Tearing the walls down
The Roots
Rising Down (Def Jam)
ESSENTIAL "Black's Reconstruction"
On the Roots' superb, inky-black tale of paranoia, 2006's "Game Theory," the walls were closing in. On the equally gripping "Rising Down," the group's 10th album, out today, the walls are getting demolished.
The Philadelphia hip-hop sextet expands both its sonic palette and bleak worldview in a swirl of ominous, futuristic synth patterns and concise rhymes. Many may know the troubles that rapper Black Thought and guests like Talib Kweli and Peedi Peedi have seen, from global warming to criminally restrictive radio playlists. But nobody else is laying them out in such cutting and expressive ways.
Conflict diamonds, greenhouse gases, and government conspiracies have the group trying to get the Almighty himself on the line on the title track, a spacey, boom-bap groove. The sizzling "Black's Reconstruction" has Black Thought spitting out 75 blistering bars that turn the N-word inside out. "I Can't Help It" spins a deeply tragic yarn about the destructive power of drugs both legal and illegal but is oddly danceable thanks to a jittery marriage of fuzzy keys and rumbling percussion. Even Fall Out Boy lead singer Patrick Stump comes to play, adding vocals to the straightforward rocker "Birthday Girl" about the riddles of teenage girls.
Concerns that the Roots would compromise its eclectic style when it moved to Def Jam were laid to rest by "Game Theory." "Rising Down" makes clear that compromise was never even an option. [Sarah Rodman]
The Roots perform with Erykah Badu at the Orpheum Theatre May 8. 