This isn't hip hop music
587382
I don't understand why reggaeton artists think their music is profound and true hip hop. Reggaeton music is not a culture. Reggae and true dancehall music is a culture and those artist make music for everyone to listen to. If artists like Tego Calderon and Daddy Yankee want to put out music for everyone to hear. At least put out material in english y'all. Also, I've been labled a "Reggaeton Hater" just because I'm voicing my opinion on the genre of music. All I got to say to those people is, you guys don't know what the hell you're talking about.
4514490
I like this CD, and some of the tracks will become classic.  However, Macklemore is not the savior of rap.  He knows that somehow most of his reviewers don't. Rap does not need him; he is just bringing a new sound. If the only CD's you own is Eminem, the Beasties, and Vanilla Ice you are not a real hip hop fan.  Additionally, you do all the other artist an injustice.  Rap has room for diversity.  Yesterday I was listening to some German rap artist some of it was actually good but they no way transform the entire industry.  TuPac raped what he knew at the time, Ice cube and Ice T did as well.  It is not fair in retrospect to say what they were rapping was wrong.  That is like re-doing a Miles Davis classic.
There is room for Macklemore and artist such as Eminem even though he lost me a long time ago.  I'm ok with you comparing Macklemore to Eminem, Haystack, Vanilla Ice, the Beastie boys, Kid Rock, 3rd base, Insane Clowns.  Let Pac the GOAT rest in peace.
2740482
Woman? Yes. Celtic? Um, not really. One example: singing Ave Maria with ultra-rolled "r" sounds is really annoying and non-genuine for any genre other than maybe opera. I think there are perhaps 3 songs on this that are actually Celtic-ish and/or nice to listen to. Otherwise, I am turning this CD into a drink coaster.
1307482
"Contemporary" modern music. Bought it because it was described as "Classical". The flutists knew what do do, but I was so on edge, so angry, so ragged, wanting to break something when listening to it, that I took it off and will never listen to it again. What are they trying to prove? This is not music. It is not for an audience. It is an exercise where a technician who is trying to go through challenges. No audience would pay good money to sit through this. It is musically insulting. In Mozart's day, they would have been physically assaulted.
4622890
This is a really awful CD.  If you like random noise, you may find it acceptable to you, but it is hard to call this music.  I did listen to every track, hoping that the next one would be better.  I like a not of different kinds of music, and I tried to get my head into a space where this would make sense to me, but I could not do it.  This is NOT "art of noise".
1115849
I understand it is aimed at little pop punk fans but this album  is just not rock/metal. I would be ashamed to call my self a devout lover of metal music if this came ionto the genre.
I hate this album with a passion. I would strongly reccomend you buy albums from real bands such as (hed)pr, static X, coal chamber, bionic jive, blink 182, greenday, alkaline trio etc....
1166127
This is such a departure from Bangarang and My Name is Skrillex that it doesn't deserve to be in the same sentence as those two. I understand moving on and evolving as a musician but this was nothing but disappointment. Step outside of the Skrillex bandwagon and recognize that this has nothing to do with dubstep and is 10 tracks of sound cloud wannabe music.
2214766
This is NOT music done in the style of old Hawaiian music  It is more like current pop music.  If it is done in any style, it would be more reggae.  That being said, it's a fun CD and I enjoy it.  "I'm A Woman" and "Typical Hawaiian Day" are my favorites.
581836
I'll admit that I'm not a hip hop head so anything that is an outlier in this genre has more of a chance of attracting me.  There are bits of this album that are beautiful ("The Unraveling", "When the People Cheer", and "Tomorrow") but they seem to be for Raheem DeVaughn and not The Roots.  Other songs like "Understand" and "Never" were average.

