Audio Absinthe

The Long Road Back for John Forte
-Posted by AGM - 

It has been over ten years since Wyclef Jean introduced John Forte to the world with the unforgettable lyric “ah huh ah huh, John Forte, grab the mic and won’t you sway it this way…”
“I’m more than just a rhymer,” Forte proclaims – his distinctive voice smoothly contrasting the remade Bee Gees beat. And that has certainly proven to be true.

Forte is not your average rapper. Born in the notoriously tough Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, the young musician was awarded a violin scholarship to the prestigious Phillips Exeter academy in New Hampshire (fellow alumni range from Gore Vidal to Mark Zuckerberg). At Exeter, Forte rubbed shoulders with New England elite, making friends who would play an important role in his life many years later.

After graduating, he was introduced to Wyclef and the Fugees by Lauryn Hill and garnered a grammy nomination for writing and producing songs on the multi-platinum album The Score. Forte released two solo albums after the Fugees broke up, 1998’s Poly Sci and 2002’s I, John, but neither was well received commercially. It was an incident in 2000 however that threatened to keep the singer/songwriter out of the studio and off the stage for good.

In 2000, John Forte was arrested at Newark Airport after accepting a briefcase containing $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine. The struggling rapper was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to distribute. He was convicted and sentenced to the mandatory minimum 14 years.
Through friends from Exeter, Forte befriended Ben Taylor – the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. For a stretch in the late 90’s, the two were so close that Forte even lived at Simon’s house in Martha’s Vineyard. After his arrest, Carly Simon put up $250,000 of his $650,000 bail money and began lobbying on his behalf. Teaming up with Senator Orrin Hatch, Simon pushed to repeal the mandatory minimum drug sentence and to pardon Forte.

On November 24, 2008, President George W. Bush commuted John Forte’s sentence with a presidential pardon. Four weeks later, the rapper was a free man.

I caught Forte onstage with The Roots last Wednesday where he sang four songs and played guitar. The introspective artist crooned about his prison sentence and how it changed him and finished with a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang, Bang” (video below).  It has been a long road for him, but it’s good to see his intelligent songwriting back on stage. He’s working on a new album; first single is below as well as a collab with fellow Brooklyn-native Talib Kweli.

The inevitable outcome of The Roots as the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon…

Whatever.  It’s fun.  When you got The Roots, you use them.  Touche Jimmy Fallon…

- Posted by AGM -

Hip-Hop heads shouted a collective “what the f*ck?” when NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon announced that The Legendary Roots crew would take up residency as the late night talk show’s house band.  Fallon, the former SNL star who recently replaced Conan O’Brien as the host of Late Night, casually approached The Roots at a Comedy Central special last fall and asked them to join the show.  Six months later, Black Thought, ?uestlove and the rest of the band have parked their tour bus in the Big Apple for a permanent M-F gig.

While hardcore fans have criticized the group for selling out, many recognize the opportunity for the critically acclaimed (but album sales-challenged) band to rock out in front of a broad, national audience every night.  The group has written over 200 original songs for the show and Fallon will use them creatively as more than just a side act (click here to see clip from the show’s premiere).  The band will also accompany some of the show’s musical guests, like they did here with Ludacris at Thursday night’s show:

Ludacris & the Roots – Theater of the Mind Medley (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 03-05-2009)

The nightly gig has also been a gift to New Yorkers who will benefit from the Philly natives permanent move to NYC.  The Roots announced a residency at Highline Ballroom called “The Jam” – a string of 14 shows at the cozy Chelsea club for only $10 a night (the same price as a pack of Parliament Lights at a Manhattan bodega.)  The inaugural show went off Thursday night with a line of fans stretching two blocks, braving the icy temperature to get the first look at the best live band in hip-hop.  Inside, the energy was bursting out the walls as the packed house seemed to know something special was about to go down.

The Roots did not disappoint, unleashing a 70 minute set that kicked off just before midnight and included guest appearances by longtime Roots collaborator Dice Raw, Brooklyn native Talib Kweli, Rawkus Record’s Pharaoh Monche, The Fugees’ Jon Forte (another WTF?) and the soulful Chrisette Michele (who kills it on the Roots track Rising Up off their latest album).?(Broken Cool has some great video- click here)

Rocking a black fedora,  the vibrant Black Thought welcomed the amped-up mass to “the best deal in town” with a new jam before inviting Kweli onstage for an impromptu freestyle battle – highlighted by Kweli ripping on the Roots’ white bassist Owen Biddle, “I don’t even know who this guy is”).  The Roots steered clear of their major hits in favor of a jam-like atmosphere with a mix of freestyling, crazy keyboard collaborations, torrid guitar solos by Captain Kirk and even scatting by the jazzed-out Michele. 

In addition to the Highline residency, The Roots’ afro-sporting drummer, ?uestlove, announced that he will be DJing every Thursday night at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village.  According to the club, the weekly event promises to feature “familiar faces both in the crowd and the DJ booth with ’special surprise guests’ bringing their own flavor to the party.”

The band will also continue to tour the rest of the country 10 weeks a year when not filming the show.