Rising Down
| Rising Down | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Roots | ||||
|
Publication |
April 25, 2008 |
|||
| Label (s) | Def Jam | |||
|
Format (s) |
CD, vinyl, download |
|||
|
Title (number) |
15th |
|||
|
running time |
52:05 |
|||
|
? uestlove |
||||
|
||||
Rising Down is the eighth studio album by the American alternative hip-hop band The Roots .
publication
The album was released in late April 2008, and a clean version of the album was released in May of the same year . The long player was preceded by the single Birthday Girl , which can only be found as an iTunes exclusive track in the USA . Rising Down was released in the United States on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the album on April 29, 2008.
concept
The album deals with political issues, according to member Black Thought this is due to the following:
"We are living in what is probably the politically most explosive phase that we have seen so far."
The title track already deals with global warming and the use of psychotropic drugs . The name of the song is an allusion to the study Rising Up and Rising Down by the author William T. Vollmann .
While Criminal criticizes the US legal system, Lost Desire is about hypocrisy . Former Roots member Malik B. and MC Talib Kweli give a guest appearance in the latter song .
The eighth song I Will Not Apologize is described as an homage to the inventor of Afrobeat , Fela Kuti , who died in 1997 . According to Black Thought, it is also about "that racist southern vaudeville aesthetic with which the media now and again portray African-American artists."
In the other songs, the group addresses the violence in Philadelphia , environmental problems and social problems of poor people in a critical way .
Track list
- The Pow Wow
- Rising Down
- Get busy
- @ 15
- 75 bars (Black's Reconstruction)
- Becoming unwritten
- Criminal
- I will not apologize
- I Can't Help It
- Singing Man
- Unwritten
- Lost Desire
- The show
- Rising Up
- Birthday girl