The
ROOK
As hip hop continues to
kill itself softly by trying to
"keep it real" with its juve-
nile rhymes of making
money and drug sellin', one
crew of Philly kids, better
known as The Roots, steps
up to the mic on a mission,
like Special Ed. Their intent:
to make good, honest music
and remind kids that hip
hop, like skateboarding, is
about fun and cama-
raderie-not gun-totin' and
gang-bangin'. But, as hip
hop falls deeper and deeper
into the abyss of negativity,
The Roots wonder if even
they, hip hop's most versa-
tile spokesmen, can turn the
tides and save the world.
We should start off with how
the band came together.
?uestlove aka Ahmir, brother
on the drums: In 1987, we came
together at the Philadelphia
High School for Creative and
Performing Arts, and that's
where Black Thought and 1
gave birth to this band. I didn't
have any dj equipment, but 1.
knew how to play drums. '871
was sorta the year of a sparse
arrangement of hip hop with
virtually no other instruments
but drums. You know, any Run
DMC joint you just needed
drums, so it all just came natu-
ral to me. I didn't have any idea
that we were nine years ahead
of our time. As time went on.
we got more serious about the
group. We really didn't do too.
many shows at that time. The
majority of our shows would be
one show every two months.
We really had no outlet for cre-
ative expression, so to speak..
You'd think with a large
metropolitan city like Philly,
you would have a number of
avenues to choose from.
around the world are
now getting hip to.
Around '89, due to
the politics, you
weren't able to
keep a club that
caters to the crowd
open for more that
two months
was no lyricists lounge
radio was slowly cutting back
on the hip hop daily allowance
that we were allowed to have
Is that why you shot out
to Europe to make your
first album?
No, thinking it was gonna be
more of an up hill battle, we just
wanted to maximize our options
as far as our marketplace is con-
cerned, let of granns here,
they release a record, and the
record has a life of modest
three to four months. With us,
we've secured it so that even if
we get dropped, we can still
tour of the regular We can still
go across the globe cause we
just set our shit up right.
Does that come as a result
of the work put in on the
three albums or a result of
your live shows?
Definitely a result
of our live shows,
and a lot of work on
the first album.
What happened
was, because of the
frustration and con-
stant door closing on
the idea of a group
like us getting put on.
in 92 it came to a
do-or-die situation.
Wwere like,
Something has got
to happen or we're
gonna die as a group"
What we did was we
got a little inspiration
from my man who
plays the buckets. We.
got ourselves some
buckets and cans and
went down to South
Street in Philly and just
played for the people. I told a
friend about how successful we
were the first week, and he said,
"Why don't you use your real
instruments? I'll bring my up-
Yeah, being it was the second
biggest rap market back in 'ght bass." So then that second
and '89. Schooly D, the godfa week was when we were actu
ther of gangster rp, is from ally "born again All of a sud-
Philly. Cash Money, Biden we just had this new life.
Spinbad, all these brothers from
Philly were taking the idea of
combining two records and
making a real nstrument.
They invented transforming
and all these styles that djs
86
was Josh Abrams on bass, I was
on drums, Black Thought, and
this kid named Crums
rhymin'. We lasted until the end
of that summer when Josh
moved off to Northwest.
University and Crumbs, well,
Crumbs only wanted to be a
part-time rhymer, so enter
Malik B and Hub on bass. We
were officially born as the line
yousee today in 1993.
remember the first time I
saw you perform live at
Irving Plaza in '95, all
these hardrock knockers
were there in their goose-
downs with their hard-as-
steel attitudes, showing no
love and it took a dose of
"Hip Hop 101" to get any
sort of response.
That was the first time NYC
had seen us. We did that show,
a relatively unknown group,
with just a lot of reputation
and what
why when Clones came out, I
was really having fun watching
people's reactions. Heads were
thrown off. See, we'll never
bring ourselves to do something
we don't wanna do. Do You
Want More?!!!??! is something
we very much wanted to do.
But at that time I was 22, a
young buck who just got a
record deal, I was all happy.
But now I'm little older, a little
jaded at this industry.
And that's noticeable on the
new album. It has a rougher
sound, a bit harder hitting.
Well, we didn't want to be
tougher or come off as tough
guys, but we definitely wanted
people to know how we were
the audienfeeling and, to be quite honest,
how impress
and even now,
this was very foreign. The idea,
of a live band seemed sorta
"soft" as in alternative,
meaning no skills
was like "Alra
us." Until
And yet you're demonstrat
ing more skills than any dj
or rhymer or even most
other bands.
Right, but the thing is,
wwere disgusted at what the
rap market has come to.
Disgusted at the fact that there
are certain rules you need to
abide by just to get on radio.
Disgusted at the way your video
is supposed to look. Hip hop
was no longer about mein', djin'.
b-boyin'. And it's just gonna get
worse. Hip hop right now
needs an enema. It needs a
good-ass colon cleanin'.
How did "Hip Hop 101"
come about?
Whenever we did a school
assembly or talent show, what-
ever song was the shit at the
moment we'd do Like we'd
came out and do Bonita
Applebum and the crowd.
would get open. That's all they
cared about something that
was familiar
Who do you look to as
influences?
I like people who break the
rules. I like Hendrix, Public
Enemy, Tribe. Someone dared
me to listen to "Pet Sounds" by
the Beach Boys, so when I was
flying out to England, I put it in
my headset and I fell in love
with that shit. I just love the tex-
ture. I read up on how Brian
Wilson made the album and
read up on his life, and he truly
is a tormented genius. So, after
reading that and listening to
what he was trying to convey.
listening to what he thought
were "new" sounds-making a
percussion section out of a
punch of Pepsi bottles-that's
innovative to me. So, I take
knowledge from that. Same
ages for the Beatles. James.
Brown, of course. Mobb Deep.
I just take everything and make
-Chris Nieratko
people don't know that. Some
people who are technically
advanced will know. A lot of
people are still in the dark botar
as our imaging is concerned
that's why it was import to
make this record the way we
did because we just wanted all
preconceived notions out peo-
ple's heads. We never said we
were gonna be a live band
100% of the time. We never said
we were a jazz band of any of ant my own.
these different laws that people
are holding us down to. That's
J
A S O N
ADAM S
Since 1966
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