Archives: Philly Hold ‘em: Game Theory plays the house

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-In the game of hip-hop, the rap industry just moved The Roots all-in-

Hip-hop is about platinum. Not wearing platinum, but making platinum records. And anyone involved with The Roots gets the small triangle next to their name on the Billboard charts.

Scott Storch went from playing the keys on “What They Do” to commanding thousands of dollars per beat and overdubbing vocals for Paris Hilton. Erykah Badu sang on 1996’s Illadelph Halflife and went three times platinum on her 1997 debut. Eve dropped 16 bars on “You Got Me,” and parlayed that into becoming the Ruff Ryders’ First Lady. Jill Scott didn9t even perform on the song she wrote the hook for “You Got Me” and the label forced the group to ask Badu to perform it – and still went double plat in her debut. Guitarist Ben Kenny left the group after 2002’s Phrenology to play bass alongside pin-up Brandon Boyd in Incubus.

But The Roots themselves are plaque-less, which is how we got to Game Theory. Cast aside soon after 2004’s The Tipping Point failed to reach commercial radio, The Roots found themselves homeless, 12-year veterans looking for a place and another chance.

While The Tipping Point9s quest for radio airplay left the album disjointed, Game Theory is a complete return to form. Picture when Jordan scored 55 upon returning to Madison Square Garden after his 18-month baseball layoff. It’s that serious.

While the tiresome, spoken-word chorus of “False Media” robs the album of a dominant opening, the title-track “Game Theory” pounds loud, church-music keys while Black Thought spits. Turning the vintage Roots level up to “11,” oft-troubled emcee Malik B returns from self-imposed exile to trade bars with Thought.

The Roots produced a darker album with Game Theory, credited to label and studio instability, Hurricane Katrina (emcee Black Thought’s children lived in New Orleans and eventually fled to Houston) and the passing of friend J Dilla, aka Jay Dee.

But the result is a complete, focused effort with The Roots proving themselves as a band. While each song differs from the one preceding it, Game Theory weaves together perfectly like a Pink Floyd album.

The album’s close, “Can’t Stop This,” starts with a tribute through phone messages to J Dilla. A touching, but more importantly banging, track is no doubt making Dilla smile in the Afterlife.
“Clock with no Hands” pits Black Thought narrating about leaving his past, just that, in the past. The smooth keys and subtle background vocals perfectly echo his verses.

But the whole album isn’t a downer that should be reduced to backpackers’ headphones.

“In The Music” uses a diet version of the Knight Rider beat and “Here I Come” is a clone of “Boom” from The Tipping Point. Both come off as decent tracks without seeming like carbon copies though. “Hear I Come” provides the perfect introduction to the album’s crème de la crème “Long Time.”

The meandering rhythm guitar on the laid-back “Long Time” mesh perfectly with the upbeat drumming of Questlove, intertwining with the singing of 70s R&B pioneer Bunny Sigler. The result is easily the apex of the album. Peedi Crack, usually forgettable except when he’s bad enough that you really can’t forget his verse, comes off nicely on his 16.

Highlighting the experimental nature of the band, “Atonement” takes a slow sample of “You and Who’s Army”“ by Radiohead – who else in hip-hop takes risks like that? (I don’t expect Rick Ross, Yung Joc or Dem Franchise Boyz to sample anything from Kid A anytime soon.) While the song follows the format of “Complexity” from Phrenology, Thought spits “many are called but few are chosen.”

The Roots, with little else to play for, moved all-in with Game Theory. Will the hip-hop world follow their lead and call?

If not, their loss.

Rating: (in different forms for those of you that read different magazines/blogs/reviewers)

B+, 8/10, four in a half stars/mics out of five

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