Flo Rida may have mastered the art of staying in his lane. Charge it to
geographical location, but his spouting philosophies of the workingman
sweating on a dance floor on the weekends in flashy clothes is a market
in and of itself. His latest effort R.O.O.T.S doesn’t necessarily bring
anything new to the table (dancey rap tracks with a handful of cameos),
but it doesn’t bring anything less than Mail On Sunday
[click to read] did either.
Considering
the Flo Ridian rapper spent his early days touring with 2 Live Crew
[click to read],
the party concept (with some lewdness shaved off) must have stuck with
him as he started his own career. R.O.O.T.S aka Route Of Overcoming The
Struggle holds true to its acronymic title. Once again Flo Rida is
working for the weekend, waiting to shake his bulbous physique at a
club and take a PYT home. The album opens with “Finally Here,”
reminiscent of Big Pun‘s “100 Percent” in its ideal of finally reaching
that lucky day where money problems disappear. It follows with “Jump,”
welcoming the return of Nelly Furtado on a high-energy track that’s
begging to be a single.
The theme of the entire album rests
upon Flo Rida being poised for greatness in the world of Hip-Pop. He
isn’t claiming to be the G.O.A.T; he’s just here to have fun. The irony
is that the original self-proclaimed G.O.A.T, LL Cool J, attempted to
reinvent himself as something of a Flo Rida (see The DEFinition) and a
not a single person was left headsprung. Flo Rida entered the game as a
bulky party starter and it’s helped him bypass the sophomore jinx.
Flo
Rida enlists some obscure cameos this time around, with the exception
of Ne-Yo
[click to read]
on the Ne-Yo sounding “Be On You” and Akon
[click to read]
on the Akon-sounding “Available.” The lead single “Right Round”
features newcomer Ke$ha, and while the sample works perfectly, a simple
substitution of Keri Hilson would have given this song more leverage.
Oddly the most random cameos happen to be the singles (“Right Round” f/
Ke$ha, “Shone” featuring Pleasure P, and “Sugar” featuring Wynter
Gordon). Only time will tell if Flo Rida can carry these songs through
the mainstream.
There are some misses in R.O.O.T.S, primarily
on the title track where Flo Rida attempts to insert some “real talk.”
This is the only point where being known as lighthearted poses a gift
and a curse, and while Flo Rida may have felt this track added
substance, it definitely didn’t. The album closes with the
Wyclef-assisted
[click to read]
“Rewind,” and that’s exactly what you’ll do – just to avoid hearing the
track.
R.O.O.T.S in many ways is the album that should have
preceded Mail On Sunday – songs packed with newer talent and dance
floor money woes. Regardless of his catalogue’s order, Flo Rida has
cornered the market of crafting songs with enough momentum to make you
kill a rabbit.