In this whole discussion of selling out we need to look at some things here. Now I didn't hear nothing about the Roots being sellouts when they were up for doin the Unplugged thing initially, but I had a good feeling somebody was gonna call them that. However, let's look at this..if any of you have been to a Roots show (as I luckly have on last Halloween in Philly) then you know that the Roots are about having fun. They might break out and straight do the Fabolous beat for You Can't Deny It, then break into Paul Revere by the Beatsie Boys, then Smell's like Teen Sprit by Nirvana. They even did the beat for Planet Rock while BT was singin Doo Doo Brown! And guess what?! It was DOPE! Fact of the matter is they love music and that's what they do. So they respect the fact that all people are Roots fans and they are going to have fun. With Jay-Z. Well the Roots are also a band who have to work. Think about it: Jay Z get's offered to do Unplugged, and since the show has a history of having live background music who will he get? None other than the Grammy Award winning Roots! Did they switch up the beat during the diss? Of course they did, but mad rappers have jacked other peoples beats and dissed the oppenent on their own track (ex:2nd Round KO Canibus uses the baseline from Mama Said Knock You Out...I could go all day listing others). And if you have gone to a Roots show, them switching the beats wouldn't be much of a surprise to you. But hey, the Roots are also a performance badn, so they get paid to play the music. If I hire a live band I'ma tell em to play what I want em to play. Fact of the matter is that Nas is not one to be talkin about sellin out when he switches to Escobar, nor about bad hip hop portrayals in movies (Belly!)! And about BT sounding angry...of course he was! It's only natural that when a person disses you, and when the person dissin is already a hypocrite and taking your artistry out of context, yes you will get mad. No The Roots aren't perfect, and I doubt that they would ever claim to be. However, in my opinion, The Roots have held together much more solidly than Nas. Debate all you want, The Roots, on every album have good SONGS! And when I say "song" I mean as a collective whole. Muscially and lyrically thier projects form as a cohesive unit. Personally, I beleieve Nas has been getting really weak production. His beats are mad simple and therefore only his lyrics stand out. His lyrics are the only thing holding weight and at that point it just sounds like some dope verses and not a cohesive SONG. I'd much rather hear good lyrics over a good beat making a dope song, than excellent lyrics over a mediocre beat making nothing but dope verses. Yes hip hop is partly based in rhymes, but the music is all part of that too. Nas has forgotten about that I believe.
As far as the Roots collabing with Project Pat...I pray to GOD that is a rumor. But I wouldn't be surpised if ther labels put them to that so they could sell more (they did win a Grammy and everybody is goin multiplatinum so they need more commercial appeal). As an artist myself I would like to stress to yall that when you only have your art, you have to do as much as you can to make it work for you so that you can EAT! Funny cause I don't see mad folks forming a lynch mob against De La for their song Baby Phat with Devin the Dude (the same guy who sings on "I Just Wanna Fuck You with Dr. Dre and Snoop). So, I say we need to think harder on what is "good" music and what it means to sell out. We need to realize that this industry is a buisiness and at some point, artistry becomes a moot point, especially when the main consumers of the Roots' music do not care about the musical art itself. Sorry for the length but I had to get that off my chest. Holla!