The fans have spoken, and apparently The Roots are listening. After leaking the single “Birthday Girl” in early March, it is now being announced that “the song is now the International Single and will be an iTunes exclusive.”
Okayplayer.com, the online community created by Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, had its message boards filled with mixed reviews from fans immediately after “Birthday Girl” was leaked. While the lyrics dealt with the topic of the awkward relationship between artists and underage female fans, the inclusion of vocalist Patrick Stump, of Fall Out Boy, was clearly not embraced by the majority of The Roots‘ fans.
In addition to allegations that a Def Jam employee posing as a Fall Out Boy fan leaked a video of the single on YouTube, “Birthday Girl” also spawned a new column by Andrew Noz of Cocaineblunts.com and XXL.com fame entitled You Sold Out Homie. Tom Breihan of the Village Voice echoed the sentiments of some fans saying, “‘Birthday Girl’ is quite possibly the worst thing The Roots have ever done.”
As such, the song will no longer be the lead single from Rising Down. The news was released via Okayplayer.com by a brief post yesterday afternoon stating, “We told you a few weeks ago that ‘Birthday Girl’ could easily get dropped off of Rising Down.”Rising Down is still expected to be released on April 29, and “Birthday Girl” can be located in the HipHopDX.com audio section.
