The Philadelphia hip-hop band The Roots has been making music through live instrumentation for more than 20 years. Their latest album, Rising Down, will be released on April 29 and it's their eighth studio effort since their 1993 debut, Organix.
We recently spoke with drummer Amir "?uestlove" Thompson by phone from a tour stop in St. Louis about the new album and the band's future.
How ready are you guys to have this album get out already?
Time is not soon enough. I'm so over it, I'm ready to go to the next one. (laughs) Technically, we were done with it in September, but being the nagging, anal-retentive people that we are, we went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth trying to fix and tweak stuff, but it's probably the quickest we've ever been done with a record. We started in August and it was done by December.
How many tracks did you wind up with -- I know some were cut, but that's always the case?
We did 20 to 25 for this record before we settled on the final, I forget, 13, 14, 15 ...
"Birthday Girl" was released, but it isn't on the album. Was that because it was already out there?
People knew about it and this is more of a singles market. The whole idea of a record is almost a novelty. The U.K. and Japan version of the label want to keep it and iTunes wanted it as an exclusive and we gave it to them. Really, it didn't fit the mode of the album -- the political nature of the record.
Being that you've said this is your most political album to date, was that just the way it turned out? Did it start going that way and you went with it?
You can't plan a political record. We're from Philadelphia and its affinity for violence and death is at a rate so high that The Wire looks like Disneyland in comparison and that affects you. It affects us personally to the point where that's just the type of music we were churning out. As older people, there ain't no way we're going to get away with "Crank that, Souljaboy." (laughs) So, why not?
Did you have an initial approach to the album of what you wanted to do?
If anything, this is probably just a return to the meat and potatoes hip-hop that we kind of felt was lacking from the marketplace today and that we haven't done in about 10 to 15 years. Phrenology was very experimental, Tipping Point was very straight-ahead and Game Theory was very melancholy. So, this was sort of our return to Illadelph Halflife.
How do you think the political landscape has impacted hip-hop?
Now, I think what has happened is that it's such an indifferent environment in terms of the way people feel. Natalie Maines', her silent career execution -- of the Dixie Chicks -- definitely played loud in the minds of folks who were even thinking about raising their voices to speak out against something they didn't believe in. Even in light of her being right in retrospect, she still got punished. Add on top of it that you have to numb your pain away. I feel as though a lot of the lack of any type of political agenda inside of hip-hop is due to the fact this generation is numb ... numb as hell. So, it's like, why even preach to deaf ears when nobody gives a fuck. That's the whole attitude. I thought people would be up in arms and rioting in the streets, but they just let people get away with murder.
Are you surprised there isn't more politics in music these days?
I gotta admit, I was very surprised. I'm not saying that everyone's stayed silent. Springsteen did two great records during the Bush administration, but Springsteen isn't enough. I think it really would have counted if a young person had gotten on that level.
I'm assuming that it was a conscious decision to release the album on the anniversary of the L.A. riots?
Pretty much. That was the last time in history that I saw black folks angered to the point of absolute ... of something that passionate. That was the last time that's ever happened. We just figured it was a good time to release it.
What was the reason for starting the album with the "Pow Wow"?
Two reasons. I wanted to show people that we basically ... there's an assumption that ever since we came to Def Jam, that's when all the troubles began. I wanted to show people that even before Do You Want More?!!!??! came out, that was always the problem. That was always been a dark cloud that's always hovered above us. We got dropped briefly for four days before Do You Want More?!!!??! came out. It's always been a tug-of-war situation. Even from the very beginning, even before you knew who we were, we were that passionate about our work where every day was like that.
Looking at the list of all the guests you have on the album, what's your thought process going into it -- is it people you're interested in, people you've worked with, people who approach you?
We kind of took a Noah approach -- two of every animal -- which was pretty much a step ahead of our Moses plan where things fall apart. The Moses plan, the way we came to that, when we released Do You Want More?!!!??! and Illadelph Halflife -- our second and third albums -- it was just done in a time when the marketplace wasn't prepared for what we had to offer. We kind of explained to the label that the only way for The Roots to make any sense out of what's going on is ... in order to make sense of it, you have to have like-minded artists in context. We told the label to build a stable, so they went out and gathered a flock -- they got Common off his label, they got Mos [Def], they got [Talib] Kweli -- basically got all the left-of-center people that you associate us with and brought 'em to our label. We told them to do that so when we release another record, it'll actually make sense. With this album, the Noah approach is that we know a tsunami is coming so let's run for cover. Let's grab the established crew, let's grab the crew that you don't expect us to be down with and let's grab the newcomers. So, in between the established of Common, Mos and Kweli, and the unexpected of Saigon and Styles P, you have the newcomers of Chrisette [Michelle], P.O.R.N. and Truck North -- that's us gathering two of every animal.
Does it make it difficult to line up when you're working with so many people?
No. The one thing The Roots has proven is that we're good in groups of people. We welcome it. We're a community. Not to the level of the [Polyphonic] Spree where there's 45 people on stage, but I think that you invite people and tell them what the narrative is and -- I like it -- you get different views and perspectives. A lot of the narrative is done in first person, so it breaks the perception of where we're going, especially when it's about street life or violence -- you get three different perspectives kind of like a movie.
And there are some people who didn't make the album ...
Lupe [Fiasco] had pneumonia, [Q-]Tip's grandma died and J Electronica just didn't show up. (laughs) Maybe on the next album.
