The Roots, How I Got Over

The Roots, How I Got Over

Reviewed by: Christian Hagen

In any given conversation I’ve ever had with someone about The Roots (an admittedly rare happening, but it’s come up on enough occasions to find a correlation), it’s become quickly apparent to me that many people, myself included, have a deep respect for the band. The very concept of a live hip-hop band in today’s sample-heavy rap game is surprisingly refreshing. Couple that with a talented group of musicians, anchored by ?uestlove, one of the finest drummers working today, and there are a lot of reasons to care about The Roots.

Yet, what also becomes apparent in these same conversations is that no one I know really listens to The Roots. For whatever reason, The Roots qualify as a group that almost everyone agrees is good, but very few people seem to really understand. As previously mentioned, the concept of a live hip-hop band is refreshing. But the execution is often hit-and-miss, or at least it’s a very tough nut to crack. There are so many different styles The Roots try to hit all at once, it’s difficult for newcomers to break in. If you’re into jazz, you might like a handful of tracks on any given Roots album. Same for the more straightforward party-rap fans, soul-loving R&B lovers, and the odd rock fan.

But while experimentalism is hardly a detriment to a band, the variety in The Roots’ songs is not wild or new or innovative. In fact, when The Roots do try new things, it’s often in the safest, simplest way possible, less of a test of a genre’s limitations and more of a fear of them.

For example, their latest, How I Got Over, has gotten press on this site for collaborations with the likes of Monsters of Folk, Joanna Newsome, and Dirty Projectors, a startling list of performers for a mainstream hip-hop album, a potentially bold step in maintaining their appeal with their core audience while building bridges into new territories. But, bizarrely, the songs with the most outlandish samples and guests seem to be the most straightforward.

“Dear God 2.0” somehow lacks the heart of the original, despite heavy-handed use of Jim James’ verse from that song. The beat and jazzy keyboard loop are flat and actually uncover more flaws in Jim James’ otherwise impressive tone. Black Thought’s first verse seems appropriately thoughtful at the beginning, but comes off as a half-hearted list of global issues which barely get touched on in a frenzied attempt to capitalize on a poetic lyrical starting point from another band. The second verse is more personal and seems to be more emotionally honest, but again the production doesn’t hold up.

In fact, the whole front third of the album, a series of strung-together pieces with a jazzy underpinning which could be a fun experiment, get lost in a haze of atmospheric, cavernous production. It dwarfs the band and prevents the listener from keying in on the lyrics which, especially on “Walk Alone,” are among the strongest on the whole release. The result is a boring attempt at emotional buildup which is ultimately induces less head-banging than polite nodding. Only “Radio Daze” holds enough interest to justify its place this early in a much-anticipated new album, but even this song begins to drag by the end, and it’s a relief when the chain is broken up by some old-school soul on “Now or Never.”

It’s not an entirely bleak album, certainly. But it’s clear that something is weighing on the group’s collective mind. The flows lack fire, the beats lack flavor. The primary color is blue, and it’s painted heavily over almost every minute. Yet it’s never clear exactly what’s distressing the band. Or more accurately, it’s never clear why they can’t “get over” whatever’s going on. Listening to the lyrics, problems are all over the map, yet nothing seems pressing enough to be fully explored. For an album in which most of the songs blend together, it’s disappointingly not cohesive.

In trying to figure out what the main problem is with How I Got Over, I have to admit a shallow reasoning: The keyboards drag the whole work down. The moment when they’re used perhaps the least on the album, during STS’s verse on “Right On,” the Joanna Newsome-sampling track, is among the most fresh throughout. This song, in particular, takes a weak stab at utilizing the unique voice of Joanna Newsome and lets effects and low-level keyboard melancholy hold the song’s head underwater until it drowns.

All this boredom is made more present by the fact that the album ends on four strong, burning tracks which feel not just interesting, but readily present. “Doin’ It Again,” definitely the best song on the album, takes the effects-foused production and lights it up, kicking in a hard mix of piano, cymbals, and bass, which seems to revitalize Black Thought, who throws out his hardest rhymes and most confident flow to this point. John Legend, having now appeared on roughly every single rap album for the last three years, still has a magical touch on “The Fire.” Even short track “Tunnel Vision,” focusing exclusively on bizarre vocal effects and ?uestlove’s drumming talents, shines when compared to the correlating piece of music at the album’s front. It’s as if The Roots had to wade through some of their moodiest, dullest music before they could write four songs which hit in a way that’s worthwhile.

In the end, I still believe that The Roots are terrific musicians, and I’ll continue to discuss them as such in conversations with friends and strangers. But when I sit down to listen to a solid hip-hop album, I’ll probably skip over the letter “R” in my CD collection.

Rating: 52%