At The Roots concert in May last year, rapper Nas dramatically declared that hiphop is dead, and used that statement for the name of his album released later that year. Understandably, people got a little irritated at this statement, and whilst not causing too much of a controversy here with the Hilltop Hoods topping the ARIA charts, fired up magazines and blogs all over the USA, with people passionately arguing for the positive and negative.

Chatting to ?uestlove from the Roots, I had to ask his opinion, because, after all, they did give Nas the pulpit to preach from. “I feel hiphop culture is alive and kicking” ?uestlove, aka Amhir Thompson, begins measuredly, “however there are definitely hardly any outlets on a national level that will sustain such a culture. Because of the lack of variety in the media outlets, it’s really hard to maintain a solid foundation to support that culture.”

This may be a little hard to believe living in Australia, where we get MTV and Hollywood shows showing rap culture to be strong and vibrant, with SUVs driving with bass booming out of them as booty girls shake their ass to it. But it’s really only one side of American hiphop –the commercial and disposable that big record labels pay big bucks to put into these shows and play on the radio. Thoughtful, intelligent hiphop like The Roots isn’t really represented, and although they’re Grammy winners with 20 years experience, many people still see them as new kids in the hiphop game.

“What’s goin’ on is there’s a lack of diversity. To give you an example we’re in our 20^th year of existence and we’re recording our 10^th album right now, and there are still people out there who think Game theory is only our third album or that we’re just a new group. And that’s because there’s a lack of outlets to push our music,” Thompson explains. “But the government has done something interesting in the last month,” he adds. “A lot of independent labels have been complaining they haven’t had their fair share on the American airwaves, because there is a specific protocol one must go through to get on the radio, but now the FCC is forcing the biggest radio owners to play 20% of independent radio play so that everybody gets their fair share. It’s going to be very interesting to see how that plays out though.”

Plus, isn’t the internet the big saviour of indie music? Isn’t Myspace the beginning of the end of Clear Channel and payola and such business? Not entirely, according to Thompson. “Half of American’s still don’t know how to operate a computer, education levels are very, very low here, and we’re not competing as we should be. I’m sure there are kids right now in Japan who know how to operate a computer at the age of 3. But unless you come from a privileged background you might not get that luxury until you’re forced to use a computer at a job. To me that’s a big obstacle. To me we are being received in every arena except television and radio. We still have presence in the press and projects online, but when half the Americans don’t own a computer that becomes problematic.”

But Thompson is also critical of music critics. “Critical acclaim is important to me because that is how we have been able to survive. The only logical reason for a band that has never gone platinum to be on its 10^th record in the USA especially with how disposable the business is now, any amount of critical acclaim we make is important.” But last year their 9^th album, Game Theory, which saw the Roots at their most darkest, political and thoughtful, failed to make an impact. “I’m very passionate about my product, and just felt we had been overlooked. And actually they told me ‘yeah, we kind of forgot you released a record this year’,” he laughs. “But it just amazes me that a lot of the hiphop they do acclaim seems like a tokenism. They’ll allow one Lupe Fiasco record, but nobody else. But meanwhile The Shins, TV On The Radio, Bloc Party, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah! and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs can make a great record and all those groups will be included, but with hiphop there’s only room for one or two entries on a critics list.”

The Roots as yet untitled 10^th album, which Thompson hopes to get out later this year, could be the one to wow the critics and the masses. Now on Def Jam with Jay Z at the head of the label, they could have that cross over hit that will legitimise them in the eyes of the radio and TV execs, not that neither their fans nor they particularly care. And could there be a collaboration with Jay Z in the future? After all, Thompson did produce Jay-Z’s Unplugged album. “We’re in the middle of it right now, so there’s still nothing definite about who we’re working with,” he says, coyly.

The Roots play Thebbie Theatre on Fri 12 Apr.