THE ROOTS AND GUESTS AT RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL


The previous post (below), the one about Prince popping up at the Maceo Parker show in Prospect Park, reminded me of a similar episode I witnessed last month at the Roots coming-out party on DefJam/benefit for J Dilla (RIP) at RCMH. For months, ?uestlove had been hyping the bill as an historic, all-star extravaganza with special guests up the wazoo, a hip-hop/neo-soul wet dream: a combination of Chappelle's Block Party, the Roots' legendary LA post-Grammy shows, and the old Black Lily jam sessions at the Wetlands in NYC. The two-day event was divided into one night of raw hip-hop (Common, Kweli -- and Nas!) and one night of more female-friendly but equally dope grown-folks music (Erkah, Mos). I opted for night #2. But if $ wasn't an issue, I would have easily hit up both.

Doesn't sound like I missed too much on night #1. Due to some bizarre flake synchronicity, virtually all of the secret special guests on board failed to show or arrived late. To the best of my knowledge, AWOL guests included: Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Ghostface, Raekwon, Dave Chappelle, Erykah Badu, and probably others. Let me say that again. Nas was there, Common and Kweli were there. Even Kane was there. But ?uest was expecting Kanye. Chappelle. Erykah. Ghost & Rae (performing their classic CubanLinx shit, including "Verbal Intercourse" with Nas!)

No surprise, some fans were baffled and disappointed. In the Roots' defense, these fans failed to recognize that even a solo Roots show beats about every other rap performance.

The next day, ?uest was somber and somewhat resentful at having been let down by the other performers. And surpisingly, he was quite revealing in his posts on Okayplayer.com, where concertgoers grilled him with questions, conspiracy theories, and worse.

As the Roots' leader and spokesman, all eyes were on him to avoid a repeat performance. Or better, to utterly fucking silence the critics with one of the most successfully executed all-star nights of good music in recent memory. My wife and I arrived just as the first act hit the stage. A haunting African singer set a thrilling mood. Babaa Maal from Senegal. Then, an unamplified sound emerged from the rear corner of the music hall. A full high-school drum line, replete with horns and all kinds of percussion, marching down the aisle, ?uest leading the troupe, Black Thought holding a megaphone, spitting "Duck Down." Nice. (Okay, the drum line entrance isn't entirely original, but it definitely took care of business.)

I'm not going to chronicle the entire concert, but let me just say that -- in addition to Angelique Kudjo, J. Davey (me not such a fan), Mos, and Erykah -- unexpected highlights included Slum Village, Jazzy Jeff, the previously mentioned Babaa Maal, Bilal doing a Radiohead cover, a comedy set by Chappelle. And, of course, the new president of the label, HOV.

It was getting close to curtains when the Roots launched into a mini Hip-Hop 101 of some other folks' songs, including Biggie's "One More Chance." The crowd was eating it up, even more so when the band cut out and the keyboardist, Kamal, started hitting the opening chords of Jay-Z's "PSA."

I began to feel the same tingling as when Prince came out in the park. Please, come on, don't toy with us, if you're playing this shit and don't produce Jigga in front of my eyes in about 2 seconds I'm going to be pissed.

Obviously, the song is crazy dramatic and there was a good raucous feeling in the air as the audience anticipated that perfect moment when it was time for them to yell, "Allow me to re-introduce myself. My name is HOV!!!" This is what it looked like.

Unfortunately, after the brief bliss, followed by "Encore" which was less exciting, it was all over. Like with Prince. Which gets me back to the original point of this piece...

Watching Jay-Z, like with Prince, I found myself thinking, He hasn't even said anything and already the crowd is going crazy. What is that quality in him? Is it the charisma or is it the sheer star power, the recognizability. And poor Black Thought. He is the epitome of focus, breath control, and spine-tingling old-school flow. Why Jay and not him?

I don' t have any answers for you today, but I hereby state: Jay is my favorite mainstream MC, Black Thought my favorite underground.