What The Roots Taught Me About Hip Hop
July 22, 2024Photos: Billy Thieme
The adjectives come up short – all of them – when trying to use words to express the feeling The Roots brought to Mission Ballroom last Saturday night. But it’s necessary to find some – to give you some sense of how iconic this band is – and not just (well-deserving) icons of Hip Hop.
For two hours, The Roots played a non-stop set of some of the most influential funk, jazz, and hip hop in the genre’s storied history. And I sat in the crowd, scratching my head during the tracking beats between songs, wondering – trying to understand – just how they do this, night after night? These dudes look way too young, and have far too much contagious energy, for a group with a history spanning five decades. And yet – here we are.
These dudes look way too young, and have far too much contagious energy, for a group with a history spanning five decades.
Fronted by Tariq Trotter – who spun words through the beats like clouds create works of art in the sky – and grounded by Mark Kelley and the inimitable ?uestlove covering the beats and bass, they started out strong with a medley of “The Pros” and Instant Funk’s “I Got My Mind Made Up,” pouncing on the packed audience. They quickly followed with a kick-ass cover of Kool & The Gang’s iconic “Jungle Boogie,” showing this crowd that The Roots’ name means something. I mean, when they cover a song, it simultaneously sounds as good as it did the first time you heard it decades ago, and as new and fresh as anything else on the setlist.
The next chunk of time passed way too quickly, so masterfully filled with the beauty of Hip Hop, based on the incredible instrumentation that so many other Hip Hop groups merely sample. They tore through so many songs like “The Next Movement,” “Proceed,” “Here I Come,” the gorgeous “You Got Me,” “Web,” and the namesake of this tour “Love of My Life,” among many others with no breaks, and wild antics that I got exhausted just watching.
The next chunk of time passed way too quickly, so filled with the beauty of Hip Hop.
Among the memorable scenes that took place onstage were a guitar vs keytar duel, the never-ending miracle of Dame Bryson’s sousaphone gymnastics, and guitarist Kirk Douglas prowling the stage like a predator, searching for beats and scowling with pure joy. The fun never stopped.
Until they began to wrap up with a brilliant medley of “The Seed (2.0)” and a mind-blowing cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up,” before closing the set with “Dear God (2.0).” They brought the school of rock to a close, and started packing up the circus in front of a sated crowd.
As we filtered out into a freshly-rainstormed night, I was overcome with the memories of my younger days, filled with this kind of hip hop, and how little I knew (or cared, really) about the roots of that style, or of those songs. And how much I’ve learned, and reached back into those roots, and pulled out an education about where this sound comes from, and who inspired it – or at least some of the legends.
The Roots are the professors of my hip hop education, and I appreciate it now so deeply. Who knew Saturday School could be so fun?
