In 2010, let’s consider it impressive that the world’s most trendsetting hip hop band crafted an album as influenced by indie pop as by Curtis Mayfield. How I Got Over, The Roots’ 11th studio album is a celebratory album of the aims of the yearning of the human spirit, but still at the same time thoughtful, reflective and completed with the cautious optimism of intellectual souls. This album is informed most by Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” directive in the face of the farcical Bush administration, but trends deeper into a discussion of survivalist tendencies when dealing with soul crushing doubt and depression. The Roots have always been vocal and sonic poet laureates of the urban experience, and here is no different, possibly showing more focus than ever before, a concept speaking directly to the years of diligent work as a collective unit and a shared expression on this record. This is simply phenomenal hip hop, possibly the year’s best album to date, from a totally expected source for such acclaim.
This album didn’t have to end up this way. The Roots are pop stars now. Serving as Conan O’Brien’s Max Weinberg Seven or Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show Orchestra or Arsenio Hall’s The Band to late night talk neophyte Jimmy Fallon, this could’ve turned out REALLY ugly. The Roots can play pretty much anything, their concerts becoming hip hop’s answer to the Grateful Dead or Phish, the “Legendary Roots Crew” taking concertgoers on trips that make as many stops through Brownsville Queens, NY and Ishkabibble’s on South Street in Philly as to the dank recesses of the eyes and ears of Kurt Cobain meandering through the grunge streets of Seattle. This album could’ve involved Weezer, Wacka Flocka, Rihanna and Lady Gaga, and well, the production and instrumentation would’ve still been dope. But this is a hip hop album by the best hip hop band of all time, guaranteed first ballot Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, so, yeah. We get Dice Raw, Peedi Peedi, Blu, Phonte of Little Brother, a masterful Joanna Newsom sample, the Monsters of Folk collaborative, and members of indie pop darlings the Dirty Projectors. One foot still squarely marching through the hood, yet another walking into Bonnaroo.
The Roots set an exquisite mood on this record. A fully and entirely live production, it flows seamlessly like a stream of consciousness conversation between instrumentalists, vocalists, and the universe, for instance, “Dear God 2.0,” the impressive already leaked single, features an impressive co-mingling of such magnitude that it feels more like a sermon than music. “Why is the world ugly when you made it in your image?/And why is livin’ life such a fight to the finish?/For this high percentage/When the sky’s the limit/A second is a minute, every hour’s infinite.” In writing and producing a track that speaks to the Lord, well, the band expressly tries their damndest to reach him. Jim James’ vocals on the hook, Black Thought’s intellectual preaching, and Questlove providing the backbone of the entire enterprise really takes that track in a rarefied direction.
This album plays like a consistent face smashing of logic and science. The nature of the style and type of emcee utilized on the record crafts a masterpiece that feels like the best of the teeming underground being allowed to shine. That feeling makes the music fresh and new while still not a vast deviation from form by The Roots. These are high concept tunes, tracks like “Radio Daze,” “Right On (featuring the aforementioned Joanna Newsom sample),” and the album’s title track, “How I Got Over,” and the two John Legend numbers meant for the adult contemporary mainstream “Doin’ It Again” and “The Fire” all meant for deep thought and intense cogitation while at the same time with their jazzy and soulful feel providing a delightful easy listening experience. Only The Roots as a band could take the teeth out of Dice Raw and Peedi Peedi and smooth rough edges, something they’ve done for Black Thought for ten consecutive albums.
In final, The Roots have created a phenomenal sonic landscape by which to understand the dilapidated state of the universe in which we live, and how we all exist in many ways to work together to fix those problems we are all perfectly aware are obvious and in need of correction. The revolution here isn’t one of guns but one of brains. Knowledge is power. The Roots embody this, and create a note perfect album in that image.
FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS
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