On the message board of their OkayPlayer website, ?uestlove has unveiled the cover to Rising Down, the upcoming album from his
group The Roots. The cover, which
can be seen [click to view], is
a drawing entitled “NEGRO RULE.” The picture shows a black monster figure with
wings hovering over a hoard of running white people.
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“[The drawing] pretty much sums up the feeling of the
Confederate Union towards the newly freed slaves and the idea that if given
power they would [wreak] havoc and chaos on the country,” ?uest wrote. “Somehow in watching this election one can’t help but
wonder if those unspoken feelings…reflect the looming figure of the old
figureheads of Washington now?”
The band has made news over the past month, as two songs
from the album—“75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)” [click to listen] and “Get Busy” f. Dice Raw & Peedi Peedi) [click to listen] — have leaked with accompanying videos. The disc’s first
single, “Birthday Girl” f. Fall
Out Boy‘s Patrick Stump [click to listen], leaked earlier this week via a seemingly homemade
video on YouTube. Another video has leaked since, and various media outlets and
Internet users have accused The Roots
camp of deliberately plotting a viral campaign with New York company Cornerstone
Promotions instead of them being “genuine” homemade videos. ?uest, however, says that the real
thing hasn’t been shot yet. “The OFFICIAL video (meaning the one we pay for
with our own dollars) will be mired in more controversy once you get wind of
who we got to star in this bit,” he wrote, offering the following distorted
picture as a clue [click to view].
Rising Down is
slated to hit stores Tuesday, April 29.
