In the heat of one of the most politically charged years in recent memory, Grammy Award-winning Def Jam recording group the Roots lay it all on the line, continuing to support their current album RISING DOWN (released April 2008) on a 24-city headlining North American tour with Fueled By Ramen’s Gym Class Heroes and UK newcomer Estelle. The tour, which opens in Baltimore on Friday, October 3rd and closes four weeks later in Albany on November 1st, will be highlighted by a two-night stand at Roseland Ballroom in New York City, October 28-29th. (Please see complete tour dates below).
Two decades after Ahmir ‘?uestlove’ Thompson and Tariq ‘Black Thought’ Trotter first met under nefarious circumstances in the principal’s office of Philadelphia’s High School For the Creative and Performing Arts – and 15 years after the Roots recorded their indie debut album in 1993, during a year-long European sojourn – the group and its intelligent school of jazz-inflected hip-hop are more relevant than ever. RISING DOWN, their tenth overall career album, spews “rhymes from the perspective of the poor and the dispossessed, from North Philly to Liberia,” observed Rolling Stone, more than a month before the album’s release.
“On the title track,” the magazine went on, Black Thought “trades rhymes about global warming and the pharmaceutical industry with Mos Def and Styles P, backed by atmospheric synths and a heavy, raw beat that evokes the chaotic grind of modern life. ‘Criminal,’ with verses from Saigon and Philadelphia newcomer Truck North, describes the conditions that lead young men to violence, including poverty and police brutality. ‘Singing Man’ features verses from the perspective of the Virginia Tech shooter, a child soldier in Liberia, and a suicide bomber… Ten albums in, the Roots aren’t afraid to stray from the mainstream hip-hop pack.”
Other major guests on RISING DOWN include Common on “The Show” (with Dice Raw); original Roots rapper Malik B. on “Lost Desire” (with Brooklyn’s Talib Kweli) and “I Can’t Help It”; and fellow Def Jam R&B singer Chrisette Michele and Washington D.C. rapper Wale on the lighthearted closing track, “Rising Up.” Philadelphia hip-hop voices Dice Raw, Truck North, Porn, and Peedi Peedi appear throughout, as well as Mercedes Martinez.
True to form, the Roots released RISING DOWN on April 29th, the 16th anniversary of the first day of Los Angeles riots sparked by the acquittal of the police officers accused of beating Rodney King. The album title paraphrases Rising Up and Rising Down, the massive seven-volume 3,300-page treatise on the world’s centuries-long path of violence, written over the course of more than 20 years by William T. Vollmann.
Today’s Roots are vocalist ‘Black Thought’ and drummer ‘?uestlove,’ long-time keyboardist Kamal Gray (a member since 1996’s Illadelph Halflife), Brooklyn-based guitarist Kirk ‘Captain Kirk’ Douglas and percussionist Frank Knuckles (both members since 2003-2004’s The Tipping Point sessions), sousaphone player Damon “Tuba Gooding, Jr.” Bryson, and newest member Owen Biddle on bass (who joined for the 2006 Game Theory sessions, the Roots’ Def Jam debut).
THE ROOTS ON TOUR WITH GYM CLASS HEROES & ESTELLE
Date City Venue
Oct. 3 G Baltimore, MD Ram’s Head
4 Norfolk, VA NorVa
5 Myrtle Beach, SC House Of Blues
6 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle
7 Lake Buena Vista, FL House Of Blues
8 Miami Beach, FL Fillmore
10 R Horse Shoe, NC Deerfields
11 G Dallas, TX Palladium
12 Austin, TX Backyard
14 G Tempe, AZ Marquee
15 G San Diego, CA San Diego State U.
16 Anaheim, CA The Grove
17 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium
18 San Jose, CA San Jose U. Event Ctr.
19 Las Vegas, NV House Of Blues
21 Denver, CO Fillmore
23 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Ballroom
24 Chicago, IL Congress Theatre
25 Detroit, MI Fillmore
26 Toronto, Ont. Sound Academy
28-29 New York, NY Roseland Ballroom
30 Worchester, MA Palladium
31 Asbury Park, NJ Convention Hall
Nov. 1 Albany, NY Washington Ave. Academy
G indicates date with Gym Class Heroes only (not Estelle).
R indicates date by The Roots only.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.