawkan Tom...
Now I'll admit I have no interest at this point in buying a new Roots album, but I'm having a hard time swallowing his "they've been doing that same tight live show for eight years so I wasn't feeling 'em" schtick.
I mean, if anything, The Roots' live show is the one thing that's sure to please ticket-buying Roots fans. And it's clear that Tom was at one point a Roots fan himself. I guess what strikes me as odd is that we're not reading about "how the mighty have fallen" or anything like that...hell, Black Thought and Rahzel and ?uestlove really haven't changed their style much at all since 1995. Instead of really reporting the event, he's just saying "hey, these dudes are boring to me now...and I really don't like Talib or Black Thought as emcees."
Oddly enough, I share Tom's opinions...but I don't write a blog for the VV. And I certainly don't get reply comments from Black Thought asking me to justify Nas' "charity" compliment.
The Stephin Merritt 'controversy,' is an example of everything that is wrong with the internet, and kind of null and voids that entire response, IMO.
True indeed, but my point is more that this dumbshit writer/reviewer can just get this thrown up on a website by a big name publication is what's wrong with the internet and the fact that people can voice their own reactions right then and there because they can at least offer some knowledge on the subject is what is right about it.
Yeah, but doesn't Fox News own the VV now? Surely, next week they'll be something on there about why backpackers need to make more babies.
Do they really own VV, i see stories from it online occasionally, but i have plenty of stuff to read around my way (Local Alternative Press Strut thread anyone?), so i don't really know what goes on a few miles north.
Except the dude that commented appeared to be even less informed/articulate than Breihan.
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0620,selah,73201,22.html
There are a lot of weird/wrong things there, but this is my favorite:
Huh? And here I thought it was just Pimp talking. The fact that it was a Last Poets-inspired freeverse facemelter completely escaped my Philistine ears.
Doesn't the writer also claim that one of the songs is inspired by the vocal stylings of Lord Jamar???
"...harkens back to Lord Jamar's wryness..."
That was great. Completely random and inappropriate reference points like that pretty much give away that the author has only ever heard maybe five rap albums.
True indeed, but my point is more that this dumbshit writer/reviewer can just get this thrown up on a website by a big name publication is what's wrong with the internet and the fact that people can voice their own reactions right then and there because they can at least offer some knowledge on the subject is what is right about it.
Except the dude that commented appeared to be even less informed/articulate than Breihan.
But the fact that people have access to call someone on their own bullshit on the spot is what makes this whole system of nuts and bolts and bits of information so cosmically sound. In a magazine, those comments (while chosen from much more articulate hate mail, agreed) would be in a paragraph on page two in reaction to last month's coverage, this happens instantaneously. Please read slowly, i don't want to have to say the same thing for the third time.
the article is bullshit. him calling scratch "dj scratch" =
keep in mind, i am someone who is asshurt over the article, but not the dj scratch part.
This kind of shit is par for the course in "music journalism" *cringes* these days--across genres and getting worse.