The Roots Continued to Subvert Expectations With an Irving concert

The Roots promoted their “Hip-Hop Is The Love Of My Life Tour” with two openers, Digable Planets and The Pharcyde.
But at around 8:30 p.m., it was Black Thought and the entire Roots crew that first emerged on stage at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, opening with a medley of deep cuts of '70s soul The audience were on their feet when the band played their first original, “Step Into the Realm” from their 1999 masterpiece, Things Fall Apart. With that, it was a Roots show — strangely, there was no mention of would-be openers Digable Planets or The Pharcyde.

The Roots came through Fort Worth last year on their hip-hop celebration called F.O.R.C.E. Tour with LL Cool J, but last played a full show of originals in 2017 in Irving.

On “Proceed” from their 1995 Do You Want More?!!!??! debut, The Roots’ biggest strength shines in full. In a genre defined by heliocentric one-man shows, they are a sprawling 10-piece that can effortlessly shift between smooth Donald Byrd covers and vintage hip-hop sounds. After over 25 years in the public eye, The Roots have drawn no imitators, and remain hip-hop’s definitive band.

A few tracks later, Black Thought brought Digable Planets to the stage, who performed a medley of early '90s tracks, with the Roots becoming their house band. It was a great surprise, knowing that the headlining act would be on stage all night, bringing the other acts’ songs to life in a capacity they’d never been before.

About four or five songs in, Digable Planets thanked the Irving crowd and left the stage without performing their biggest hit, “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat).”

It was surprising, but The Roots made up for it by launching into more tracks from Things Fall Apart, such as “Dynamite” and “Act Too (Love Of My Life).”

Since that iconic 1999 album, Black Thought has seemed like a conscious subversion from the traditional mainstream rapper archetype. Being a rapper can seem a game of perception, often shaped by similar conventions. How rich are you? How many girls have you slept with? How tough are you?

Through The Roots or his excellent solo catalog, Black Thought has never seemed to care about being perceived in those ways. His lyrics are intelligent and serious.

To the side of the stage, a tall man in a white baseball cap was doing full-body squats to the beat. It was too aggressive not to notice. Suddenly, he came running onto stage with two other men as Black Thought introduced The Pharcyde. The man was Fatlip, the other two were Imani and Slimkid3, three-fourths of the original Pharcyde lineup minus Bootie Brown.

The three of them brought a burst of energy onto the stage, opening with the comedic “Ya Mama.” The group continued into “Drop,” still carrying their brash energy that once led Rolling Stone to describe them as “a pack of class clowns set loose in a studio.”

Similar to Digable Planets though, The Pharcyde left the stage without performing either of their biggest hits, “Passin’ Me By” or "Runnin’.”

With the Roots back on stage, it was the home stretch. They performed a (somehow) more energetic rendition of the theme song-esque “Here I Come” from 2006’s Game Theory, before the band traded off solos ranging from keytar to sousaphone.

Then, guitarist “Captain” Kirk Douglas played the intro to “You Got Me,” bringing the crowd to its feet yet again. The band’s most popular radio hit is an alternative take on romance in hip-hop, with lyrics describing two people in a relationship learning to trust and communicate. It’s almost radical for it to be such a hit in a genre that tends to glorify infidelity.

After “You Got Me,” the crowd got what they wanted. Digable Planets re-emerged for “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” and The Pharcyde pranced back onto the stage for “Passin’ Me By” and “Runnin’.” The Roots closed the show with “The Seed 2.0,” arguably their defining track for its lyrics and sound, merging hip-hop and rock.

It was a brilliant way to structure a show, as opposed to two set-ups and tear-downs before the main event, incorporating all acts into one long celebration. By the end of the night, The Roots had played for nearly three straight hours without as much as 30 seconds between songs. Questlove deserves tons of credit for holding the show together, keeping time for three different acts and playing the band into each new song seamlessly.

The Roots are one of the most exposed music acts of all time. They’re on TV five nights a week on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, they host and headline the annual "Roots Picnic" festival in Philadelphia and have put out 10 globally acclaimed records. Still, they manage to go against the grain at every given opportunity.

In a genre where most performers play solo to tracks, they tour as a massive band. Black Thought forgoes brash masculinity contests in favor of lyrics about complex emotions. Their biggest hit is an intimate love song. They advertise a traditional concert tour but deliver a mini festival. The Roots are hip-hop’s great contrarians, and they surprised North Texas yet again.