Rating:
  Review Date: May 12, 2008
  Website: The Roots Website
  Label: Def Jam

The Roots “Rising Down” Album Review
Black Thought is in my opinion the best emcee in hip-hop. All those cats that say shit like “He’s not charismatic enough” or “He doesn’t have enough passion” don’t know what they’re talking about. Whatever characteristics you judge a rapper by – lyrics, flow, rhyme style, versatility, individuality – Thought has them all. However, this opinion and the expectations associated with it caused an initial disappointment with “Rising Down.”

The Roots’ new album features guest emcees on virtually every track, and of the three songs that showcase Black Thought all alone, each is only one verse long – and one of them is from maybe twenty years ago. So after only two listens, all I could think was that this album didn’t feature enough Black Thought to be a great album. Luckily, after two weeks of nonstop listening, I am realizing how wrong I was. “Rising Down” is one of those creeper albums that will take some time to sink in on you – but it is the best album of the year thus far, and easily the standard that I will judge hip-hop by for the rest of 2008.

When I listed the characteristics of a great emcee, I forgot to mention a big one you rarely see these days: humility. If I were one of the greatest yet most underrated rappers of our generation, I would insist on at least 90% of the airtime on an album. Black Thought, on the other hand, remained humble and stepped back to give way to several other emcees. He contributes just one verse per song on “Rising Down,” yet sets the pace for all guests and spits some of the best verses of his career.

Now don’t get me wrong – all the guest emcees shined brightly as well. Mos Def and Styles P made brilliant contributions on the title track Rising Down. Talib Kweli provided a dope verse in Lost Desire and made I Will Not Apologize complete by stepping in perfectly to spit the chorus. Common came correct in The Show, Wale took everybody by storm in Rising Up, Peedi Crakk spit some crazy shit in Get Busy, and Saigon fit well in Criminal. In addition, it was so good to have Malik B. back, even if only for a couple tracks, and Roots’ protégés Dice Raw, Truck North and Porn helped make this album great. Yet even with all these great emcees, Black Thought still managed to provide the stability.

In the opening track Rising Down, guest emcees Mos Def and Styles P make perfect contributions, but Thought takes the cake with the following verse commenting on global warming and showcasing what would become this album’s trend of speaking about problems that are universal to all people:

Between the greenhouse gases/
And earth spinning off it’s axis/
Got mother nature doing back flips/
The natural disaster/
Is like eighty degrees in Alaska/
You in trouble if you not an Onassis/
It ain’t hard to tell if the conditions is drastic/
Just turn on the telly, check for the news flashes/
How you want it bagged – paper or plastic?/
Lost in translation or just lost in traffic?/

Later in I Will Not Apologize, Thought drops what could be the best verse of the entire album. The following verse gives the perspective of a man whose external surroundings have forced him to grind to make money, again speaking about an anxiety that is increasingly universal:

A revolution what it smelling like/
It ain’t gon’ be televised/
Governments is hella fire/
Taking cake and selling pies/
I ain’t got a crust or crumb – to get some I’d be well obliged/
Murder is comodified/
Felon for the second time/
Never was I into chasing trouble, I was followed by/
Facing trouble with no alibi/
Had to swallow pride/
Vilified, victimized, penalized, criticized/
Ran into some people that’s surprised/
I was still alive/
Looked into my daughter’s eyes/
Wonder how can I provide/
Got the gift and made it be but how can I afford to try?/
Messed around, tried to get a job but wasn’t qualified/
Had to see a pal of mine – got to get the lightning rod/
Now I’m in the black Impala looking for the dollar sign/
Bombs get to itching man I got to get the Calamine/
‘For I fall behind/
Guess the grind will be my 9 to 5/
I will not be conquered by/
I will not apologize/

In Singing Man, Black Thought once again pens a verse that is universal – speaking for young people worldwide who are forced to commit murder due to war, destructive environment, or means of survival. The following verse contemplates how such situations affect people’s hearts and minds:

One for the crescent, two for the cross/
Three for the blessing, four for the loss/
Kid holding a weapon, walk like a corpse/
In the face of transgression, military issue Kalichnikov/
Or machete or a pitchfork/
He killing ‘cause he fell he got nothing to live for/
In a war taking heads from men like Charles Taylor/
And never see the undisclosed foreign arms dealer/
Thirteen year old killer – he look thirty-five/
He changed his name to Little No Man Survive/
When he smoke that leaf, Shorty believe he can fly/
He loot and terrorize and shoot between the eyes/
Who to blame? It’s a shame the youth was demonized/
Wishing he could rearrange the truth to see the lies/
And he wouldn’t have to raise his barrel to target you/
His heart can’t get through the years of scar tissue/

I could go on and on with quotable verses from this one, but I’ll let you decipher the rest on your own. Overall, what impressed me the most about the lyrics of this album was Black Thought’s ability to speak so universally in his rhymes. While his past lyrical presence seemed more revolved around personal experience and his own thought process, “Rising Down” shows Thought as an emcee who has decided to speak from an everyman’s point of view. And it works brilliantly from start to finish.

“Rising Down” is another in a long line of classic albums from the legendary Roots crew – right on par with my two favorites, “Things Fall Apart” and “Phrenology.” If you’re one of the few people who haven’t picked this album up by now, you are missing out. It is clearly a must-have. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. The Pow Wow
2. Rising Down featuring Mos Def & Styles P
3. Get Busy featuring Dice Raw & Peedi Peedi
4. @ 15
5. 75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)
6. Becoming Unwritten
7. Criminal featuring Truck North & Saigon
8. I Will Not Apologize featuring Porn & Dice Raw
9. I Can’t Help It featuring Malik B., Porn, Mercedes Martinez & Dice Raw
10. Singing Man featuring Porn, Truck North & Dice Raw
11. Unwritten featuring Mercedes Martinez
12. Lost Desire featuring Malik B. & Talib Kweli
13. The Show featuring Common & Dice Raw
14. Rising Up featuring Wale & Chrisette Michele