How I Got Over 2010 Album

The Roots

I'm still yet to listen to all of The Roots earlier, slightly more acclaimed material, however, after listening to this and their previous release, and seeing fans of their earlier material still predominately enjoying them, I'm not sure it will do me any good. My main issue with this album is just that nothing grabs me a lot. The hooks are too soft and at times annoying with corny, poor lyrics. 'Right On' is an example of the annoyance of the chorus - very whiny high kind of singing. Also, the rappers, largely Black Thought, don't do much for me as far as their voices go, there ain't a lot of distinctiveness. You could pick a 2pac, Rakim, Ice Cube, Biggie etc out of a crowd of thousands, Black Thought doesn't have that quality. Furthermore, just as I give long albums some leeway, a short album like this needs to knock my socks off, which is doesn't. And call me crazy but I don't understand what you are meant to do with the couple of 40-second songs either. They are over before they begin.