The Tipping Point
[okayplayer/Geffen; 2004]
accusations flew. at the opening re-interpretation of sly and the family stone's everybody is a star with its soul-clap intro, a wannabe in da club, itself a dre produced anthem which, incidentally, the roots reproduced live to open their concerts on the phrenology tour ("the roots is taking over"). at the lazy wannabe r&b of i don't care which, despite this, still managed to ride one of the smoothest, most fluid bass lines of the year. at the club jam/banger don't say nuthin' which led them to claim scott storch was too ambitious with the philadelphian's infamous jam/demo sessions and had been spending too much time with beyonce. and that's just the first three tracks. but as ?uestlove assured us in his ever-cryptic, stream of consciousness liner notes, once a root always a root. adorning the cover, a portrait of a small time hustler known as detroit red on the streets of boston in the 1940s, later better-known as malcolm x. the album title borrowed from malcolm gladwell's pop sociological work the tipping point, referring to the underground going overground, penetrating the mainstream, a seemingly incremental change in fact consituting revolution - something once considered unique becoming common. and sure, to an extent the roots went commercial on this one but the results are still more interesting than radiohead going experimental. by the time somebody's gotta do it rolls around, with devin the dude adding a sweet chorus and jean grae dropping one of her patented cameo verses, and the soulful closer why (what's goin on?) almost brings an end to proceedings, you can rest assured you have been rocking with the best, the lengendary foundation crew
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