The Roots @ First Avenue

The crew from the Illadelph marched on into Minneapolis Tuesday night, March 20. I have to come clean: I am not a Roots fan. Again: I am not a Hip Hop head. While the Roots have been churning along, I’ve never given them full attention. They always got my respect but not a listen. That changed recently.

Roots’ shows should be sold out before they even play song, so I was fortunate enough to score tickets from a friend who was going out of town. Note: don’t sleep on the Roots! “Sold Out!” the stage manager of sorts yelled. Finally some people decided to give up the ghost and realize that without a ticket, they would not be allowed in. “Any Tickets?” ‘Don’t tempt me’ I thought. ‘How bad do you want to see the Roots?’

Man, I was so close to creating a bidding war for those Hip Hop heads but I stuck with my decision to see the Roots live. I’ve heard plenty positives: live band, energetic, they give you your money’s worth; and negatives: they can get lengthy and take breaks.

The opener was Muja Messiah. He was, um, yeah. I’m with you buddy, seriously! I feel your message. Although, just because you speak the truth, it doesn’t mean it makes for good music. I don’t think anyone can mention Halliburton and make a nice song. For an essay, yeah, but for a music career, c’mon now. He had one nice song denouncing Snap rap, using all the hit songs from the past year and ridiculing them. Mujah Messiah was contradicting though, as my friend Mally said, “The guns he’s talking about are as non-existant as the money he’s making!”...

WOW! And just as I am finishing this, guess who just walked into my work… yes Mujah Messiah himself. He still has on the same clothes from last night, the same jeans, belt and B-Boy t-shirt. He looks like Spanish/black version of Gillie da Kid, just without those big ass eyes. He’s raspy too. He’s got his girl who talked her ass off… she wasn’t a dime but she wasn’t a dog. Tried to say what’s up to him but he was pretty mum. I was like, “Where you from?” and said “Here. I’m local, the Twin Cities.” Awkward, cuz I aint never heard of you. And to my friends comment about his $$$ situation, from the part of the car I could see, I would say it was a Lexus ES 300. So maybe he does have “guns” and “hustles”?

I’d like to note the atmosphere. As I mentioned before, I am not a Hip Hop head, you know the LRG, the starched, “respectfully sagging” jeans, a grown up b-boy look. Surprisingly my vision was not invaded by Hip Hop heads. They were at a minimum last night. The show was packed, mostly with dudes. And white dudes for that matter. I severly underestimated the number of blacks into the Roots. Why not? What, you can’t dig the live instruments, don’t know what a drum is? Is trap talk that inticing? Or mind numbing—that’s it! And to the white crowd (or to be PC, the non-Rap fans who only dig Talib/Common/Roots/Lupe/Clipse etc), the Roots et al are a section of Rap. These acts are great and deserve even more of what little exposure they see. But there’s more to Rap than the Roots. If only these non-Rap fans could sterch futher. To Papoose, Skyzoo, Joell Ortiz, Budden. That really isn’t too much to ask, is it?

The second opener was Zion I from Oakland, California. I had only heard of two tracks from Zion I before this. The beats/ production from his DJ Amplive were surprisingly original. That was the best thing about Zion I’s set and what will make me check him out more. He brought along someone, who's name I can't find, who as one dude next to me put it, “He looks like Ronnie Belliard” (former MLB Cleveland Indian 2nd Basemen). They were live and happy to entertain; they helped the crowd to move; they created a vibe. I commend them for being genuinely engaging. They should hype men? As for the music, Zion I yells a lot and jumbles shit together—I couldn’t hear half of what he was saying. Ronnie Belliard was better overall than Zion I yet he was on some ‘I can rap fast but none of yall can understand me shit’. Plus they were doing some goofy interpretive dancing. From all of the other Bay members and Hyphy crowd, Zion I was a nice divergence. But don’t be going “Dumb, dumb” anytime soon.

During the sets they played some old break dance videos from the 80s on jumbo screens. Ice T was rocking it with his Radio Crew. I never knew he danced. It was odd seeing him so up beat. Some scrawny dude was jerking the “Boogaloo Shrimp” out and another was grooving the “Stiff Taco”. The break culture felt so inviting. Where did it go? The music during the sets was in line with the acts. We had Common’s “Light” played—count it—3 times! Then some Talib, Wu-Tang, Nas, Jay Z and oh, some more Talib.



The Roots crew is fun. You need to check them out once in your lifetime, regardless if you don’t even know who the Roots are. Their intro was evidence enough. The lights turned low. “Roots, Roots, Roots” bellowed from the floor. Within minutes, nothing—what gives? I didn’t just sit here for 3 hours to be toyed with! Just walk on stage already. Nope. We hear people screaming from the second floor balcony. As I turn my head towards it, I see a big old tuba (a susaphone, I guess) and a flash light. Parading from the second floor and meandering through part of the first floor, the Roots, 10 men deep, grandly stated their presence. Their intro segued into "Game Theory". I hope I can mention this just once: their transition from one song into the next is seamless. It’s so fucking beautiful you won’t notice where one song ends and another begins. Black Thought introduced the Roots crew, all 10 of them. All I know about the Roots is Seed 2.0 and Game Theory, so I assume they began to lay down some of there songs, although later Mally and I were thinking, “I don’t know for sure, but they proably only did 8 of their own tracks at most!” Two I picked up: "In the Music" and "Don't Feel Right".

