The Roots

The good folks at Okayplayer TV put up this great footage of The Roots at JazzFest. Grainy fan-made performance videos have been available in the past, but these vids contain exclusive interviews with ?uestlove and Black Thought.                  
OkayplayerTV - The Roots @ UCLA from Okayplayer on Vimeo.   "Rising Up" performance...                  
OkayplayerTV: The Roots "Rising Up" at UCLA from Okayplayer on Vimeo. "Long Time" performance       ... MORE

?uestlove of The Roots has teamed up with Nike to introduce the Air ?uesto 1, his very own shoe. The shoes will come in a sealed box as part of a contest. Why are the shoes sealed in a box you ask? Because twenty five pairs of the shoes will be golden (like the golden ticket in Willy Wonka), and the golden shoe winners will get a special prize. So whats the prize? Questlove wouldn't spill the beans in his blog post on Okayplayer. "i cant make the "official" announceme... MORE

Surely they'll add more dates, right?  So far, the only shows announced by The Roots are:   Dec 2 - Manchester Academy Dec 3 - Bristol Academy   (NME.com has ticket details for these shows.) Also no hint of what the Philly natives will perform at these shows.  It seems safe to guess they might play tunes off their newest album, Rising Down. Like "Get Busy"?   Or "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)"?   (Both vids directed by the illustrious Rik ... MORE

My top albums of top 5 albums of '08's first half The Roots - Rising Down Kidz In The Hall - In The Crowd Buckshot/9th Wonder - The Formula eMC - The Show Bun B - II Trill   Best Mixtapes: DJ  Green Lantern/Nas - "The Nigger Tape" Wale - "Mixtape About Nothing" DJ Whoo Kid/Bishop Lamont - The Confessional    

DJ Enuff sat down with Black Thought and Qustlove for an in depth chat about the state of the group, their relationship with Def Jam, and where the record industry is headed. One thing I found interesting about the interview, was the discussion on hip hop culture in Europe. Enuff and The Roots say the fans still have the ideals that Americans held in 1992, which is a time period everyone views fondly. People still took lyrics seriously, it was less about commercial appeal... MORE

This show opened up with the Roots since the headliner of the night was Erykah Badu.  Unfortunately I didn't get to see her and I hope that doesn't taint this review.  I was able to take a few snaps of the show even though I was warned many times that there were to be no photos allowed.  Fortunately our seats weren't ridiculously out there in the theatre and I was able to get some decent photos.  The Roots went on mighty early with an onstage time of 7:30.  I could still ... MORE

and that's all I got to say about that.

As if I needed to pimp these artists any more than I already do... But there are 5 video performances on VH1.com that are definitely worth a watch. Why VH1 doesn't allow for embedding on other sites is beyond me (it's called "exposure" people), so you'll have to check them out at the site: The Seed/I Can't Understand It/The Next Movement Rising Up/Be OK (with Wale & Chrisette Michele) You Got Me Rising Down The Next Movement

ok folks, im from the 215th, aka Philadelphia, im probably one of the biggest roots fans ever, im still undecided on that roots new cd but im really diggin this track heres the vid, tell me what you think peace knowledge

As the world slowly catches up with technology, more and more artists are interacting with fans directly via blogs. Do you read the blog of any muscians out there? Feel free to drop the links to websites where others can see for themselves. I currently check out the following (you can click on the names to visit their site): Questlove Janelle Monae Kanye West Lily Allen Just Blaze

The Roots - Philly legends, Hip-Hop veterans, and one of my favorite musical outfits – have recently released their 10th LP, Rising Down. As is typical with a Roots release, and due in large part to their self-financed web community Okayplayer.com, there has been much internet buzz (and some snark) about the new record. And while the boards at Okayplayer are not always a reliable source, the album is also posting good numbers with all of the journalist and music reviewer t... MORE

In an interview with NyMag, ?uestlove of The Roots revealed that he and Dave Chappelle have discussed a potential sequel to Block Party. “He wants to redo Block Party,” ?uestlove told us when we asked after Dave Chappelle. “I saw Dave the night of Erykah [Badu]’s birthday party in Dallas.” And where would a second installation of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party occur? L.A.? Illadelph? “Over in Dubai,” said ?uestlove. “Except he wants to spice it up a bit and have us perform... MORE

The Roots - Rising Down (Def Jam, 2008) 8 out of 10 This band deals, as participant-observers, in turbulence. "The Pow Wow" opens the scene in 1994; we get a glimpse of a band conference call, discussing some shit that went down at a Geffen meeting, pre-major-debut, and quickly shit starts to go down at this meeting, at least one man screaming. Not a shocking consequence of a conversation featuring this sentence: "The Roots' product is not just the Roots' product anymore... MORE

The Legendary Roots crew [and then some... 3 extra drummers, etc] performed with special guests Wale & Chrisette Michelle on Letterman... as Dave himself says at the end there's "a lot going on there..."
Rising Up Live
Uploaded by yardie4lifever2 P.S. just listened to Rising Down in full and naturally am loving it...