How do you find time for everything that you're involved with?
You sit there and say there can be time for absolutely nothing else. The last date I went on was maybe five weeks ago, if that. There is no time. You soundcheck at 4:30, take a small nap at 6:30, go on stage from 8 to 11:30 and then DJ from 12 to 3 in the morning and the bus picks you up. You get in the next city 8 hours later, do interviews from 11 to 3 and it starts all over again. It's everyday. This is exactly what I asked for. Too often, you hear to be careful for what you ask for. I don't complain. Right now, there are 50 other artists that used to be on top in the '90s and now they don't have it anymore. They would kill for nine interviews a day.
Is there one place you're happiest -- production vs. behind the drum kit?
The grass is always greener on the other side. There was a period that I took off from producing other people -- 2003 to 2005 -- and then I started with Al Green. Those few years I wanted more sleep and more time, but I realized I missed it. I really just feel as though that if I'm in the studio, I enjoy it but I get restless and miss going to Austin, Portland and Tokyo and going to the little record stores. I'm going to enjoy [the upcoming tour.] When we're opening for Erykah it's not going to be three-hour shows. It'll be 45 minutes and probably the most fun we have on stage.
How'd you get hooked up with Al Green?
After sitting in the Grammy audience for so long, anyone over age 60 feels the only way they can get on stage is the Santana route or the Tony Bennet route -- oversaturation with guests or doing standards. I was joking with a journalist from Rolling Stone about that very thing. Is that the only answer? He said I needed to find acts I used to love and produce them now. The folks at Blue Note Records said they had Al Green. I said yes before I said anything else. It's very important for me to make sure that this record sounds correct. People want to go back to the old feeling and it never sounds like that -- I hate that. The thing that got Blue Note off my behind was probably the Winehouse record. They were afraid I'd alienate their Starbucks audience, but it's Al Green. That's what his audience wants. They accepted it, thank God.
Do you easily separate artists you work with -- Al Green should sound like this, and The Roots will do something different?
Absolutely. If there's one thing I don't have in my career, it's an identifiable sound. I have to do that because we have to represent for all the other black bands that don't have a deal. For me, it's more important to give the artist what they need than to have them give me what I need. It'd be easy to make Al Green sound like a Jill Scott record, but I know the elements that attract me to Al Green's music. The key is not overplaying the drum sound -- very dry. I don't have an ego where I'm not going to get to play breakbeat on Al's record. If anything, I sound more authentic playing it how people are accustomed to hearing it. It's organs, it's strings, it's basses that are out-of-tune. What I had to do, to get musicians in the right mindset was make them characters. Some of the cats are younger and their reference points -- I had to make them a character. I had to tell them they're a factory worker and they can only play every other weekend. You work 50 hours a week, but you can't wait to have a beer and play with the boys. You have a cheap-sounding bass and aren't technically proficient -- you only know a few chords -- so play dry. They looked at me like I was crazy when I said they should detune the bass. It got to the point where I had to buy them a pawn-shop bass -- something cheap -- because it was sounding too polished and too perfect. Overplaying it wouldn't do it justice.
Do you take something away from an experience like that and bring it back into The Roots or do you leave it as it was?
That process could only work for Al Green. The reason you can overplay is because he'll oversing. It'll be 70 percent of him singing and 30 percent of you playing. You have to challenge yourself to make the most effective sound without overplaying. There's a balance to it. For someone like Duffy, I wanted to overdo it a little more. When I worked on her stuff, it was a whole other perspective, so it varies from artist to artist. There's a rumor that we might meet up with Tom Jones in May depending on the results of this record.
I've heard that you want to do six more records, or people say you'll do four -- is it even fair to think like that at this point?
I don't know. I wonder if when the Stones were making an album were they looking as far as Steel Wheels or A Bigger Bang? As long as I love music and as long as it loves me, why not? I say one at a time, but I'm already on the next record. Time won't allow me to stand still. Musically there's an idea for what I want to get done.
Do you see an end of the road?
If there were an easy answer for my mortgage being paid ... I don't know how people retire with debt coming in how it is. Unless you have Jay-Z money ... you still have to generate money -- look at Michael Jackson. I'm sure in 1990, when he was told he had to generate $8 million a month, he knew he could do that shit in his sleep. He didn't foresee the airplanes going inside of his World Trade Center so that it would be a miracle to make $5 million a month. I've learned not to live beyond my means. Of course, this is the point where I go by a mansion I can't afford and 12 Hummers. (laughs)
I have to ask about the hair. At what point did you say, it's my trademark and I can't touch it?
It just grows and keeps on growing. (laughs) It's just to the point where it grows continually that I don't have ... my barber teases me that he sees me ... actually this year is the most shape-ups and trims I've ever gotten because we decided to shoot 10 videos for the record. For every video and TV appearance, it's a minor trim that I get.
Aside from the videos, what's on the agenda for the year?
We hit the Eastern block and then may do the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors tour and then go to Europe one more time and then it'll be 2009. Hopefully by that time we'll have the 11th album out. Maybe I'll get a call from Tom Jones' people and hoping I get a call from Mr. Green again. That's almost out.
Yeah, that comes out in a month ...
A month to you is like a second to me. (laughs)
Good luck with everything.
Thanks a lot.
The Roots will perform at Amos' Soundend on April 25. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at the door. Doors open at 8 p.m.
