the roots

It’s been a while, but I’m glad to be back at the helm here at B&B to present to you the gems around these internets. Long story short, my absence was due to a solo concert I had recently performed and thus had to focus alot on practising for the last month. Besides hip-hop, I also love classical music, and playing the piano for a good ten years now, I wanted to play a full show in which I got to take complete ownership. It was something I’ll never forget and I am forever grateful to the people who had helped me make this vision come to life.

Speaking of live shows, Black Thought tore it down at this year’s Manifesto. With J. Period on the 1′s and 2′s, he not only ran through the standards, but went in on every style of beat imaginable, laying his own rhymes and impersonating the original artists, from Slick Rick to Drake. Few rappers can match Thought as a freestylist, making it a very memorable show. This is a sick original concept and I hope to hear more of it in the future. Check the tracklist and download The Live Mixtape after the jump.

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This really brought a smile to my face even though I don’t think Fallon is that funny of a comedian but it certainly is a melody that covers almost all the phases of rap. It starts off with Sugar Hill and ends with the crowd appropriately helping to sing “Empire State of Mind” to close it out. Justin Timberlake fills in the rapped verses surprisingly well too and it was priceless to see them dance, especially to Soulja Boy. As for the Roots they continue to kill it and remain the main reason I ever tune into Jimmy Fallon’s show.

The Roots and John recorded all cover songs and even without their own lyrics the musicians to team up to make these B-sides all their own.

During the past 18 months, Legend spent his spare time collaborating with ?uestlove and The Roots on covers of politically motivated soul music from the 1960s and ’70s. What started as a potential single turned into Wake Up!, 11 vintage songs which are at turns optimistic and frustrated about the times that birthed them. Younger fans of Legend’s bedroom shtick are about to get a serious history lesson. (Roots fans, not so much.) Most of these songs didn’t become timeless hits that slid easily into contemporary playlists, the lone exception being Eugene McDaniel’s protest song “Compared to What,” recorded in 1969 by Roberta Flack and appropriated in 2003 by Coca-Cola for a commercial starring Common… Wake Up! will stream here in its entirety until one week after its release on Sept. 21.

Get the tracklist and stream link below the break.

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I haven’t been this excited for an R&B album (even a collaboration) of any kind like this in a while and it will be one of the select few albums of that genre I will pick up this year. The Roots can do that to me, the more I hear their music the more I like the group even if it has been over a decade since I was first introduced to them (damn that makes me feel old). “Little Ghetto Boy” is another one that is shot in the studio and shot in the same style as “I Can’t Write Left Handed” which I actually like better than this song but only because I’m a sucker for the blues.Wake Up!, the collaboration between the Roots and John Legend, is due to hit retailers on September 21st and is a must get for fans of good music.

Hell yes, now THIS is some great music! I am a big fan of the blues and this song has a perfect mix of a bluesy sound with a rock breakdown towards the end of the song. John Legend covers Bill Withers song wonderfully and I never knew he could create the strained voice necessary to make the blues sound credible since he is usually on R&B tracks. The Roots perform like the professional musicians they have transformed into while playing nightly on Jimmy Fallon’s show and they truly have claimed their place as the best hip-hop band ever by far and also as one of the premier acts in all of hip-hop period. “I Can’t Write Left Handed” will be on their upcoming collaborative album called Wake Up which will be hitting your eardrums September 21st.

Rik Cordero does what he does best for my second favorite track off of How I Got Over (first would be “Radio Daze”).  Here’s what he says about this video:

“The Fire” is one of my favorite tracks off HIGO and really feels like something you’d hear in the theater. The line “you don’t say good luck, you say don’t give up” inspired me to create a period piece narrative that stays true to the lyrics while adding another layer to the interpretation.

Although I need to watch this a few more times to fully get the story, the plot is fantastic and kudos to Rik for the cinematics. How I Got Over is in stores now.

John Legend is teaming up with the Roots for a full album which is titled Wake Up!. The album will be full of remakes of classic R&B tracks like “Wake Up Everybody” which was originally done by Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes. I follow very few R&B artists but John Legend is one of the lucky few and I was thrilled to see him teaming up with the Roots for a whole album and Common and Ms. Fiona for this specific track. Grab the tracklist for the project and the download link below the break.

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Black Thought sure keeps good company. Listen to the people featured on Roots’ tracks throughout their career, and you’ll hear some real gems in the form of guest verses. One of those rappers who has been at it with the Philly band for quite the while now is Dice Raw. This song displays the perfect recipe for a head-banger: a crazy energetic beat, a nice hook, a smart flow with plenty of bounce, and of course top-grade lyricism. I don’t know the placement of “No Doubt About It”, so that info would be much appreciated.

Download: Dice Raw – “No Doubt About It”

Now this is a legitimate live hip-hop performance! The Roots get the Monsters of Folk to sing the sampled parts of their song “Dear God” and a whole slew of guests, a choir, an orchestra and what seems like a million other people on stage. I have had this album (legally too) for the past week or so and it will live up to any expectations Roots fans will have for it. It is dope too that the house band gets to go all out on the show for their new single and album, I’m glad to see Jimmy supporting them to the fullest.

Side Note: Shouts to Felipe and the Portugal team crushing the Kim Jung Il’s today 7-0. Felipe and I are big fans of soccer and it has been cool to see most people in NYC getting excited about the US team this World Cup.

New Roots…but without many new lyrics. Black Thought more or less rehashes his freeverse from the 2010 BET Cypher, which was fire, but it’s still disheartening to hear old material on something people will spend money on to own. I found it sounding kind of mismatched too, since those lyrics were meant to rock a cypher and not a slow, neo-soul, vibed-out track. Well, what can you expect from a track entitled “Doin It Again”? Download/listen to after the jump.

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