Today’s Roots
When The Roots joined Jimmy Fallon’s show as his in-house band, it provided more confirmation that hip-hop has permanently crossed over into a genre of music people from all races and economic levels can relate to and/or appreciate.
I came across an article online which labels The Roots as “America’s Band,” and I have to say I agree:
The Roots represent “how we live now.” When The Roots joined Fallon for Late Night, folks still used the term “sellout.” Now that’s a quaint, old-fogey notion from a time when your career represented “you” as a person. Now your Facebook page or Twitter feed does the selling out, and every job is just another “gig,” whether you’re a blogger, rapper, or financial consultant to the subhuman demons on Wall Street. Throw in Quest’s fluency with Twitterese, and generally avid use of social media (even breaking some Occupy Wall Street news), and add a pinch of their newfound political prankishness and you have a band that represents America in a way that runs deeper than sales and digital downloads.
It’s cool to see a hip-hop/soul band become a mainstream, (almost) household name especially since their talent is not based solely on their often politically-driven lyrics but on their instrumentalism as well. (If you’ve seen ?uestlove work the drums, you know what I mean.)
What do you think? Do The Roots qualify to be “America’s Band” of today? If not, who would you choose?
Read the rest of the article here
