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Album Reviews

The Roots

The Roots
How I Got Over
(Def Jam)
www.theroots.com

How I Got Over
Def Jam
www.theroots.com

The Roots have seemingly been around forever. Black Thought and ?uestlove‘s group have been the pioneers of live instrumentation hip hop and have garnered fans from all points of the music spectrum. I have to admit, whilst I’ve always listened to their releases and thought they were cool, I was never the biggest fan. So what’s the new album like, coming as it does two years after their last release and in a period where they’ve become the house band for Jimmy Fallon’s US chat show? Well, simply, it’s great.

It can be worrying to look down a tracklisting and see so many guest spots, yet there isn’t too much wrong with the ensemble cast they’ve brought together for How I Got Over. Some guests are definitely out of left-field, with Joanna Newsom and the Monsters of Folk appearing in amongst the more obviously guests such as Blu, John Legend and Little Brother’s Phonte. Yet they mix well, Newsom’s trademark high pitched vocals delivering a brilliantly catchy hook on Right On and Patty Crash‘s similar vocals on The Day wrap around Blu’s raps perfectly.

It may be the case that there aren’t any bangers on this album, but that’s not to the detriment of the overall feel of the release. As the sun shines and the sky remains light at gone 9pm, this is the album that will really get the floating vibes going. Whether it’s ?uestlove’s crisp drumming or one of the rapper’s punchy vocals, The Roots have brought together what could be seen as one of their strongest albums to date.

Check out How I Got Over to see just how well they do their thing. Grab this album, you won’t regret it.

Abjekt.