Are The Roots trying to tell us something?  I feel that there is some larger message that is being conveyed that I'm not hip hop enough to get.
1446531
This is music from islands off the East Coast of Africa.
It will not appeal to everyone because it is quite exotic and varied.
Some of of it picks up influences from mbira based music, others from Soukus and the pan-African guitar based sound; some have S.African-influenced vocals.  One could easily be mistaken for a jig from Ireland!
One is a quirky, playful reggae rendition.  Others have rhythms that are different than African music I have heard.
One is unique to its own Arab roots, like the cut from Zanzibar.
I love this particularly type of music, called Taarab.  Kenya and Tanzania also have Taarab Arab musical ensembles of about 25 musicians and a multiplicity of instruments not used elsewhere in Africa.
It is eerie and almost symphonic.
The variety and complex syncopations shows how centuries of musical tradition gave rise to some of the most seminal and influential music on the planet......that of Africa.
1121755
I listen to many different things, because it makes me look sophisticated. So when I picked this CD up and took it home, I played it and after "Stick 'Em Up" I kind of squinted. "Stick 'Em Up" is followed by this strange sounding jazz-sample type song. A song which had nothing "rock" about it. There are semi-metallic songs on this record, but is it really fair to call this band "rap-rock", they do rap, and even rock sometimes, but songs like numbers 2, 4, 12, 7, 5 and others don't really reflect a desire to push the whole rap-rock enevelope. Now, songs like Baseline, F*** You Puto and stuff have hard rock guitars in them, but I notice little things, like the band hardly ever uses (or SOUNDS like it uses) real drums. There are spots, but not really, even though one of the guys is listed as playing "drums". Basically, this is a mostly rap record, and you can trust me when I say that the fact these guys are white, it hardly detracts from their ability to make your head bob. In fact, one of the rappers (I'm not sure which one), SORT OF sounds like Zack de la Rocha, but this is clearly no Rage record. I really liked most of the songs on this CD, even being not that much into rap. Quarashi takes rap and makes it good. I have read some comparisons to the Beastie Boys and what not, but this band doesn't sound like the Beastie Boys any more than Celine Dion, other than of course the fact that they rap. I'm not exactly sure where people get stuff like "rap-rock" and Beastie Boys, because while some rock is involved, it's not really something you could mosh to, you know what I mean? It's not rap-rock, and definitely not Rage, it's . . . . .  . . Quarashi, they just be them and it works.
3364369
I didn't realize this was blues with a hip-hop remix.  It's not what I call the blues.  The blues is something one can play live, it's the artist playing in the moment, it's not taking various snippets and rearranging them in the editing room.  That aspect of hip-hop is diametrically opposed to the spirit of the blues.

I don't mind experimentation, but this didn't work for me.  To be sure, I've never liked hip-hop or sampling, so perhaps it will work for others.
4338830
Not my type of music, but someone else may enjoy it.
3328652
This guy is amazing. What a fantastic artist. This is not the music that I put on at bedtime. But I will crank it up during the day and hope my neighbors don't complain. If they do, I will know that they are not music lovers.
1744855
THIS IS NOT MY TYPE OF BOOKS.  IT DOES NOT MEAN OTHERS WOULD NOT LIKE IT.
1210696
People keep comparing this to their hip-hop albums, but you can't compare it. It's a totally different type of music. I agree partially with an earlier review ; if you like MMW or Galactic(Stanton Moore) then this album might not measure up, but this funky acid jazz style is what MMW and S. Moore do best. It's not what the B.B. do best. I give them a ton of credit for going out of the box and doing other things. In 1996 the B.B. made an album called "The In Sound From Way Out". It was all instrumental and it was VERY good! When I first heard it, I didn't believe it was the B.B. So before you criticize, remember these are hip-hops artist who decided to actually pick-up instruments and play them. Not use synthesizers and samples. I think it's a really good cd. True, it doesn't measure up entirely to your MMW records, John Scofield, or Galactic, but it is a good addition to your funk collection.
4622882
There's really no way to accurately describe this music. Is it World Music because the great Zakir Hussain is on it? Americana or Classical because of Edgar Meyer? Bluegrass or Jazz because Bela Fleck rounds out the group? You can put aside all of these categories because the music is all of it and more, and completely accessible. It's not a hodgepodge of styles. The compositions and sounds have real unity and the players enjoy legitimate chemistry.

It's absolutely not avant garde or free jazz, and I have no idea why Amazon has it in this category. Classical is more appropriate but doesn't tell the whole story.

The recorded sound is less austere than your average ECM production, but I think if you like the cross-cultural music from that great label, you'll be on board.

Obviously, fans of any or all three of the principals (as I am) are sure to love it.