REVIEW -- Artist: The Roots Album: “Game Theory” Label: Def Jam

On

"Game Theory"

the rap-band

The Roots

(they play instruments) bring their best, tightest, angriest, most driven album to date. At approximately forty-seven minutes it is much more condensed than their other records (which usually clock in around the seventy minute mark.) The mixes are more exciting, the grooves are tighter, and the tone is darker. The jazzy-style which set the tone for their earlier records like 1994’s “Do You Want More?!!!??!” and 1996’s “Illadelph Halflife” are gone. After the breakthrough of 1999’s “Things Fall Apart” they experimented more with their parameters on 2002’s “Phrenology” and 2004’s magnificent “The Tipping Point”, leaving them as refined and focused as they’ve ever been. “Game Theory” is their first record to channel the excitement they deliver in a live setting. Over the years, they have allowed guitars more into the mix.
The tone is set by “False Media” an indictment of the world state and the war. A sampled voice says, “I don’t think old men ought to promote wars for young men to fight!” The war, the state of our country, the struggle to make ends meet are all at the center of this record.
The key stand-out, the highly funky “Long Time,” has a repeated refrain that “Everybody’s 50 cents away from a quarter where I come from.” This is educated hip-hop at it’s best, sans any bling talk and gangsta-posturing . The Roots have always more in the enlightened Native Tongue-esqe school of thought. On this track, both Black Thought and guest Peedi Peedi deliver fast-spewed verses, with as much rhythmic get-up to maintain some awesome momentum. The guitars echo, the beat crashes, the chorus is layered and over all it stands as perhaps the single strongest track the Roots have ever done.
There are other highlights as well. The ominous street-throb of “In The Music” which features long absent former member, Malik B., the groovy laid-back stroll of “Livin’ In A New World,” and “Atonement” which does well with a nice sample of Radiohead’s “You And Whose Army. “
The Roots seem to have a soft spot for Radiohead. They name-checked them on their album “Things Fall Apart”, and their drummer Amir “?uestlove” Thompson appeared on the hip-hop/R&B/Jazz tribute to Radiohead compilation album “Exit Music: Songs With Radio Heads” In fact “Game Theory” most represents a timeless hybrid between the downtrodden futurist downer motif of Radiohead’s “OK Computer” and the urban commentary of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”
The album closes with” Can’t Stop this,” a tribute to their late friend, producer Jay Dee (a.k.a. J Dilla) who died in February from Lupus. It’s a powerful and groundbreaking way to end a fantastic album. All in all, a must-have for any Roots fan, any hip-hip fan, and any music fan.