The Roots Will Waterboard Your Ass

Posted Wednesday, March 05, 2008 @ 11:55 in Beat Reporter by Brandon Perkins

The Roots have never shied away from revolutionary imagery, both before and after the album art for Things Fall Apart. Despite being the festival friendliest rap group of all-time (because, you know, "they play their own instruments"), The Roots have had serious internal and external dialogue about their mostly-white audience throughout the years. It's never been any secret, and one must truly applaud ?uestlove, Black Thought and the rest for not dancing around such a sensitive topic and remaining true to themselves.

"75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)" by title alone references race in America. Reconstruction, as most of us were taught in middle school, was a difficult transition period after the Civil War. It was even more difficult for the newly "freed" slaves being lynched.

Lyrically, Black Thought unleashes more utterances of FOX News's favorite n-word than a Dave Chappelle skit. And there, in the video, The Roots kidnap a white dude and douse him in gasoline. If something is this racially charged from an aural perspective, the visual simplicity of a black male torturing a white captive may say something more severe than anyone involved wanted. Or not. The song and video are both dope, so it's a worthy conversation.

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