The Roots at Somerset House 19th July 2007 - Review
- Posted on July 23, 2007 5:34 PM
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When I first saw the Roots at the Jazz Cafe back in 1998 it was one of THE Hip Hop gigs of recent memory. They were still on the cusp of conciousness here in the UK and it was prior to the release of probably their best LP to date "Illadelph Half life" - they put on a show of unbelievable show man ship, originality and most importantly a solid Hip Hop Astetic (and a guest appearance from the Jungle Brothers as well didnt hurt!!)
In the ten years since a lot has happened to the Roots, line up changes, label changes - plenty of patchy Lps and an drastically increased UK fan base have made the Roots into quite a box office draw..
This was there only UK date so far this year at Somerset House so we decided to go along to see The Roots in this totally one off venue - I did have my reservations as to what they'd be like but went along expecting to be entertained if nothing else..
Somerset House was packed and sold out of trendyish looking Roots fans all expecting to see live Hip Hop at its best. We rocked up at about 8ish and had to sit through (well stand through) Leon Jean Marie - kind of an Eagle Eyed Cherry of our time... - not a great start...
As is started to get dark The Roots hit the stage and got some serious crowd love.. As they blasted through their set it quickly became apparent that the Hop Hop they had once been the pioneers of would not be as prevelant was when I'd seen them back in 98.
The set was one to be admired but you dont go to gigs to admire do you? You go to feel the music and basically go ape to your favourite songs!!! The Roots have dozens of banging tracks but they played few of them.... I think they have given up on "the game" realising that people dont but their records so they will just play what they want - this is fine - but they should warn the fans...
Tracks I can remember include
The Seed
A Star
You got me
and thats about it.....
The Boom box extroadinarie Scratch is gone replaced with guitarist / singer Kirk Douglas which basically sums up the change from Hip Hop crew to wanna be 70s festival rock group....
A Bob Dylan cover version spanning 15 minutes summed up the Roots and was painful to watch...
A medley of Hip Hop cover versions was nice but an opportunity missed - covering Snap Ya fingers by Lil Jon had no relevance to this crowd...
Overall not a gig I particularly enjoyed.... just not enough Hip Hop for me I'm affraid...I think most of the crowd felt the same....
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