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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Rising Down
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 19 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Def Jam
Release Date: 29 April 2008
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rap
Summary
The latest studio album from the hip-hop group features Common, Malik B, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Styles P, Wale, and DJ Jazzy Jeff, amongst others guest artists.
Also By This Artist: Game Theory Phrenology The Tipping Point
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)
With an incongruent Fall Out Boy track set aside for single duty and all those rappers a dream community taking the burden off Black Thought, this is the most accomplished pure hip-hop album in years.
Read Full Review >RapReviews.com
Stop wasting time and go to the store to get Rising Down right now.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
It’s absolutely astonishing that after so many years of excellent and superb music The Roots are still one of the best bands around. With Rising Down they have not only proved it but they have silenced all of the doubters and haters out there; this is really a special band.
Read Full Review >Lost At Sea
Encapsulating everything that has come to pass since their debut with "Organix" in 1993, Rising Down is the best The Roots release to date, bar none.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
The Roots' uncompromising sucker punch of an album captures the sound of battle-scarred survivors intent on being the last band standing in a world and music industry steadily falling apart.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
Playing against typecast, Rising Down is not an appropriate soundtrack for your next fraternity party or bong load. It's more of a call to arms. Radio Raheem might well be proud.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
These damaged siren songs are a harsh counterpoint to the organic flow of "The Tipping Point," but nonetheless deliver an honest and abrasive diatribe within The Roots’ legacy of civil commentary and inspired musicianship.
Read Full Review >Hartford Courant
It's a gruff, sometimes paranoid album with a decidedly subjective point of view, but Rising Down cuts no corners as its tells some hard truths to a society that is only too happy to stay in the dark.
Read Full Review >Sputnikmusic
With "75 Bars" being the only real dud on the album, Rising Down proves to be more of a collection of songs that work together as a whole than one cohesive album.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
An album that's both revelatory and full of questions, an album that understands its place in the Roots' history and American history, and an album that continues to place the group as one of the country's most talented and relevant in any genre, no calculated crossover necessary.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Elsewhere, 'Criminal' and 'I Will Not Apologize' find the group making its most acute, nail-driven points in years.
Read Full Review >Spin
The Roots' hardscrabble classicism and maverick whimsy cohere seemlessly, making Rising the group's most potently evocative work yet. [May 2008, p.98]
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
On the Roots' superb, inky-black tale of paranoia, 2006's "Game Theory," the walls were closing in. On the equally gripping Rising Down, the group's 10th album, out today, the walls are getting demolished.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
It might not be their best-ever album--Phrenology can still claim that title--but Rising Down finds The Roots reinvigorated, more passionate than ever.
Read Full Review >Mojo
The brooding 'Singing Man' and the euphorically optimistic 'Rising Up' underline that the best hip hop is about taking chances. [July 2008, p.100]
Pitchfork
Rising Down isn't always an easy listen, but it's an exciting one, and its abrasiveness never gets in the way of a good throw-your-hands-up beat or a well-crafted lyric.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
Overall, Rising Down doesn't replicate the balanced charm of last year's "Game Theory," but in other ways, it's the more provocative effort.
Read Full Review >The Wire
Rising Down's most immediate qualities are the raw aesthetic and the burning importance of its message. [July 2008, p.66]
Vibe
Rising Down bangs like no Roots work since their popular, populist breakthrough "Things Fall Apart." [June 2008, p.65]
PopMatters
Rising Down does prove to be an provocative peer of cultural riot-acting and pragmatic contextualization--though, as contemporary pop music, it provides a much more immediate delivery of social ethics from a street-level perspective.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
The production style displays unique shadings and shifts in sound, suggesting an attention to sonic detail emblematic of a drummer with the deep musical (especially jazz-related) knowledge that ?uestlove owns. But this may also sustain the most oft-heard complaint against the Roots: the seeming inability of their lead vocalist, Black Thought, to unfailingly deliver "hip-hop quotables."
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Kicking off the Philadelphia hip-hop band's 10th CD is a snippet from a 1994 conference call with then label Geffen, in which rapper Black Thought goes apoplectic. This is the first of many bad vibes on Rising Down, which turns the downcast mood of 2006's haunting "Game Theory" outward at the world at large, with gripes about drug laws, school shootings, conflict diamonds, and--that most alarming bellwether of our times--BET programming.
Read Full Review >The Phoenix
Rising Down is a grim mirror of a particular time and place, one that will still be worth the look when (if?) things get better somewhere down the line.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
This time, the Mos Def/Common/Talib triumvirate contribution is expectedly solid. Saigon proves his debut's delay is criminal. Malik B shows how much he needs to be the permanent Prince Po to Thought's Pharoahe Monch. And Kamal, Hubbard and ?uestlove flesh out a series of sonically stunning numbers midway through.
Read Full Review >Hot Press
Hook-laden agitprop combines with slinky beats on outing number ten from The Roots.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Radoslav P. gave it a10:
Simply the best rap has to offer - phylosophical and politicly aware - it just makes you think about life.
Mycroft W. gave it an8:
Doubt that this will end up being my favourite Roots record, but that's mainly due to the stiff competition. The record focuses on the harder edge of their sound, with ?uestlove apparently saving the more mellowed-out stuff for the Al Green record.
steve o gave it an8:
the roots are one hip hop group that has many strong points. they have numbers including mos def and questlove. they use original jazzy beats and they speak the truth about what people need to hear about in the struggle of the hip hop game.
M Fox gave it a9:
Those who have pre-judged this album may well now, after a few more listens, regret their initial decision to make comments as to the album's shortcomings. The Roots have once again proven that they are among the most progressive, not only of hip-hop artists, but of bands in general. Criminal and Lost Desire rate among the best song of the year and I would say Criminal is my favourite song of 2008 to date but these are easy songs to listen to. The remainder of the album with but one exception, while more demanding of the listener, are well worth the rewards that come with some persistence. If you love music, and particularly music with a point, you'll love this album.
Matthew D gave it a9:
I hope this is where rap is headed.
Louis D. gave it a10:
ATTENTION: The Roots Crew are officially back on the map with another stellar album. With the amount of plastic the music industry has been releasing over the last few years, one would be hard pressed not to believe that they are a primary contributor to the world's ever-growing oil crisis. This album is a breath of fresh air in a world polluted by highly-commercialized and pablum-filled music. Rising Down is raw enough for those who have grown up during the golden age of hip-hop ('86-'95) and fluid enough for those who need a real history lesson. We must give props to The Roots Crew for this most recent release that not only displays their depth and true mastery of the craft but also for keeping the essence of real hip-hop alive.
Paul C gave it an8:
This is a great album. While I think The Roots peaked with Things Fall Apart, this album is one of their best in recent years.
