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Binding: Audio CDEAN: 0720642470824 Format: Explicit Lyrics Label: Geffen Records Manufacturer: Geffen Records MPN: 24708 Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Geffen Records Release Date: January 17, 1995 Studio: Geffen Records Editorial Review: Amazon.com: Typically, we're better off ignoring the boasts of a rapper who claims to describe his own music, but when the Roots' lead voice Black Thought opens up his group's debut album by saying, "You are all about to witness some organic hip-hop jazz," it's a good idea to listen up. Organic is a fitting adjective for a hip-hop crew whose m.o. is as different from the typical studio-locked DJ/MC combo as grass is to Astroturf. Nothing wrong with a little artificial grazeland, of course, but the Roots are making tasty roughage that blooms into real songs, where raps wind around bass, drums, keys, and horns, and where instruments coil up to voice cadences--where music and lyrics meet and grow together naturally, not coincidentally. You can hear the Roots' heart pump hardest when they pull off the things loops and samples cannot: just check the vocal/instrument interchanges of "Essaywhuman?!!!??!" or the left-turn instrumental digression midway through "Mellow My Man" to witness the living sounds of rap. The Roots' Philadelphia-based groove collective build slick acid jazz playing around the smooth East Coast rhyming of A Tribe Called Quest and wild West Coast freestyling to create sounds as formless and fluid as jazz, but never unrecognizable as hip-hop. The music picks up where the mad scatting and melodic trills of L.A.'s defunct Freestyle Fellowship left off, and wakes up the tired hype of jazz/rap cross-polination to new possibilities. The roots of this kind of fusion have long been around, though perhaps these Roots are hope for a new dawning. --Roni Sarig Average Rating:
 Rating: - classicadd this to your collection if you don't already have it. i love every track on it. Rating: - I Do Want More!!??!!?!I bought this the day it came out, like it states on the page, January 17, 1995. I was 16. I played this everywhere. School, parties, chillin' in the car. This was the tipping point for any rap that year. 1995, don't get me wrong, was THE year for hip-hop; East/West rivalry, every artist battling out to who is the best, when being the best, was what it was all about. This is the second album of THE ROOTS, the first being ORGANIX. Which was also a dope album. But for any album produced ... Read More Rating: - One of my favoritesI love this group. I love the jazz infused hip hop verses. If you're looking for something mellow with a little edge, then this is the CD for you. Rating:  - Pretty goodAs a musician, DJ and a hip hop afficianado, I enjoy listening to these guys. Tariq is a top-shelf, A-class lyricist, while Amhir is wondrous on the percussion. My complaint with this album is the same as my complaint with the first one, Organix. It just doesn't grab me like the rest of the catalog does. To me it seems as though they are still finding themselves creatively. There some excellent tracks here (e.g. Distortion to Static, Silent Treatment) but the coherence isn't quite there. That said, this ... Read More Rating: - "Yo Philly In The House Yall, Do You Want More?!!!??! (4.5 stars)This was the second album that I picked up from The Roots (the first was The Tipping Point) and it has to be a real nice album to enjoy from beginning to end. It sounds like that they are at a live secession when recording this, with the instruments and the vocals. The second song gets the album going with the lead single "Proceed I" (There are about 5 different versions of this song on a bunch of 12" singles somewhere) as lead member Black Thought spits two verses, then Malik B finishes up the song. "Distortion ... Read More |
