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| That's yours truly about 30 seconds in next to Black Thought in a classic b-boy pose. (courtesy ArtOfRhyme |
"...built like a tank/smokin' on dank/walkin' through the Guggenhiem raw like black ink..." -Dice Raw from "Get Busy"
No menacing bouncer-dude or siddity fly-jawn with a clipboard asking ‘What the hell are you doing at Larry Gold's Studio for The Roots' Rising Down listening party?' Somehow a slovenly-chic insider like myself was able to breeze right through the lobby adorned with gold plaques, quiet as kept. I fully expected the third degree as we made our way into the inner sanctum of this already-renowned recording space.
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That rarefied air is a strange thing. You could walk freely among some of Philly's hip-hop giants (actually, any number of musicians from across the country might have been up in there) but the ubiquitous celluloid-posturing from digital-maggers and jaded scribes was clogging the air with ill-tempered vibes. Not to mention, some looming rapcat with a rucksack (quite possibly housing his teenage brother) kept eye-jammying me every time I took a swig off my scammed Red Stripe (I thought dudes stopped wearing backpacks as party accessories back in '96).
DJ Excel was playing good shit but no one was there to do the wop-baseball-bat to Hiero and Native Tongues tunes, people were fiending for The Roots' latest labor of lovescorn. I spied a couple of Rising Down's leaked cuts cued on Excel's Scratch Serato interface: "75 Bars" and the toxically sharp "Get Busy," a menacing triple-team relay from Black Thought, Dice Raw & Peedi Crakk.
Foreshadowing was now complete and the blunt smoke thickened as the three-headed Philly monster's verses jumped out over ?love's's inspired percussive forays and Jazzy Jeff's minimalist cuts. Philly was in the house now, from the 40-something Kensington crew rocking vintage Tug McGraws to the shapely butter-pecan Phemme Phatales to the white-froed corny/cool types swilling free beer in the corner.
We squeeze into the cozy anteroom as the intro to Rising Down segues forward. The tracks are played in sequence but seemingly at breakneck speed; hard to get a handle on but dark digable-ness was the impression. I get close enough to the fishbowl window of the master studio chambers where the artists and cognoscenti are passing blunts and chanting lyrics. Thought seems to have a new cigar paper in-hand at every odd minute. No one in the control room seems to acknowledge our existence, which is fine; I consider myself lucky just to be there in the heady air.
The mood of the album is gray, brooding and chaotic — much like the city and times we live in; hipsterish rock hooks aplenty (see Game Theory) but raw sounds smacking more of the definitive chaotic-bap they have favored of late rather than the Bad Brains-esque explorations of Phrenology. Unlike many of the lot, I'm not there for quotes or to network, I'm there to soak it all in and blog it on out. I suspect many SigmaPhidelphians this spring and summer shall soon be feeling the same instant viral high that Rising Down induces.
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