The Roots !

"Hip-hop has been more about the bling-bling than the boom-bap lately and has even been declared dead by some. But Philadelphia's legendary Roots crew and Chi-Town's Lupe Fiasco did their part to rejuvenate the genre with inspiring and entertaining performances before a sold-out crowd in Dallas' Gypsy Tea Room on Monday night.

Few rap acts are as efficient and innovative live as the self-contained The Roots, and the band took it up yet another notch by including Philadelphia's Collective Brass Heaven, a quartet of tuba, sousaphone, saxaphone and trumpet players that walked through the packed crowd and added depth and dimension to newer tracks such as "Game Theory," "Long Time" and the crowd favorite, The Tipping Point's "Star."

Digital cameras and chants of "forever, forever, Roots Crew forever" punctuated the atmosphere as the band dusted off old favorites and wove classic verses alongside their own. Eric B and Rakim's "I Ain't No Joke" melted into the late James Brown's "Get on the Good Foot," then veered back into Roots' territory with "Mellow My Man" and "Love of My Life."

The ecstatic crowd parroted Black Thought verse for verse as he, ?uestlove, Hub, Jeff Bradshaw and Malik charged through "Apache (Jump On It)," "Award Tour," "Get By" and even West Coast and Dirty South favorites such as "Deep Cover," "It's Goin' Down" and "Snap Yo' Fingers."

After a false exit and a couple of extended solos by Brass Heaven and bass player Hub, guitarist Mr. Bradshaw captured the country's cynicism about the war with his piercing rendition of "Master of War," earning cheers or approval as he achingly declared that "all the money you make could never buy back your soul."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-roots_0221gl.State.Edition1.394a166.html