Dave Simpson 

The Roots: How I Got Over

Nine albums in, and the Roots have found a new trick to make them even more inventive, says Dave Simpson
  
  


Their ninth album finds the Philadelphia veterans a unique voice in hip-hop. Becoming house band on Jimmy Fallon's US chatshow has led them to embrace indie culture, sculpting hard-hitting rap from a Joanna Newsom sample (Right On) and a Monsters of Folk song (the startling cry for help of Dear God 2.0). Elsewhere, the album is something of a rap equivalent of Marvin Gaye's era-addressing What's Going On. Global problems are played off against depictions of ordinary lives ("walk alone, work alone … I'll die in the bed I made"), capturing a world facing one last shot at redemption, and their rejections of negativity and belief in humanity are inspiring: the pumping John Legend-sung The Fire delivers a manifesto of triumph over tragedy with such urgent gusto that you hope the world will listen.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*