THE ROOTS - Rising Down 
CD Review
Artist: The Roots
Title: Rising Down
Label: Universal Music Canada
Released: April 29th 2008       

5 Stars    

Reviewed By: Todd Andre (Calgary Correspondent - Canada)  

The Roots never make a bad album, and it doesn't look like they are going to start with their tenth release, Rising Down.  Many people were skeptical of this album after The Roots teamed up with pop-punk starlet Patrick Stump (Fall Out Boy) on the album's pre-release "Birthday Girl."  Despite the song's subversive, anti-pop narrative describing MC Tariq ‘Black Thought' Trotter's...ahem, admiration of an underage fan backstage, loyal listeners couldn't wrap their heads around a Roots' "crossover hit."  As a result, "Birthday Girl" failed to make the final cut on the album and "Rising Down" was released as the album's first single (For more info on the Roots record label woes check out Reuters). 

All is well though; the pop sounds of "Birthday Girl" don't gel with the dark, apocalyptic synthesizers that dominate the album.  The bumpin' bass lines and ominous guitar melodies of the title track "Rising Down" are more definitive of what to expect than Stump's whiny pop punk vocals.  Trotter sees the lead track as a table setter for Rising Down's penetrating cynicism.  

"It's not an intro, but more an introduction to the topical theme of the album.  Mos [Def] kicks it off from one perspective. My verse is about global warming and how the world is all haywire. And Styles P is rapping about prescription-drug campaigns, the stuff they advertise on TV, all the crazy side effects," says Trotter in an interview with Entertainment Weekly reporter Simon Vozick-Levinson.  "We're all dealing with different aspects of the state of the world."

Rising Down dabbles in darker themes, but it will tempt those with dancing feet as much as the angry afrocentric.  "Get Busy" is a party tune that resurrects the Golden-era of Philadelphia's early 90s hip-hop scene.  Old school DJ Jazzy Jeff pumps out phat and funky bass lines while Dice Raw mimics machine-gun style gangsta rap.  That sets up "Criminal," a track that defends the outlaw psychology of street thugs.  Truck North, Saigon and Black Thought muse about the seemingly arbitrary bifurcations between criminality and legitimacy in the modern world. 

Lighter fare stands out in the second half of the album.  "Unwritten" and "Rising Up" relieve the oppressive weight of the first half of the album with the silky soft vocals of Mercedes Martinez and Chrisette Michelle.  The Roots have a history of hits working with female singers like Erykah Badu, and "Rising Up" is another song in the tradition of Badu's "You Know U Got Me" effort.  It's as if Trotter needs to find a female on every album to be a ying to his yang.       "Where 'Rising Down' is one of the darker moments of the album, 'Rising Up' is the beacon of hope," said Trotter.  The world can seem like a dark and scary place after listening to a Roots album, but the final track leaves a cleaner, more optimistic end to the brooding dance party that is the first half of the album. 

For Roots fans out there, this album has crushed the low expectations set by the Stump single.  For the casual hip-hop fan, Rising Down has matched the gold standard of hip-hop excellence we have come to expect from the boys from sunny Philadelphia.      

Track List

1. The Pow Wow (Intro)
2. Rising Down (f/ Mos Def and Styles P)
3. Get Busy (f/ Dice Raw & Peddi Crack & Jazzy Jeff)
4. @ 15
5. 75 Bars (Reconstruction) (ft Tuba Gooding Jr.)
6. (Up Theme) Becoming Unwritten (instrumental)
7. Criminal (with Truck North & Saigon)
8. I Will Not Apologize (ft. Porn & Talib Kweli)
9. I Can't Help It (f/ Malik B & Porn)
10. Singing Man (f/ Porn, Black Thought, & Truck North)
11. (Up Theme) Unwritten (f/ Mercedes Martinez)
12. Lost Desire (f/ Malik B & Talib Kweli)
13. The Show (f/ Common)
14. Rising Up (f/ Wale & Chrissette Michelle)

- HIDDEN TRACK: Live at WPFW (Howard University), 1994
- HIDDEN TRACK: The Pow Wow 2