One Tear for The Roots

Last night, doing what I do, I found this post on okayplayer.com a site I used to frequent a lot as The Roots are one of my all time favorite groups in music history.

Theroots

"The Roots Say Goodbye To Hub after 17 years

Let me end all speculation ladies and gentlemen and officially announce that yes indeed Hub played his last show as a member of The Roots on August 31st of this year.

One has to understand off the bat to be a member of this group is to sacrifice your life. If you look at it (and this is applies to most of the artists that you talk about on this site) there is nothing "normal" about our lives. Well at least my life. (Hold the violins please.... there is cool shit like 1am jams with Prince in his living room watching Joni Mitchel dance like a teenager.....but there is also a downside like being in your mid 30s and your dating life is still on some high school shit.)

Even as i write this i got 34 minutes to haul my ass to rehearsals for the VH-1 tour. (this is after sleeping for 5 hours fresh from working with the Score winner of the VH-1 Hip Hop Awards, which came after a 4:30am lobby call to the Las Vegas airport, which came after all the crazy MTV activity and gigs i had to do, which came after the morning flight and the 6am lobby call from Montreal which came after the 10 hour mission to get a lawyers affidavit to get me into Canada (a mere half hour before stagetime)---of course not before trashing my entire house looking for my lost passport.---that was just 48 hours.

try to make that 17 years. This isn't a pity party. Nor an explanation. Just a confirmation.... I say we use this moment and opportunity to raise our cyber glass and toast Hub in his new endeavors.
(raises glass) -?uesto "

Aw shit! The Roots have for some time been a group that for me, mixed the funky jazzy music my parents raised me on, with the the music my cousins had taught me to love, hip-hop. As the source for this quote was ?uestlove himself, I get it. I understand. Its a tough game, he also points out that its happened with 3 (Rahzel/Scratch/Ben... tear) other members, but Hub, Hub has always been there. As tough as it was to hear, the cost of fame can clearly be weighted. The cost of anything done for that long of an amount of time where one sacrifices a lot for their group, can surely run one down. Hm, something I might have said to myself a few months ago?

Either way, as sad as it is, I'm a grown ass woman so I'll let one tear shed. That's all the tears I have for something silly like a band I like breaking up. I don't have time or energy to do any more mourning, don't get me wrong, I don't wanna cry for days, it was the shock that got me. And let's be truthful, I haven't been too down with some of the stuff they've put out lately anyway. I'll still have Organix, Illadelph Half Life, Do You Want More, and Things Fall Apart as my favs.  So as ?uest said at the end of his post, the show will go on like it did before. Hub will be missed.