KEY POINTS:
THE ROOTS
Rising Down
(Def Jam)
Herald Rating: * * * *
Verdict: You can always rely on the Roots to restore your faith in hip-hop
The Roots' live hip-hop band set-up means they stand out from loping gangsta rap and kindergarten hip-hop by the likes of Soulja Boy.
On their eighth studio album, Rising Down, the Philadelphians' pioneering spirit and conscious mindset ranks it as one of their best albums alongside 1999's Things Fall Apart and 2002's Phrenology. It starts off intense and uncompromising, reaching a climax with the seething rhetoric and fancy bashing of drummer ?uestlove on 75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction) - a hypnotic, yet hardcore, masterpiece.
It mellows musically from Criminal onwards, with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump popping up on Birthday Girl. But there's still an overwhelming unease and belligerent sentiment on tracks like Singing Man, I Will Not Apologize and I Can't Help It which all build into daunting mantras.
It is the Roots' most political album, addressing everything from prejudice in the prison system to injustice on the streets
and was released to mark the 16th anniversary of the LA riots sparked by the acquittal of the police officers accused of bashing Rodney King. Ironically, around the album's release date, a group of police in Philadelphia were caught on camera beating up three black men.
