I hope this is a joke that I am falling for cuz I am fairly new to the boards.
I have never taken the lines you all are quoting as shots at The Roots.

"The dumb are mostly intrigued by the drum."
With the Wu being knowledged based, I have always taken this to mean that people who don't understand the deeper lyrics of their songs are only caught up on and listening to the beats.

All the lines being quoted are too vague to be said that they were speaking about the Roots. The can be interpeted a bunch of different ways.

And am I the only person who reads liner notes? In TFA ?uest talks about them doing a show in which the Wu gets on stage with them and rock it. Specifically named RZA.

Come on y'all I stayed away from Okayplayer for so long cuz I figured it was full of young suburbanites who knew nothing about music. All I have seen up till now has been intellect based discussions. Somebody tell me I am missing the joke or that this is not the norm.