The Audacity of Dope

Ok, I’ve given Jimmy Fallon a rough time since his show came on the air, but “this ish right herrrrrrrrrrrrre?”  This is great.

As I mentioned when we first played this track on SNSS a while back, it seems like Tariq’s singing on the Jimmy Fallon Show might start to shine through more on their recorded material too.  If the results are anything like this, I don’t mind one bit.

Get out of these streets and get into the classroom kids.

I love when my day job puts me on to dope songs/videos and this one came to my attention today.  Peep Courtney John’s “Lucky Man” for that classic Roots meets Motown feel…perfect record to close out the summer in the next month or so.  Rock to it.

Shout to the homey Noah for the heads up.

Seattle people: Come on out to GOODS tomorrow from 4-6 PM to meet the new homies Like, Mibbs, & BeYoung of Pac Div before they take the stage with the Roots at the Paramount.  Big shout to all the folks at GOODS, Zune, Universal Motown, and Chrewd for making everything happen.  Be on the lookout for our interview with Pac Div shortly…

Ok, I’ve had some recent discussions about how Barack’s election might inspire artists to create happier, more hopeful music, but this is ridiculous.  Nah, just playin’.  Great stuff here from the Legendary Roots Crew for all the witto ones, swiped from NahRight.

Y’all are up on The Dino 5 too, right?

Aside from Kanye’s “Glow In The Dark Tour,” I’ve never seen anyone do a better live performance than the Roots.  Seeing as how I’ve caught them about 15 times vs. 4 for ‘Ye, I think the overall edge has to go to Legendary.  In this clip from OKP TV, there’s some dope performance footage and ?uestlove and Black Thought talk about their live show strategy.  Plus, Greg The Dude broke out the fisheye.  I love the fisheye.

The homey Tunji also helped put this together (as you can partly see in the mirror while Tariq is talking), and he has additional clips over at his site…peep ’em.

The 3rd of 4 ‘webisodes’ documenting the Roots Picnic from June 7th just dropped, this one featuring Esperanza Spalding.  She’s dope.  Thankfully, the performance audio is way better than that for the Cool Kids clip, so you can actually hear her.

Swiped from OKP.

The 2nd of 4 Okayplayer TV ‘webisodes’ documenting the Roots Picnic from June 7th in Philly.  This one features The Cool Kids, though the recorded audio for their performance is pretty janky.  Also, how is Mike gonna wear a shirt THAT baggy, with pants THAT tight.  That makes no kind of sense at all.

Swacked from OKP.

In the first of four ‘webisodes’ documenting the recent Roots Picnic that went down in Philly a few weeks back (a day after we interviewed ?uest for Sound Session), Black Thought, Amanda Diva, and others give you a little introduction on what the event was all about.  I like the idea of this ‘blockapalooza’ happening every year, hopefully ?uest can make that happen.  And, of course, no concert video is complete without the obligatory drunk white girls.

Swiped from Femi @ OKP.

Remix America paired up with Declare Yourself and interviewed ?uestlove (of the Roots) about the importance of voting in the upcoming election.  Decon Records‘ own Jason Goldwatch remixed the raw footage to create this dope final product.  If you’re not registered, head on over to Declare Yourself and do it.  Only takes a second to make a difference.