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Track Listings
| 1. Phrentrow |
| 2. Rock You |
| 3. Sacrifice (feat. Nelly Furtado) |
| 4. Rolling With Heat (feat. Talib Kweli) |
| 5. WAOK Roll Call |
| 6. Thought At Work |
| 7. The Seed 2.0 (feat. Cody Chestnutt) |
| 8. Break You Off (feat. Musiq) |
| 9. Water |
| 10. Quills |
| 11. Pussy Galore |
| 12. Complexity (feat. Jill Scott) |
| 13. Something In The Way Of Things [In Town] (feat. Amiri Baraka) |
Product Description
Amazon.ca
If you were wondering what the heck phrenology means, the Roots wouldn't have it any other way. Hip-hop's hardest-working live band continues where they left off with Things Fall Apart, forcing listeners to think outside of the Hot 97 FM box--or just plain think. On "Thought at Work," lead emcee Black Thought--the most criminally underrated wordsmith of his time--weaves captivating flows over a neck-snapping break beat, while on "Water" he boldly addresses the controversy surrounding his partner-in-rhyme Malik B's alleged substance abuse. While collaborations with Nelly Furtado ("Sacrifice") and Talib Kweli ("Rhymes and Ammo") read much better on paper than they sound, the catchy, up-tempo call-and-response routine utilized by the crew on the latter song will amp up Roots nonbelievers. As a bonus, Jill Scott's dreamy falsetto refrain hammers home some finer points about love on "Complexity." --Dalton Higgins
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Jean Louis
Format:Audio CD
There are a lot of people in the world who will spend their lives following. Will only listen to things popular, eat things that dont sound weird, and will continue that way. If you are one who lives that way, you need to snap out of it and listen to the roots.
It took some time for the group who did things differently to do things differently. The roots were always the live band with the hot rapper.. This time they are the stellar band who are making an album full of "songs." there aren't many people in music who can spell that word.
Black thought went from talking about his band mate's drug problems, to sacrifices the roots have made to get here, to relationship issues, to acting on temptations, to the downfalls of media, without Malik B and Dice Raw, and not a lot of guest rappers. Talib was definitely welcome to be part of the experience, and he did what he does best.
The Amiri Baraka poem was definitely a nice flavor of icing for the cake.
this album was not as cohesive as their best effort, "Illadelph Half Life", but it is damn good.
By Beardyjin
Format:Audio CD
If you're new to or "wondering" about The Roots then definitely get this album. This album is The Roots at their peak. They have some truly great colaborations on this album, and with The Roots it's not just "oh let's put this famous person on our album to boost sales." For The Roots it's all about the music and the colaborations on this album are truly that: colabortations!
While some say Outkast is taking hip-hop to places it's never gone before, The Roots make hip-hop the way it's supposed to be made. There is a palpable feel of all the roots of music in The Roots' sound: jazz, blues, rock, and R&B are all meshed beautifully into this musical form called hip-hop. And PHRENOLOGY is the best effort they've put forth yet (including their new 2004 release, 'Tipping Point'). Own PHRENOLGY and you'll own hip-hop at its essence.
Format:Audio CD
The Roots are an interesting hip hop group in that they play their own instruments and are apparantly really good live, however, on this album, most of the songs are really repetetive and most of the rhymes and singing are kind of flat. Nelly Furtado and Jill Scott pop in for some vocals and really juice up the tracks that they appear on. The highlight for me (and the reason I bought the album) is "The Seed", with Cody ChesnuTT helping to cover his own song from his "Headphone Masterpiece" album.It has a lot more bounce and groove than Cody's original version and this kind of Rock n' Soul is something I would love to hear more of from The Roots. Some of these tracks seem to go on forevor and The Roots are definately not afraid to be pretentious or longwinded. They have talent and are on the right track but I don't feel that they have really found their groove yet.
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4.2 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another step in the evolution . . .
It seems as if the Roots got tired of being classified as the group that's "more fun to think about than actually listen to" (thanks for that, Rolling Stone). Read more
Published on May 21 2004 by Bulluck
4.0 out of 5 stars
Did Anyone Else Miss Malik B? (4.5 Stars)
The Roots are a classic group, so they tend to put out classic or near classic music with every release. This album is no different.
87) Phrentrow - The Intro. Read more
Published on April 27 2004 by Norfeest
5.0 out of 5 stars
www.PHASHARA.com
The album is steller. The Roots have done it again. Pay close attention as we are witnessing the EWF (Earth, Wind & Fire) or Franky Beverly & Maze of our days (& I mean... Read more
Published on April 8 2004 by Big City
2.0 out of 5 stars
departure
I recently saw the roots in Belfort, France over the summer, and I must say that my expectations were in no way exceeded. In fact, the show was horrible. Read more
Published on April 7 2004 by dan
5.0 out of 5 stars
It only gets better
I'm glad to see that many other reviewers agree with me that what makes The Roots so incredible is that unlike many other bands, their albums become increasingly better. Read more
Published on April 1 2004 by The Djeli
5.0 out of 5 stars
1 of 2 5 star hip hop albums I own
This is in my opinion the best Roots album I own, and I have all of them except the live cd (by the way, you got to see these guys live- seeing ?uestlove on the drums is amazing). Read more
Published on Feb 28 2004 by roastbeefalo
5.0 out of 5 stars
first roots album i got...
being in Australia, there is not a basic non existance of hip hop specialty stores, and so to find out about the roots, I was very lucky , over the course of a few listens, I fell... Read more
Published on Feb 13 2004 by kasey barkle
5.0 out of 5 stars
Roots triumph again
Alright Dan from Castro - U are obviously a fan of the commercial hip-hop (ie. Ludacris, Cash Money) and it is apparent that u took all ure opinions from the dips#*! Read more
Published on Feb 10 2004 by Ian Johnson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reinvention
Just before the release of "Phrenology," the Roots seemed to be at the peak of a brilliant career; just 4 albums of their full-band hip hop had brought them moderate popularity and... Read more
Published on Jan 29 2004 by C. Wroble
4.0 out of 5 stars
You Are Now In Tune To The Sounds Of The Legendary...
First off, I would just like to say that that "Tony Montana" guy has no idea of what he's talking about. Read more
Published on Jan 28 2004
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