The Tipping Point

The Roots have always had an unparalleled knack for pushing hip-hop’s borders without losing its essence. The band’s sixth album might’ve been their least traditional hip-hop album to date, focusing on funk and soul grooves like “Star/Pointro,” a musical conversation between the band and a Sly & The Family Stone sample. But Black Thought’s rhymes are still razor-sharp: “Boom!” is a stylistic homage to pioneers Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap; on “Web,” he spits 84 uninterrupted bars over a stripped-down breakbeat.