The Roots
The group’s Founder sets the record straight on their signing with Jay-Z

Questlove (third from left) and The Roots

Courtesy of M&I Company

Whether in the posh, sit-down setting of the Blue Note or the cavernous spaces of rock festival Summer Sonic’s Makuhari Messe, American hip-hop band The Roots have the suppleness to adjust their set to the context. That might explain this writer’s mistaken impression that the group had gone rock ‘n’ roll in their most recent Tokyo gig, at the 2005 Summer Sonic, since their Blue Note engagement a few years earlier.

“It depends on the venue,” explains founding member and drummer Questlove (often written as “?uestlove”) in an email exchange. “If it’s a venue in which there is a large crowd then I could see one mistaking our BIG sound as ‘ROCK,’ but really only in one or two songs does the ‘ROCK!!’ element come out.”

Between the gigs, guitarist Ben Kenney had left the band to be replaced by “Captain” Kirk Douglas, whose Jimi Hendrix-style firepower gave parts of their Summer Sonic set a distinctly harder edge than their Blue Note engagement. While denying that they’ve gone rock ‘n’ roll, Questlove says The Roots are less tied to any orthodox notion of hip-hop than they were in the past. “When we first started, I felt the importance of keeping the (so called) ‘hip-hop flame’ alive. But now? It’s a new day and not only do we have to handle “hip-hop’s flame,” but we need to cover all of music. Could sound like a grandiose mission but hey... what can you do but cover all your bases, right?”

Since drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and MC Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter founded the band as students at the Philadelphia High School for Creative Performing Arts in 1987, The Roots have walked a thin line, packaging serious themes about the state of African-Americans in beats that are as musically accomplished as they are out-and-out booty-licious. Along the way they’ve flirted with mainstream acceptance, winning a Grammy in 2000 for Best Rap Performance for their duet with Erykah Badu, “You Got Me,” and a platinum record for 1999’s Things Fall Apart.

With their combination of articulate lyrics and musical virtuosity, the group had critics in raptures, yet the kind of chart-topping success accorded to solo MCs continues to elude them. Their move to Jay-Z’s Def Jam imprint for their latest album Game Theory may have been in hopes of better positioning themselves, but it’s also generated a certain amount of misunderstanding.

“The image of Jay-Z seems to be clouding the judgment of our move to Def Jam,” the drummer explains. “He respects our brand of hip-hop and we thank him for the opportunity. He is not trying to mold us into something we are not (as heard by the sound of the new album).” The relationship is in fact longstanding: The Roots have backed Jay-Z repeatedly, including his 2003 “farewell” concert at Madison Square Garden.

A listen to Game Theory proves that The Roots are not, by any means, sounding more commercial. The album has two songs, “Atonement” and “Can’t Stop This,” that take them in a more experimental direction than ever. “We made a decision to just go with the flow and go where the music takes us,” says Questlove. “In this case this is the sound of people very concerned about the future, and the sound of urban America is the sound of this album. All this party music has got people in denial—the social and economic status of young black America tells a far darker story than what hip-hop is currently allowing you to see.”

With The Roots’ concerts, which are a tour de force of 20th-century black music, showing how much more dynamic a live hip-hop band can be than the usual MC/DJ setup, the question arises as to why there aren’t more full-fledged hip-hop groups out there. “I’m afraid we shut the lid on the acceptance of other bands in our vein,” ventures Questlove.

“The reason why the mainstream world is slow to catch on to us is because we are the only well exposed unit of our kind. If there was someone to compare us to, then I think we could have a better perspective on things. But if every group that comes out gets compared to us in the first 30 seconds then there is gonna be trouble… cause in their early stages the Roots were HARDLY where they are now as far as development is concerned.”

What keeps them together, nearly two decades after forming? “Poverty (hahahahahaa). Real commitment. Some days you do feel like ‘I can’t take this no more,’ but there is something special there and for us to dismiss it would be a tragedy.” O-East, Jan 15-17. See concert listings (popular) for details.

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