Raising Down opens with a taped argument from ‘sometime in 1994’ with the Roots crew tearing up a hapless record label rep for threatening to drop them. Things have changed since then for the band and in the intervening years they’ve become one of the most respected and consistent crews in hip-hop, even if that status hasn’t always converted into record sales.
After the more commercial sounding Tipping Point in 2004 the Roots left Geffen and signed to Def Jam, then headed by Jay Z. Since then they’ve delivered two darker and complex records that maintain the Roots reputation as the most adventurous and gifted crew in hip-hop.
While the Roots crew argue on the opening track it’s actually Mos Def who takes the mic for the first verse on the record. Following the release of the patchy, unfinished sounding True Magic it’s been assumed that Mos has been more focused on his acting than rapping, but that’s quickly dismissed with a flow that’s as vital as anything from his classic Black on Both Sides album.
Def’s Black Star counterpart Talib Kweli also guests on Lost Desire and provided the chorus hook on I Will Not Apologise while Common pops up on with a verse on The Show. Alongside these established MCs are several rising stars including the much touted and Mark Ronson signed Wale and the un-Googleable MC Porn. Former Roots member Malik B also returns to the fold, grabbing a verse on several tracks.
Not that the Roots really need to look outside their ranks with Black Thought spitting some of the sharpest syllables on the record. 75 Bars has him blazing his way across a fizzing snare beat and on @15 he delivers a rival slaying flow that can only be halted by the sudden click of the tape running out. While the opening of the albums lead single Get Busy has him laying down the the Roots sound and attitude in just four bars:
/Look, my squad half-Mandrill, half-Mandela/
/My band ‘bout seventy strong just like Fela/
/Yeah, part Melle-Mel, part Van Halen/
/and we represent Illadel, where they still rebellin’/
As with most hip-hop records there are plenty of cameo slots, but with ?uestlove behind the kit all the beats are handled in house. Like a modern day Bernard Purdy – the self proclaimed prettiest drummer in the business -?uest is a marvel keeping it moving and tight and supplying a dazzling array of beats and sounds from his kit.
Like its predecessor this album sees the Roots working with darker sounds and with an overtly political tone to the record. In an election year that will see the end of Bush and could usher in the first African-American president the lyrical subject matter is hardly surprising. The instrumentation is also more threatening, pushing themselves to constantly reinvent their sound.
On the Game Theory track Atonement the Roots sampled Radiohead, but with for Criminal their guitar maestro Captain Kirk Douglas has written he own spidery guitar line. Taking a sample from afro beat godfather, Fela Kuti, I Will Not Apologise fidgets along with low slung guitar and horn riff. They’ve also left off the Fender Rhodes for the first time and opted for the more oppressive, claustrophobic sounds of synthesizers and keyboards leading ?uestlove to suggest that it ‘feels like the musical equivalent of Blade Runner.
Sitting oddly at the end of the album and clashing with the dark tone of the rest of the record is the jaunty Birthday Girl, collaboration with Patrick Stump of the much derided Fall Out Boy. Despite veering close to the gimmicky hip-pop of Gym Class Heroes, Birthday Girl manages to use Stump’s pop vocals as an effective hook and should serve to bring some extra fans into the Roots camp. Though long time Roots fans may want to look the other way while this blatent attempt to produce ‘a hit single’ for the label passes on its way.
Rising Down is their seventh studio album since their 1993 debut Organix and offers tracks 128 – 143 in the Roots impressive catalogue. If it seemed wrong to attack the Roots in ’94 – it’s simply unimaginable today.
