Commentary

Attending a show by The Roots this week, I was reminded of something rather significant. There is music, and then there are songs. The Roots, I’ll just put it on the table, couldn’t write a hit song to save their lives. If someone said to them, “if you don’t get a song in the Billboard 100, we’ll all get four more years of Bush-dom”, I’m not sure they could step up. But that being said, they are one of the best bands playing today.Fronted by the iconic looking ?uestlove, one of the best MCs ever, Black Thought, and I would be doing a disservice not to acknowledge “Tuba Gooding Jr.” on the mighty sousaphone, The Roots are almost too good live for their own good. The audience was completely and disgracefully still during much of their set. It was almost as if people were at home listening to a Roots record on their hi-fi and forget they were at a show.

Just a reminder for anyone attending a non-pindrop-silence-singer/songwriter concert… the people on stage feed off you. They want you to respond. They want you to move. I couldn’t help but think of #67 on the list of Stuff White People Like during the show (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/17/68-standing-still-at-concerts/)

The Roots find themselves in the predicament that clearly exists in the world of popular music these days… we all know that the quality of much pop music is low, but it’s the song that gets people hooked and humming. The best musicians in the world may never make the charts, if only because there is no hit song in their repertoire. Suzanne Vega, of “Luka” fame, wrote an essay about this very point for the New York Times earlier this week (http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/surviving-the-hits/index.html)

Having been bandied about from one major label to another during their career, The Roots are the type of band every A&R person wants to sign… solid musicians, cultural icons, outspoken and a selling point for the label to sign other artists (“did you know that the Roots are on the label?”). Hell, when Jay-Z needs a backing band they are his go-to peoples. Robert Christgau, one of the most revered music critics alive, hearts The Roots!

But can you name a Roots song?

A portion of their live set is comprised of spot-on renditions of other artist’s hip-hop classics! And a ‘lil Dylan in the form of a blazing version of “Masters of War.”

Sure the albums are all acclaimed… Rising Down… Do You Want More?!!!!?!, Illadelph Halflife, Things Fall Apart, Phrenology, The Tipping Point, Game Theory… and in recent profiles, including one in the New York Times, they revealed that they’ve had multi-million recording and marketing budgets for some of these albums. But The Roots have stuck to their musical guns and have not brought in the producer-of-the-day, a Timbaland, a Rodney Jerkins, a Pharrell, etc, etc, etc. to make them sound just like everything else in contemporary hip-hop. The closest attempt was when Scott Storch, now a white-boy producer on the run from the IRS and others, was brought in to produce a hit some years ago, but can you name the song? It’s an anecdote that their current label wanted a hit, so they ushered in one of the tools from Fall Out Boy to collaborate with them. Luckily the song can only be found if you buy the limited-edition, super-deluxe SuperAudio decoder ring version available only in Guam… or something.

The Roots, if their career began in the 60s or 70s, would be a thing of legend now. There would be multiple boxsets. They’d be a Miles Davis collective. But because our pop culture is so hit-song driven, it is incredibly astounding that major labels keep allowing them to make records and not fully recoup the investment, let alone make a profit from ringtones or licensing.

Again… The Roots.. one of the best bands on the planet. Just don’t expect to get them in three minute bursts.

1 Comment »