Isn't 'The Tipping Point'...

Orizio

supposed to one of The Root's weakest albums?I just keep come back to it again and again,production was solidly great throughout,absolutely no filler(as opposed to just about all of their other albums).'Star','I Don't Care','Don't Say Nuthin','Guns Are Drawn' and 'Somebody's Gotta Do It' are excellent tracks imo and the rest is good.

To me it showed how incredible an MC Black Thought is,as the production on The Roots last albums tended to take away from him on the mic.

kanibus

No its one of their two best albums,other is Illadelph Halflife!

me and the biz

One of their weakest? Haven't heard anyone ever say that before.

Orizio

I basically hear it a lot that they fell off a bit with Phrenology and TTP,although TTP in particular because it doesn't use live instruments.

StevieG

Great album its a classic case of critics being out-of-step and not understanding what the hell is going on
The Roots last two albums are wicked
Commons "Electric Circus" will be hailed a classic in years to come, just becasue he was ambitious and brave with it, meant he got hung out to dry with it
"De La Soul is Dead" was hammered by the critics (and fans alike) when it was released but its proven to be a great record too
Same with the initial rections to Tribe's "Low End Theory"
"Beats Rhymes and Life" is only getting probs now (with the passing of Dilla) and the "Love movement" and Q Tips "Amplified" will also get revised opinions as time passes.

It happens with all music, everyone from Marvin Gaye to the De La soul have suffered from a so-called consensus not understanding their best work, but when you are one or two steps ahead of the game it takes awhile for everyone else to catch up! Anyone, can release a straight up hip-hop album that sounds like a million others, but only the greats can do somehting different and push back the boundaries.

spacecoyote

Yeah gotta agree here, have definitely heard plenty of TTP-bashing going around, but i thought it was a quality album, like you say there's pretty much no filler on there and it does still sound like a roots album to me, even if it was a little more polished. true what stevieg said though about greta albums not being received too well. But don't know if i agree with him about Electric circus, which i did find to be common's weakest album, does have it's quality moments but i couldn't get into it to the same extent as his other efforts albums

StevieG

Yeah fair enough it's really just personal taste i suppose some of the far out **** like the Stereolab and Jill Scott tunes on it i just love but i appreciate its not for everyone
I was only reading about it last night actually in the current issue of Wax Poetics, Questlove and James Poyser were saying that they also reckon time might change peoples minds on it and they admitted that Dilla was the driving force behind the album!

Actually, now that we mention it, it also reminded me that another great album that wasn't understood at the time was the Jay Dee/Pharcyde collobaration that was "Labcabincalifornia"

spacecoyote

StevieG wrote:

Actually, now that we mention it, it also reminded me that another great album that wasn't understood at the time was the Jay Dee/Pharcyde collobaration that was "Labcabincalifornia"

classic album^

Maybe a should give electric circus a few more bashes, haven't listenend to it in quite a while.