ARTIST: Flo Rida
ALBUM: R.O.O.T.S.
LABEL: Poe Boy/Atlantic
RELEASE DATE: March 31, 2009
Flo Rida’s Spinning Heads Right Round
Photo Courtesy Atlantic Records
Written by Kevin Spaise
Flo Rida’s landmark release R.O.O.T.S. (Route Of Overcoming The Struggle, Poe Boy/Atlantic) shattered musical history with the playful stripper homage Right Round, with digital sales exceeding two million in the opening weeks of its release. Rida’s supercharged adaptation certainly meets the criteria of a hit sampler: it brings something truly original to the table, in this case the snappy lament of a guy who’s in way over his head, knows it, and busts out his wallet to take the inevitable lickin’ at the hands of a pole star.
Right Round is sufficiently tasty to inspire more than 48 million U-Tube downloads, top ranking on Billboard’s Top 100 mainstream charts for four consecutive weeks, and top-5 ranking for three months and counting. The irony is that time will very likely reduce this runaway track to a footnote.
As Tramar Dillard’s impressively diverse musical talents are discovered, digested, and fully appreciated, this fiercely interesting collection will gain staying power, with a plentiful pile of far more substantive tracks as the brassy Right Round fades. It’s a satisfying and self-assured follow-up to Rida’s quadruple-platinum single Low.
To the R.O.O.T.S. reference, Flo wastes no time pulling back the curtain on his jagged journey from hardscrabble Miami to international stardom, laying threadbare the humble beginnings that are stuck in his rear view mirror. The title track brings the goods without a trace of the self-indulgence that trips up so many of these here-to-there stories. The album shifts from interesting to brilliant, however, in Flo’s full-bodied celebration of the present.
He bounds energetically from wounded regret, over a lost, inseparable sister in the powerful Rewind (with Wyclef Jean), to finding validation in the newly found pleasures of passports, Louis Vuitton, and real estate, in Finally Here. In the latter, Flo recalls the daunting reality of his former nine-to-five grind from the perspective of a struggling artist, but also makes the song just as easy to own for the rest of us trying to hold on to some kind of dream on the way to the other side. These two strikingly different cuts reflect Rida’s coming to terms with a sudden life change that has moved in real time from lyric to reality.
This heightened sense of contrast is one of the critical elements of this release, and it plays out in various layers throughout the arrangement. In Sugar, his rhymes fall like razor blades against Wynter’s enthralling, honey-dripping harmonies. In one of a clean subset of club songs on the album, Touch Me moves straight to dance mode, then switches back with a lyrical, old school barrage. Rida affects the shifts with the grace of an athlete.
Down to the surprisingly interesting remix of the ubiquitous classic Mind On My Money, Rida’s lyrics flicker with brilliance, then pull the listener deep into message without warning. They speak of the constant balance of struggle and bliss, a state of flux that is an evident source of wonder and amazement to Rida. His take on it all reveals wisdom accumulated not from years, but knocked into him along the resolute, determined path to stardom that he reveals in his songwriting.
The most powerful writing on the CD is layered in the volatile Never, a tightly-wrapped anthem of hope wrapped around a rousing call to self-respect, self-determination, and accountability. It compacts a cadre of home-spun, matriarchal wisdom, unfiltered and undisputable, one man to another, a heart-seeking missile of a song that should be required listening for every male coming to grips with manhood’s realities.
Rida is a hip-hop artist first, but that platform is buoyed by an immense musical talent that transcends categorization. In the irrepressible Be On You (with the talented Ne-Yo), which after a couple of plays will haunt your mind with the relentlessness of an old Motown song, Rida’s pure romanticism intertwines with lucid, tight, and utterly contagious lyrics. The song has backbone and edge, but Rida’s overpowering sweetness collides with the mystery, innuendo, and flirtation of new love, and carries it over the top. Before you’re old, you may see the release of a collection of Rida love songs, strange though it may seem. Title notwithstanding, Be On You is the most innocent in a string of tracks that focus more on the chase, and back-seat strippers. Even when it’s more about lust than love, Rida weaves an artistic spin to the age-old dance that is absent in much of today’s less sophisticated fare.
Don’t cherry-pick this CD: download or buy the whole thing. It’s a soulful, highly entertaining, and deliciously expansive musical introduction to a true platinum level talent.
With inspired production efforts from Jim Jonson, Dr. Luke, will.I.am, Eric Hudson, Mike Caren, Oligee, and DJ Montay; www.myspace.com/officialflo, http://florida.imeem.com