I’ll Make it Hotter than Shaft in Africa

If The Clash are the only band that matters, The Roots are the only rap group that matters. Such a novel approach to rap, having live instrumentation, took a while to find an audience, myself not discovering them until around Illadelph Halflife, and are now the go to band for any rapper who want to put on a great live such as Jay-Z’s legendary Unplugged, Eminem’s performance at the Grammy’s for Lose Yourself and they were the house band for last year’s Hip Hop Honors. But as good as the band is at reinterpreting other’s music, the band is at its best making their own music with Black Thought, possible the most underrated MC in the game today, handling the mike and The Roots are back to save hip-hop once again with Game Theory.

There was a lot of hoopla when The Roots signed with Def Jam with fans fearing that the group would be a watered down version of its former self. That complaint just never made sense because the group came from Geffin Records, not really an indie label. Now they move to a label deeply rooted in hip-hop with their new boss an old friend and collaborator, Jay-Z. At first listen, Game Theory is definitely a Roots album, in fact they may have went the other way from commercial success with more overtly political songs then previous album. If anything, Def Jam may have helped trim some of the fat. Let’s face it, as great as their previous albums were, the back half of many of their albums were filled with eccentricities and could have been helped by trimming down to around forty-five minutes which is what Game Theory clocks in at.

As usual, the album starts of with a short keyboard heavy intro to set the mood before going before ?uestlove, quite possible this generation’s greatest drummer, brings the sick beat as the anti-news outlets theme False Media. The song definitely sets the tone for the darker and angrier album. There are a few upbeat tracks with the party starter Don’t Feel Right and the Big Daddy Kane feeling Here I Come. There is also cool, almost bohemian track Livin’ in a New World which features a Strokes like chorus. The album is capped off with a touching tribute with sometime producer J Dilla, who produced two songs on this album, who succumbed to lupus after a three year battle. The tribute being on this album will ensure Dilla will never be forgotten.

Song to Download - Don’t Feel Right

Game Theory gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.