ARTIST: The Roots ft. Patrick Stump
TITLE: “Birthday Girl”
WEB DEBUT: March 10, 2008
ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Purportedly the first single of their upcoming Rising Down, the Roots team with Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump… and it kind of sucks. Which is too bad, since everything else that’s leaked from their 3,579th album has been pretty excellent! Remember the all-the-way-live, ridonkulous, distorted “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)” that got us through the cold throes of late February? And the deliciously moody, horrorcore-era Dre squeak of “Get Busy,” which lit up our early March? (It’s been 22 years, and we never get tired of hearing Joeski Love getting scratched.) And now we get this Cody ChesnuTT-meets-Gym-Class-Heroes emo-love jam?
Lame, sure, but fuck it. We’ll gladly swallow a sell-some-records tactic if it means another album as solid as Game Theory (and, hey, we already established today that critics and the public have different tastes). So once I buy the album (or some kindly saint at Def Jam sends me a promo), I’ll just quietly skip this like I did “Back Like That” on Fishscale or “I Know” on American Gangster. And by “quietly,” I mean “make this blog post and be a huge dick about it.”
Plus Kip Winger already proved that writing a song about wanting to bang a 17-year-old is kinda gross. Thankfully, we didn’t have to see Black Thought’s chest hair this time around.
WHERE TO FIND IT:Nah Right.
am i the only person who hasn’t given half a shit since illadelph halflife? or, maybe, things fall apart…
@extracrispy: yeah, i think i would have really loved the 75 Bars video if it was pete wentz tied up in the van.
@iantenna: Nope, you’re not the only one.
What’s wrong with “I Know”?
What’s wrong with “Back Like That?”
@iantenna: Things fall apart was incredible though…
What’s wrong with Kip Winger?
The Roots are trying to break my heart. I wish they would just accept the fact that they are never going to be a Platinum act and be ok with the fact that they have a loyal audience of “coffee shop chicks and white dudes” who love them and have allowed them to live the dream.
Why did they make a video for “75 Bars” if it’s not the first single? Confused.
I still give a shit.
@silkyjumbo: That’s the only thing that could have made that video more awesome. That and maybe letting Tuba Gooding, Jr. light him on fire.
This song isn’t that bad. It’s not great. Thankfully, I think it’s the last song on the disc.