Thursday, July 31, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: Watching the seeds grow

The Roots harvest their hip-hop bounty

By Brock Radke

After 12 years and six albums, the Roots have built up a sort of hip-hop purity shield around them. This is partly because of their thoughtful, inspired music and their dedication to actually making music instead of falling into bling-bling pop rap patterns.

But it's also partly because of the band's following, which, until lately, hasn't been incredibly big. The Roots have almost always garnered critical acclaim, but only recently have they broken through to large audiences or those outside of intelligent hip-hop circles.

"It's very awesome and surprising," says drummer and producer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, speaking from Nice, France, where the Roots recently closed out a lengthy European trek. "We're seeing the fruits of all our labor, because in the same cities where, in 1992 or 1993, we were playing to 23 people, and 14 of 'em worked at the club, now we come back to 10,000 people."

The most obvious reason for this seemingly sudden success is last year's album Phrenology, the Roots' fifth studio record and arguably their best. ?uestlove says this was the first time the band concentrated on creating actual songs with structure and tight choruses. Where past Roots albums are remembered for one strong single, if that, Phrenology boasts plenty, including "Break You Off," a jazzed-out smoothie featuring Musiq; "The Seed 2.0," which is all over MTV and riffs off Cody Chesnutt's grooves; and "Water," which finds lead MC Black Thought calling out to former band member Malik B, hoping he'll get his life back together.

Like 1999's Things Fall Apart before it, Phrenology has been hailed as the album on which the Roots finally fulfill their potential. All these successes, however, don't shake ?uestlove from his calm, observational tone.

"I think Things Fall Apart and Phrenology are like night and day, but I also think the Roots have been six different bands for six different records," he says. "We always try to operate under the guise that no one knows us. Real status is Justin Timberlake or 50 Cent. That's actual. But if I get excited because `The Seed' is on MTV seven times a day, then that's just getting up for a downfall. We've survived on the basis of the fact that we're prepared for the worst."

The Roots are, unfortunately, the only legitimate hip-hop band making music today. When Eminem needed some backing at the Academy Awards, he called on them. When Jay-Z needed help with his unplugged album, he called on them. Besides ?uestlove and Black Thought (a.k.a. Tariq Trotter), the roster includes new guitarist Kirk Douglas, bassist Leonard Hubble, keyboardist James "Kamal" Gray and beatboxer Kyle "Scratch" Jones.

When presented with the sad fact that his band is one of the few hip-hop acts that incorporates a true sense of musicianship into its work, ?uestlove comes back with an even sadder statement. "Someone at our label told me today that the Roots are the only black band in all of pop music with a record deal right now. That just makes me shake my head. So whenever we have any personal turmoil, we just have to get over it."

The real reason the Roots are finding a larger audience these days could be because while they've made their sound more accessible, they're no longer just that cool band you like but don't listen to. Mixing rap and rock isn't cool anymore, but with the Roots, there are no seams between hip hop, jazz, soul and rock.

"I like this whole 180-degree thing where you don't know what the Roots are going to do next," ?uestlove says. "Nothing we've ever done has been met with indifference from our fans, and the Roots are too much of a perfectionist unit to ever do anything lackluster or not substantial. Everything has to pass the highly designed sensitive robot of us."