21/The Roots/Rising Down
When going into a new release by a new artist in any genre, of course I’m skeptical. No matter how much I may have loved the album that came before it, or appreciate the jump off that is the new album’s lead single, I am still worrisome, as one who still buys albums should be. And that’s the thing. I want to be rewarded. I want to press play and keep my fingers away from the skip button. I want to be ENTERTAINED. Now in my early coming of age days, I ate up maxi singles and albums full of filler for the sheer thrill and act of building up my musical collection and being able to say “yeah I know this jam” when at a party or out in the streets. This was especially true for all music I listened to that fell within the genres of Hip-Hop/Rap and R& B. But not anymore. As the years went on and I got older, albums became the name of the game; yes I loved, and still love me some singles, but to be able put an album in, turn it up, and as mentioned earlier not press skip at all or that often, and merely walk away, THAT was and is the ultimate satisfaction. And that is why, as the years went by, new Hip-Hop/Rap albums took up less space in my record collection. Bloated, misguided, and/or in possession of maybe a few play worthy songs, I soon came to realize that a hot single/16, familiar marquee guest stars, and trips down roads most traveled in the game, does not a good Hip-Hop album make. Unlike the Tauwan of days past, it wasn’t enough to simply sit back, bob my head, and return to a disc for the single and the two joints worthy of my attention; No. I wanted my Hip-Hop albums to say something, make me think, make me listen repeatedly, track after track. And this album, like many a favorite album of mine in the genre, does just that. The sum of this album’s whole are menacing, brash, bold, and in your face, forcefully here and present in every syllable of Black Thought’s lines, every hit of the snare, throb of the bass, and groove of the kick drum. Is this Black Superhero music? It could damn well be. But not your average tights wearing, cape having, flying through the streets superhero from popular yore, no. This is the soundtrack for the superhero in the streets, the common man getting busy beneath the dark and ominous clouds of reality who knows that “this can’t be life” and wants to do something about it. But instead of being standoffish or lost within one's ornery/angry mystique, this album –as does that common man- invites you in, asks you to think, and most importantly compels you to listen. So tap that foot, bob that head, and mouth aloud to all the things that make you go hmm. It's the way the legendary Roots crew intended it. Act like you know.
KEY TRACKS: Get Busy/75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)/I Will Not Apologize
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