Review: The Roots – How I Got Over

The Roots got pretty dark on their last two albums, 2006’s Game Theory and 2008’s Rising Down. It was a new direction for the group, who had been veering toward more danceable, radio-friendly tunes since the jazzy brilliance of 1999’s Things Fall Apart. They’ve softened up a bit on their newest release, How I Got Over. It’s not quite as confrontational and aggressive as their last few efforts. There is still some darkness to it, but as the title would suggest, the album carries a more optimistic theme of overcoming that darkness. Perhaps a regular paycheck from NBC has softened their outlook a bit, or perhaps they’ve just worked the anger

It’s important to note that just because The Roots have lost some of their edginess, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve lost their edge. They take some stylistic risks on How I Got Over, such as reworking a Monsters of Folk song for “Dear God 2.0” or giving new life to an older Joanna Newsom track on “Right On.” OK, so maybe reworking a couple indie ballads into rap tunes isn’t the most grandiose statement they could have made, but it shows that they’re comfortable enough with their own sound to apply it in unlikely ways. It helps that the tracks actually turned out pretty good, too.

The album as a whole is pretty chilled and laid back, even when Black Thought is spitting lines about disenfranchisement with society. There is definitely a return to more of a live, instrumental vibe than the synth- and sample-heavy sound they adopted for most of the ’00s. While the latter style certainly worked for the atmosphere they were striving for at the time, it’s good to see this return to form. After all, they are arguably the most talented instrumentalists working in hip-hop and it’s nice to see them use that talent.

The Roots are, in many ways, the workhorses of hip-hop. They have put out nine studio albums now, as well as a live album and their fantastic collaboration with Jay-Z for his Unplugged album. Some albums have been more memorable than others—I’ll always be partial to Things Fall Apart in particular—but they’ve never put out a bad album. They are always reinventing themselves and giving their fans something new, and thus they are rarely boring. They may not inspire the fervent fandom of a group like the Wu-Tang Clan, but I don’t think anyone could say with a straight face that the Wu-Tang Clan has approached that level of consistency. The Wu-Tang Clan’s passion makes them occasionally great, but The Roots’ brains make them consistently good. I’m glad to see that despite their new day job as Jimmy Fallon’s house band they are still able to put forth the time and effort to make an album as solid as How I Got Over.

The Roots:

• Official Site
• MySpace
• Last.fm
• Def Jam

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About the Author

Jeremy Clymer lives in Michigan with his wife and kid. He shoots his writings out into the ethers of the Internet in the hopes that someone will pick up on his transmissions and shower him with money and/or praise.

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