The Roots Struggle With 'Rising Down' at Def Jam

by Jarrett Martineau | April 28, 2008 at 10:06 am

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The Roots are veterans of the hip-hop game, having long been immersed in the struggle to achieve commercial success with music that defies tired rap clichés, sugary pop conventions, and lyrical dilution.

Widely considered to be the best live hip-hop band working today, The Roots have yet to write any breakout cross-over hits, despite the near success of classics like "You Got Me" featuring Erykah Badu or "The Seed" which featured Cody Chestnutt.

This time around, the band decided to force the issue by collaborating with pop-punk band Fall Out Boy on the song "Birthday Girl", which was summarily dismissed by critics and fans and has since been dropped from their new album "Rising Down".

Nevertheless, despite some recent aesthetic missteps, The Roots continue to turn out dark, moody hip-hop with a full-band firepower that is unmatched in the genre. Record sales be damned, these guys know how to throw it down live.

The band will head out on a large North American tour this summer with Erykah Badu in support of their new album.

If you've yet to experience The Roots 'coming alive' in concert, you're long overdue.

Philadelphia's hip-hop collective the Roots are off to a rough start at their new label.

After seven studio albums with MCA and Geffen, they signed to Def Jam in 2006 at the behest of then-label president Jay-Z. However, since Jay-Z's departure last December, things have been a bit more difficult.

In an effort to please Def Jam executives with a radio single, drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson says the group presented the pop-leaning "Birthday Girl" featuring Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump. Label staffers praised the track, but fans panned it, and the tune was stripped from the U.S. version of their new album, "Rising Down." [...]

Despite a decade of critical acclaim, the Roots have never sold more than 906,000 units of any album (with 1999's "Things Fall Apart"), according to Nielsen SoundScan. Their last album, 2006's "Game Theory," stalled at 204,000 copies.

"At a time, it was safe to be the Roots," Thpmpson says. "Now as each album goes by, the risk of annihilation becomes closer and closer. That's why this album is almost our defining moment."[...]

Long revered as one of the most accomplished live hip-hop acts, the Roots will hit the road May 4 with Erykah Badu for a 22-date North American tour. While on the road, Thompson will hold listening sessions in each city to maintain the marketplace presence of "Rising Down." [...]

And while the group may have dropped its best chance for a crossover hit in "Birthday Girl," Thompson says the Roots' history still counts for something. "If someone asked me, 'Do you want to release two albums and sell over 2 million copies, or do you want a 20-year career but none of your records will sell over 500,000 units?,' that's a tough question. But, looking back, I wouldn't change a thing."