Pitchfork Forkcast: Video: The Roots: "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)"

Video: The Roots: "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)"

The Roots' rep since the early days has been tied to the live instrumentation of their hip-hop band concept. But they rhyme, too, man. So "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)", from upcoming 10th album Rising Down, is just what its title suggests-- rapper Black Thought spitting what probably adds up to 75 bars, reconstructing whatever you want, no hooks. With politically percussive epithet use and lines like "Smooth like that dude Sean Connery was playing," the extended rap picks up a methodical, cold-blooded force, though the specific content-- was that an Arsenio Hall joke?-- mostly isn't the kind of thing you'll be quoting to your buddies. Even if your weed's as good as Black Thought's. Nah, the interplay between ?uestlove's muted, minimal drumming and Tuba Gooding Jr.'s sousaphone bass lines is what murders on this one. The Rik Cordero-directed video takes a stark, lo-fi approach that involves a lot of time watching the shadowy, shades-wearing MC rap-- first on a van, and then in some kind of film-cliché interrogation room, where cigarette smoke hangs in the air while a bound and gagged old white dude waits to get his ass kicked. Damn, 75 bars and still enough breath left to smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[from Rising Down; due 04/29/08 Def Jam]

Thu: 05-15-08: 03:30 PM CDT
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