Album reviews
The Roots
Home Grown! The Beginner's Guide to The Roots, Vols. 1 & 2
(Geffen, 2005)
Any band takes a risk with a greatest hits collection. They risk alienating longtime fans by not offering anything new and they risk shutting out newcomers by not offering their most popular hits. Luckily, The Roots have avoided both with Home Grown! The Beginner's Guide to The Roots, Volumes 1 & 2, a 30-song collection of the group's most successful singles, fan favorites, b-sides and previously unreleased tracks.
No doubt an attempt to cash in on the tracks they've recorded with Geffen, before they leave to their new home at Def Jam, the title of this collection may be a bit misleading. While these two discs are a perfect introduction to the world's most prolific hip-hop band, more than anything Home Grown! is for diehard fans.
Roots drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" (pronounced: questlove) Thompson personally hand-picked the collection, lacing between the group's classics and more mainstream hits ("Silent Treatment," "The Next Movement" and "What They Do") some b-sides and rare gems ("Quicksand Millennium," "It's Comin'" and "Y'all Know Who") with a few previously unreleased tracks. One of these dazzling jewels is The Roots' incredible live medley of the single "The Seed" and "Web" on Gilles Peterson's legendary Worldwide Show on BBC Radio One, demonstrating the group's talent at sonically dancing with live instruments swirling around the immaculate, deadly, always-on-time rhymes of lead MC Black Thought.
The alternate versions of the group's hit are what make this collection shine for newbies and fans alike. There's "Break You Off"-a chill reggae performance taken from the sound check before a show in Cincinnati, "You Got Me"-the band's Grammy-winning hit that features Philly natives Eve and Jill Scott (who's the author of the song's hook originally sung by Erykah Badu) and "Don't Say Nuthin'"-a dope remix of a song I hadn't liked much until now.
Besides these rarities, and most enticing for fans are essential Roots' tracks like "Good Music," "Essaywhuman?!!!!" and "Pass The Popcorn" from their debut indie-label release, Organix, from when the Philadelphia collective was still known as the Square Roots. "Essaywhuman?!!!!," a live, fan favorite, is the foundation of The Roots raw, live-instrument sound that has made them one of the most enduring hip-hop acts, if not for their ability to straddle the mainstream/underground divide.
In a time when rappers like 50 Cent are trying to corrupt the art form, Home Grown! is a reminder of why hip-hop is ultimately worth fighting for and The Roots are our heroes in arms.