You have Quest, BT, and Kamaal as original and now longstanding members. That's 3 of 5 of the early core.

It's tempting to think of the founding/earliest incarnation of something as the core identity of what that something is. But the founding incarnation of the Roots didn't actually last all that long in that Malik left or mostly left pretty early on and Rahzel/Scratch weren't too far behind (again from a big picture perspective).

Hub's loss is huge, of course. But you also have folks like Dice Raw and Poyser who have been in the Roots circle for nearly as long as the Roots themselves and are still around, have probably shaped the group's sound and trajectory more than Rahzel or Scratch for that matter. The imagery of the early core belies a much more fluid band structure than we might think.

I think what your comment gets at that is probably true though is that at this point, we really don't know what a Roots record might sound like. And as much as I love Quest, sometimes his comments about newer music on QLS have me scratching my head -- he has a deep love for the past but he doesn't seem especially excited about creating music at this point. And that's fine, he's been in it a long time and he's still shaping the culture, just from a different place. But it's not just that we haven't had a new Roots record ... we haven't even really had a full release of new music helmed by Quest in ages. So who knows what that will bring.

BT, on the other hand, is as good if not better than he's ever been. So if he brings some of that energy and translates it to the album's vision and sound? Who knows, could be amazing.

All that is to say, I'll be happy to hear endgame when/if it comes but I'm not worrying about it. They've made the mark and are still doing their thing, anything that comes out will be extra.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~