Posted on 04/29/2008
Yesterday The Roots did Letterman as they geared up for today's big day: Rising Down is in stores now!!  Banging out a stellar performance of "Rising Up" with Chrisette Michele and Wale, along with three percussionists (including our own Frankie Knuckles), ?uesto on vocals (true!), an extra keyboard (super-star producer James Poyser), The Roots absolutely had a party on stage.  We're hoping this pushes the movement to add "Olson-twinning" to the dictionary one step further.  Watch the killer performance below (and please note how proud Dave was to have pronounced Wale correctly- even though backstage I overheard ?uestlover holler "Whale... Whale..." more than once when calling for his buddy.  Jokes.):

Rewind a few hours.  Before the performance took place we were corralled into the Letterman dressing rooms.  This theater is old school and the narrow hallways and tiny starlet dressingrooms are not necessarily condusive to a large entourage of Philly natives who like their space.  The stylist set up shop in the hallway, right next to Richard Lewis's dressingroom.

 

Needless to say, whenever they do TV there's a fair amount of waiting around involved.

 

There's the getting ready.

 

And then there's the stealing-the-Letterman-pencils part, and the drinking of suspicious liquids part.

 

  And of course, the pics with Chrisette part!

 

 

However, throughout the day no one forgot the bigger issues at hand.  ?uestlove wore his feelings about the Sean Bell verdict on his t-shirt, and others sported pins and buttons to show their solidarity, while the whole crew dressed in all black.

 

After the show, the band headed to Sirius Satellite Radio to do Green Lantern's show "Hip Hop Nation Radio."  Missed that one but can't wait to listen.  Dantana and Shamz were there holding it down for OKP.  Thanks to High Voltage we've got the show right here for you now!  Download away.  Here's the tracklisting:

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

 

Jam Boyz (??) (ft. Dice Raw)
I Will Not Apologize
Star
Long Time
RIP Jay Dee
Proceed Intro (RIP Dilla)
Get Busy (ft. Dice Raw)
Like A Pimp Freestyle Remix ft. David Banner
Rising Down (ft. Styles P)
Rising Up
75 Bars
Bonus: Rising Up (ft. Wale, Chrisette Michele) (Live on Letterman)

 

 

The night ended with our album release party at NYC's hot spot, Sutra.  A last minute venture, the event was thrown together quite quickly but turned out to be a fantastic celebration!  DJ ?uestlove was on the 1s and 2s, the Rosenthal Brothers from itsthereal.com were in the house, Mos Def came through, and it was all around good times.

 

Black Thought, Dice Raw, and Mos Def jumped up on the mic as DJ ?uesto held down the beat. 

 

Everyone was in good spirits and the night was a fun time.  Today, it's all about showing your support and copping that Rising Down Compact Disc in your local store.  iTunes works too.