Game Theory [review]

“Hrrr hmph, hrrr hmph hrrr hrrr mmm mmm hrrr.” If any other rap act had tried to bring that line to life in song, they would have failed terribly; yet not only did The Roots have the audacity to think in a way mere mortal minds can’t contemplate, they allowed Black Thought to go through these incomprehensible lyrics repeatedly on the 2004 chart-topping single “Don’t Say Nothin’.”

The first song to clue listeners in to the genius of The Roots was not a chart topper. It was the false ending filled “Step Into The Realm” from the band’s critically acclaimed album Things Fall Apart, arguably the best album they have released to date.

No Roots album since has had as many head-nodders and hip-shakers as the seminal 1999 release, and some fans even argued for a while that the band was going – gasp – pop. But it’s 2006 and The Roots are back with an aural fix on the very un-pop – but wants to be so badly – Def Jam label.

“Jay Z just wants The Roots to be The Roots,” said drummer ?uestlove (Metro article), of the man who knows so well how to tread the thin line between street cred’ and white bread. Through a separate un-sourced interview he also reveals that, “No album has caused me as much stress and lost sleep and headaches as this one.”

So what of the album Game Theory that has caused the band’s drummer and mastermind such mental pain? Is it the time machine we hope will transport us back to the days pre Do You Want More?!!!??! Or will it transport us to an alternate future, one more accessible and less experimental than 2002’s Phrenology?

Neither. Game Theory is a sonic Roots purgatory, a gray area where the group seems to try too hard or not try hard enough. The disc sounds more live than the group’s prior seven albums- almost as if you’re standing in the audience at one of their infamous South Philly concerts where subsequent performers are “backstage whisperin’ to management, like, change the order. There’s no way that we can rock after them.” (”100% Dundee)

Black Thought’s delivery is predictable, but that’s okay. With a seemingly endless arsenal of lyrical styles and guest appearances by the usual suspects (Malik B., Dice Raw) and new voices (Wadud Aman, Peedi Peedi), Thought keeps it interesting without diverging too far from The Roots formula.

Regardless of the steady lyrical delivery, something about the album “don’t feel right,” (which also happens to be the first single off Game Theory). You can get away with the cymbals being high in the mix on one or two tracks, but any more than that and what was once considered innovation starts sounding like a high school marching band running through crowd-pleasers. Also, though Thought and the crew jive well and spit hard lyrics, it sometimes feels as if Jay ‘Def Jam CEO’ Z should give them that extra push to get their minds off the neighborhood stoop and out of the late night, weed-fueled cipher.

But don’t let these comments put a damper on an album way ahead of the curve in this genre of music. Like the rhyme scholar Thought professes to be, and the musical wunderkind we know ?uestlove is, it’s hard not to expect anything less than high quality work from high quality performers. Yet as ‘Tru Blu’ put it on the Village Voice website, “I don’t think all the bullshit regional stripper hip-hop is going away anytime soon, but if Jay-Z and ?uestlove keep working together, at least there’ll be some shit worth getting excited about.”

Word.

+ also published at Diminshed 7th