mixtape maestro

Not only one of the greatest hip hop albums in recent years, but one of the better soul discs as well (one could easily perch it alongside the socially conscious-leaning R&B classics of Wonder, Gaye and Mayfield), The Roots‘ ninth studio effort How I Got Over hits mind-melting brilliance in it’s every realism-dipped lyric, warm soul-baked groove and nod-worthy chorus, demanding anyone who, even for a split-second, flirted with the notion that being a late-night TV house band and schmoozing with Hollywood’s finest on a daily basis would somehow dilute the band’s work to slap themselves across the face as hard as possible for not knowing how The Roots roll.

And while Over‘s opening half, a consistently compelling five-cut streak of Recession Era-backed sunless introspection undoubtedly lands as the strongest portion of the album, it’s “Right On”, a cut housed in the disc’s more hope-filled latter half that has earned the most revisits from this corner of the Web.

Here, The Roots muscle up an interpolation of indie folk goddess Joanna Newsom‘s quirky “The Book of Right-On” (from her 2004 debut, The Milk-Eyed Mender), crafting an oh-so-smoove summery bob that edges weightlessness despite a heavy boom-bap drum foundation. Meanwhile, inspired by Newsom’s looped chipmunk squeaks to “shine a light on”, Black Thought oozes self-confidence, promising to “raise the bar though like Bridgette”.

A future Roots classic in our opinion.

“Right On”:

BONUS DL: Joanna Newsom “The Book of Right-On” (alt)