Everything about the show was grand. The live band didn’t stop once. Your ears began to lose it after a while and vertigo set in. They took three breaks of 6 minutes or so every 40 minutes throughout a 2:30 hour show. While say, the rest of the crew took a break, the bassist, Leonard, busied us. Or ?uestlove. Or their live band Brass Heaven from Philly.

Sometimes while they were jamming, I mean I know they know their craft but to me, who know’s nothing about the techniques of music, those jam sessions felt like ‘they can do anything, the bassist could be off key or ?uestlove could bang on the drums and people would be all geeked’. Man, when ?uestlove got up and took off his hoodie he looked like a fat ass mouse scurrying across the stage. He was so fat—I don’t mean to be rude—that his thighs were inverted and consequently he shuffled like a penguin. Lose some weight, please or else they’ll add a ?uestlove tribute along with that J. Dilla one. When he was positioned on some side drums his ass was fat, like a tomato. It is fucking alarming. You would think playing/sweating for 3 hours nightly would do justice?

When they came back from their first break Black Thought offered, “What you know about Eric B. and Rakim” and did “I aint No Joke”. Loved it. I remember when I first heard that on the radio. I never knew it was Eric B. and Rakim’s because I’d only heard Buckshot’s version. And I recorded that track off the radio onto a tape and memorized all the lyrics. Those were the days. This began a 20 minute mash-up of covers. Again, there was no delay. I’ll try to remember them for you: Rich Boy’s “Ds” (in one of the vids you'll see he parodied it w/ "Throw Some Cheese On that Bitch"); Mims “This is Why”; Snoop’s “That’s That”; Nas’ “Hip Hop is Dead”; Iron Buddafly’s “Ina Gadda Vida”; Snoop/Dre’s “Undercover Cop”; Lil Jon’s “Snap ya Fingers”; Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s “Jump on it”; another Dre track; Joc’s “Going Down”; "Roxane"; JT's "Sexy Back"; Two Jay tracks; and more. Every one was dead on. I do wish they delved into some of them more as they sped by most. Later they did a Minnesota tribute to Bob Dylan playing “Masters of War” for 15 minutes, no joke! The Captain Kirk, on the electic guitar/vocals, and ?uestlove were about to keel over. ?uestlove on the drums during that war protest song banged out the sound of a fourth of July fireworks show, literally. That was something.



The encore came quick. It lasted not so… They did the army march, the “left, right, left” drum beat and it turned into that stadium anthem, “Dooom, doom… HEY!” I was waiting for Seeds 2.0 and when it came, ugh! “I would name it Rock n Roll!” Then “Jungle Boogie” came. Unfortunately it lasted 8 minutes and then they rolled back into it after each song—they never stopped playing! No Prince cover! That’s the one beef I had. It’s Minnesota damnit! I was waiting for something. Black Thought irritated me though because he went on to do a few James Brown covers but one his last one, he recessitated it 3 different times meaning while it seemed like they’d finished the song, slowly but surely it crept back in. The music died down a little and he began to speak, “Okay, okay. Yall havin a good time? Damn [Looking to a person in the crowd] you look like 12 years old. How old are you 15? You look like a baby, Baby!” Baby was a trigger word in the chorus. He continued to belt the song out for another few mintues. Lastly, as they went out Black Thought re-introduced the 10 men. It was overkill. When it was ?uestlove’s turn he came up and showed us what his momma gave him. As big as he is, he isn’t shy. He started dancing for a minute… big man’s got some moves!



Without knowing much of the Roots catalog I was thoroughly entertained, maybe even too much. “Naw but on the real, they 100%” No diggity, I liked the way they worked… There was never a dull moment. The whole crew was energized as if they were going to die tomorrow or if this was the first show on the tour; they may have had more fun than the fans. They all had smiles, dancing non-stop, clapping, bobbing their head. Even when one performer was not involved they’d go do something. They didn’t stand there like a rock and drink water or smoke. Great showmanship, they did enough to get the crowd going and retained a vibe. But the 2:30 hour show could have been reduced and still kept the great vibe. As much as I’ve heraled their transitions and royal procession, the Roots crew, sometimes, sometimes, needs to stop while they’re ahead. At times they dragged out songs into elongated instrumentals and even pushed these, repeatedly, into jam sessions. Now I’m not knocking jam sessions. But when they run 10 minutes I’m left to stand there and yawn. But hey, that’s them and they deliver. Their talented and have a profound love for the music. It’s refreshing to see an act that outdoes it self. It seemed as if they were there to please themselves—rocking out with an enlivened spirit. So let the Roots do the Roots.