>First and foremost, every Roots fan who became a fan within
>the first wave of albums should have already accepted that The
>Roots went from 'band' to 'brand' after Hub left. No shade to
>the new niggas but an O.G. drummer and MC plus a gang of other
>folk cannot be equated with the band that you first fell in
>love with.
>
true but the 'decisionmakers' when it comes to making studio records are still kinda the same, correct?

I mean, other than the tug-of-war winner being much clearer these days.

>If Hub leaving wasn't enough the Late Nite spot should have
>sealed the deal for you. Oh sure The Roots have always been
>able to cover any and everything with excellence, but they
>were never a cover band. But what is a late night television
>band except for that.
that goes back further than that, Jay-Z Unplugged mighta been the real watershed moment in that regard.

However many years since they first took
>to TV there's still more discussion about who they are going
>to cover for walk on music than the little bits of original
>shit they get to throw in there. Shit we ain't got no new
>sammiches in a minute and I don't even watch so for all I know
>those are gone too.
>
I have DVR-d from the jump & check the menu for possible music collabos I'd wanna see but I haven't really noticed those recently, they were never really my thing to look out for anyway.

Take the good stuff & write/make fully realized songs.

>But after that the biggest tell tale was the fact that the
>brand was being utilized on other people's albums. Not the
>band, the brand. These were Roots brand albums with other folk
>in the spotlight. No matter how good the music, it had to
>feel at least a little awkward. Even the one A&R'd here in The
>Lesson (wake up) didn't feel quite right as a "The Roots"
>album. And yet all of those projects are definitively under
>the brand, not just featuring the band.
>
>The real kicker though is in an archived post in here where 15
>in so many words said he didn't give a fuck about hip-hop no
>more.
I don't believe that tho.

There may be an element of 'I work 18-20 hours a day & can't be bothered to follow the movement of the moment these days'.

Touch of 'they never really let us in back when it meant more to us'.

Shades of 'we couldn't satisfy that audience today if we tried so why bother trying'.

But I'll never believe that Questo has ceased to care about hip-hop even if he said it to my face while demonstratively stepping on the 'Criminal Minded' LP cover like Cool C did EST's in the 'Glamorous Life' video.

Now he was talking specifically about outside of The
>Roots work, but that lack of interest has to flow back in as
>well, even if your ace boon coon is one of the best MC's still
>in the game. When you spend five days a week trying to
>playing majority non-hip-hop and spend your off hours trying
>to produce projects that will attract Bill Withers back in to
>the studio while staying in the good graces of the new media
>regime who can still use your name as a cred points, getting
>back to that sound that you're talking about... what does that
>even mean? How does it even make sense?
>
Well then go on and try to make a soul album with Thought sing.

He can actually sing.

At least let him actually sing those hooks that Dice Raw 'crafts' so they might sound passable.

>Now mind you I'm the weirdo lover and so I'm going to go ahead
>and say I don't mind the new direction. I think it's relevant
>as shit. Maybe not to you, but to 15 it kinda makes complete
>sense. It's a novelty killer. It's a direct attack on the
>notion that they are a cover band. It's deep as shit really.
>Uncomfortably so, and I applaud anyone in a position like 15's
>going for making folk uncomfortable. Or at least attempting
>to. Because at the end of the day I don't think its quite
>accessible enough to make the people who it should make
>uncomfortable uncomfortable. It's barely making the only
>people who can probably get it (aka the folk on this site)
>register what it is thematically.
>
because it's not really being articulated in any kind of openly challenging way that gets your attention even if you're looking for it going in, a lot allusions to things & symbolism left open to the listener's interpretation but not presented in a memorable enough way to make you wanna crack the code.

Instrumental walk-on snark minus the connect-the-dots twitter update that might have actually gotten the subject of the scorn to pay attention.

But I don't think that's the objective.

I don't think '75 Bars' would come out post-Fallon.

I don't feel the level of personal investment in the material necessary to make the message feel less muted.

>This album is black nihilism presented as satire because no
>one really cares about the nihlism of blackness in 2014 and
>yet it's so prevalent. It's not even hopelessness, because
>hoplessness comes with that since of there could be hope.
>Things are just presented her as is, this is what we do today.
> Oh and then you shoot your cousin. Just what happens. All
>folk can do is just stare at it like 'uh huh'. Nobody can do
>anything about it. But The Roots are at least trying to
>address it and that to me is more important than stroking your
>desire for nostalgia.
>
I mean on some level there's gotta be a bit of personal nostalgia for a band that helped create so many memories for me onstage over the years particularly during my college & early-to-mid-20s years in Philly, DC/Bmore.

But I don't really miss my 20's in my 30's, a lot of the shit I put myself thru during that era just looks stupid & unnecessarily stressful to me having gained a lick of sense in the subsequent decade.

I don't want them to remake Do You Want More or Things Fall Apart, I just would like to seem them make more interesting music or at least fail in a different way.

I would like to hear some stuff that made me feel the band itself actually believed in strongly.

>But it isn't perfect and that's probably what makes it the
>most difficult. I'm probably not the only one but I'm so
>tired of hearing plodding drums on Roots projects.

Agreed.

Even if
>they are crisp and strong sounding when they just plod along
>all sparse I just keep thinking c'mon.... give the drummer
>some.
The drummer's busy giving the rest of the group the marching orders for the metacritical maffamatical plan.

Then the singers are all so (sorry) tone deaf it just
>kills me.
demo-like, the chick on Pharoahe Monch's 'The Mayor' off Soundbombing II could show up to the set one day and end up doing three 'hooks' long as full duets with Dice Raw.


Like I know that the quirky not quite on key shit
>is hip right now, but for me its just a huge disconnect. Get
>some strong vocalists and some fucking harmonies on those
>hooks and you could sell the message better. Lastly it's hard
>to believe Black Thought and even Dice on this mainly because
>they are spitting the same as when they aren't doing the
>lyrical theme for the album. Like the spit is raw but the
>content of it doesn't emote proper. Porn is the saving grace
>in this respect because he is able to embody the emotion of
>the characterization.
>
Yeah he does his thing.

But really, while I know what you mean, I ain't here for him anymore than I was for Consequence in '96.

If he's the only one 'embodying' it then maybe make it a record for him rather than having the sorta-new-guy-with-the-terrible-name in there as a vessel for someone else rather than displaying chemistry with the group's frontman.

>All of that to say I just want 15 to keep making music. I've
>accepted the fact that I'm not going to like it all at this
>point, but I feel like he does have a hand on the undercurrent
>of the state of blackness and a bit of the cynicism to reflect
>that even if it goes beyond the audience. Sometimes its more
>important to say these things than to have them be enjoyed.
>
Well then let him go all Neal Pert & write the lyrics.

Or make Questo & His All-Starr Band records with the kinds of people who might be interested & suited to carrying out that vision.

It's a little awkward as is with Thought not having as much to do as a bumper/backing late-night band anyway, don't add to the limitations by having him color in the lines of what the bandleader conceptualized but isn't able to articulate lyrically or express vocally.

'Topical'/headline/message-driven material has never been Tariq's wheelhouse.

He's great at straight emceeing/bragadocio, honing in on topic's that hit close to home (Water, the joint on Wake Up, What They Do), is great at the female song or a story song (even better a combination of the two) or sometimes just utilizing his voice/verses as an additional instrument.

The Game Theory 'we-didn't-start-the-fire' grocery list of societal ills with no solutions offered or issue examined past surface level was really where it started down that path.
Instead it's getting lost in the translation when

>█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
>Big PEMFin H & z's
>"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1
>thing, a musician." © Miles
>
>"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."