The much-anticipated album "Rising Down," by Philly hip-hop artist The Roots, dazzled and dived, but superbly sparkled with its self-proclaimed sensational track "Rising Up" featuring D.C. homegrown artist Wale. The track infuses the District's own go-go, twisted over an R&B chorus with a dash of poetic lyricism making for musical talent that can be downed, but not forgotten.

The mid-Atlantic rap team, who is joined by Grammy-nominated R&B singer Chrisette Michele, saturates social commentary into the jam, revealing the shallow nature of the pop music and radio hits of the 21st century. The chorus hooks: "Yesterday I saw a B-girl crying; I walked up and asked what's wrong, / She told me that the radio's been playing the same song all day long." With the golden age of hip-hop long gone, the trio is ashamed of the perverse and demonic culture that remains.

The hip flow and drum beat rhythm get heads bobbing and bodies swaying right to left. Yet it still reveals layers of thought-out, coordinated tongue-twisting verbalism that match previous Roots hits. Poetry done while having fun. Black Thought, The Roots' key vocalist, has a tale for the phony rapper: "And where your dedication to the true profession is at / How you laugh answer me, 'What kind of question is that?' / I'll show you where my rare essence is at, the adolescence of rap."

Fat beats, a steady roll and an infusion of lyrical talent bring "Rising Up" to the forefront of creative hip-hop in an age when an original, thought-provoking song is hard to find. Thankfully some artists still posses the stinging talent that makes Public Enemy timeless, De La Soul ever funky and KRS-One always on target. Hip-hop lives on and The Roots keep "Rising Up".