The Roots embrace life at Def Jam -- without the bling

The Roots show at Avalon tonight may have sold out, but fans of the veteran hip-hop group needn't worry that the band has.

When the Philadelphia collective signed to Def Jam last year at the behest of its big pimpin' prez Jay-Z, some feared that the Grammy-winning sextet -- known more for intelligent, offbeat rhymes and impeccable live skills than for moving units -- would load down its seventh effort with commercially successful but creatively ill-fitting guest stars babbling about bling, bubbly, and buxom beauties.

Those fears should be vanquished when ``Game Theory" arrives Aug. 29.

Lyrically dark and musically insidious, the disc is a major improvement over 2004's middling ``The Tipping Point" and finds the band -- led by rapper Tariq ``Black Thought" Trotter and drummer-songwriter Ahmir ``?uestlove" Thompson -- in taut form.

While the murky tracks reflect the upheaval surrounding the Roots' move from Geffen to Def Jam -- Geffen pulled the financial plug mid-recording -- and the increasingly alarming news headlines at home and abroad, the melodies and hooks are crisp and immediate.

In a chat from a Chicago tour stop earlier this week, the gregarious ?uestlove spoke of the lowered expectations of Roots fans, the slightly troubling expectations of Jay-Z, and the way that his own expectations for ``Game Theory" changed for the better in the face of troubled times.

Q: A lot of people were worried when you signed to Def Jam: Oh no, are the Roots are going to sell out?

A: Yes, yes, that's what I wanted you people to think.

Q: But ``Game Theory" is neither a sell out nor a repetition. When you went in to record the album, did you consider any of that chatter?

A: I absolutely banked on it. I hate to say it, but sometimes I think you borderline have to disappoint a person just so that the perception will be that the next one is better.

Q: So ``The Tipping Point" was all about lowering expectations?

A: It's like if Martin Scorsese would just admit that ``New York, New York" was nothing but a set up for ``Raging Bull" then all would be right with the world, but he won't give it up. It was like, `` OK, dude, you disappointed people, and they were about to count you out, and now you've made your masterpiece."

Q: So ``Game Theory" is your ``Raging Bull"?

A: Or ``Tipping Point" is my ``New York, New York." Even though we're the so-called straight-A students of hip-hop, I do know that ``The Tipping Point" was perceived as maybe the B-minus in our catalog, which is not a bad thing. But because I think we set such a high standard for our work . . . if everything is not an A or above, then it'll just get a lukewarm reaction. And so I knew that maybe there was a sector of people that thought, OK, these guys are in a slump right now and then they move to Def Jam? OK, they're going to have Cristal bottles everywhere.

Q: Considering how catchy songs such as ``Baby" and ``In the Music" are -- even though they deal with serious issues and have a grimy, ragged sound -- it begs the question of whether Jay-Z did sit you down and say, ``Look, y'all got to come with the hooks."

A: No, actually we had a very rare case of the reversal of that, which was [he said] ``You're on Def Jam, now make me an art record!"

Q: That must have been comforting, right?

A: No, that sort of froze me, too. Because I was like, wait a minute, I don't make pop records, so what else would I make? What does that mean -- was I not making art records before? I did this whole Woody Allen self-analyzing [expletive] for like three weeks. He didn't want to look like the big bad wolf who killed the Roots.

Q: So are we finally going to hear the Roots on the radio?

A: We're bracing for the tsunami. But the thing is, when has it ever been a commercially viable time for the Roots? Everything is a Hail Mary. Even during the [gold-selling] ``Things Fall Apart" album when absolutely all the stars were aligned, there was still a Hail Mary feeling, like ``Oh, here goes nothing . . . ah, touch down!" I don't know. All we can do is create music and tour and hope that it catches on.