In 1995, all hip-hop artists managed to release a masterful album, from Fat Joe to 2Pac, from Liks to Onyx, from Dogg Pound to Group Homie, but not the Roots.
This LP could end up in the definition of "typical sophomore jinx", if at least the first album was good, but that was mediocre too. The production is forgettable, dull, one-dimensional, it sounds like chewed and spit jazz, elementary and unsuccessful copies of some rhythms from De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. Black Thought and Malik B spit battle rap all the time. These guys aren't telling me anything, there's nothing memorable or worth listening to, not even that hidden track that comes after three minutes of silence. 74 minutes of this stuff is something hard to bear, and it's weird because the record is relaxed jazz rap that at the same time sounds very slow and cumbersome, lazy, boring and soporific, makes you want to skip every track after the first two minutes.
Much appreciated by professional critics, the album is published by DGC, a subsidiary of Geffen: it fails to enter the top 100 among pop releases and in the top 20 among rap ones, nevertheless, it becomes one of the best-selling hip-hop records of the year. Not a recommended listen, the Roots have made better albums in the following years, and for those who want to delve into the 1995 hip-hop season, this is just a forgettable waste of time. 6/10.
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