Phrenology (album)
Encyclopedia
Phrenology is the fifth studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by American hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 band The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...

, released November 26, 2002, on Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...

 and MCA Records
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...

. Recording sessions for the album took place during June 2000 to September 2002. It was primarily produced by members of the band and features contributions from hip hop and neo soul
Neo soul
The term neo soul was originally coined by Kedar Massenburg of Motown Records in the late 1990s as a marketing category following the commercial breakthroughs of artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell...

 artists such as Cody ChesnuTT
Cody ChesnuTT
Cody Chesnutt is an American R&B and neo soul musician.-Biography:Cody Chesnutt is an African American musician from Atlanta, Georgia, whose music blends elements of rock, funk, soul, hip hop, and blues. Chesnutt and his former band, The Crosswalk, had a brief stint with Hollywood Records in which...

, Musiq Soulchild, Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene , better known as Talib Kweli, is an American hip-hop artist and poet from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" ; his in Swahili means "true"...

, and Jill Scott
Jill Scott
Jill Scott is an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter, poet, and actress. In 2007, Scott made her cinematic debut in the films Hounddog and in Tyler Perry's feature film, Why Did I Get Married? That year, her third studio album, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3, was released on...

.

Although it did not parallel the commercial success of the band's previous album, Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart (album)
Things Fall Apart is the fourth studio album by American hip hop band The Roots, released February 23, 1999 on Geffen Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Electric Lady Studios during 1997 to 1999, coinciding with recording for other projects of the Soulquarians collective,...

, the album reached number 28 on the US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 chart and sold steadily, remaining on the chart for 38 weeks. On June 3, 2003, it was certified gold
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...

 by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...

, for shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States. Upon its release, Phrenology received general acclaim from music critics, earning praise for its musical direction and lyrical themes, and it was included in numerous publications' year-end lists of the year's best albums.

Background

Following the breakthrough success of Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart (album)
Things Fall Apart is the fourth studio album by American hip hop band The Roots, released February 23, 1999 on Geffen Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Electric Lady Studios during 1997 to 1999, coinciding with recording for other projects of the Soulquarians collective,...

(1999), its release was highly anticipated and delayed, as recording took two years. The album is named after the discredited pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...

 of phrenology
Phrenology
Phrenology is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules...

, the study of head shapes to determine intelligence and character, which was used to rationalize racism during the 19th century in the United States. Its cover art was created by artist/printmaker Tom Huck
Tom Huck
Tom Huck is an American printmaker best known for his large scale satirical woodcuts. He lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri where he runs his own press, Evil Prints. He is a regular contributor to BLAB! of Fantagraphics Books. His work draws heavily upon the influence of Albrecht Dürer, José...

.

Primarily a hip hop album, Phrenology features themes of hip hop culture and its commodification
Commodification
Commodification is the transformation of goods, ideas, or other entities that may not normally be regarded as goods into a commodity....

, with musical elements of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, and soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

. A production of the Soulquarians
Soulquarians
The Soulquarians is a neo soul and hip hop-informed musical collective with members from Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, Richmond, Brooklyn, Chicago, Dallas, and Oakland. The collective formed during the late 1990s, continuing into the early 2000s, and produced several well-received albums...

 collective, the album features contributions by Cody ChesnuTT
Cody ChesnuTT
Cody Chesnutt is an American R&B and neo soul musician.-Biography:Cody Chesnutt is an African American musician from Atlanta, Georgia, whose music blends elements of rock, funk, soul, hip hop, and blues. Chesnutt and his former band, The Crosswalk, had a brief stint with Hollywood Records in which...

, Musiq Soulchild, Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene , better known as Talib Kweli, is an American hip-hop artist and poet from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" ; his in Swahili means "true"...

, and Jill Scott
Jill Scott
Jill Scott is an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter, poet, and actress. In 2007, Scott made her cinematic debut in the films Hounddog and in Tyler Perry's feature film, Why Did I Get Married? That year, her third studio album, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3, was released on...

.

Reception

The album received general acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...

 rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...

 score of 87, based on 23 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Phrenology earned praise from critics for its sound and balance of lyrical content. Dave Heaton of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...

 called it "an impressive, ambitious work" and commended The Roots for "filling their sound out and pushing it in a variety of directions [...] the form of tight soul/funk that it seemed like they had perfected on Things Fall Apart, but here it sounds even more exact, funkier and edgier". Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....

s RJ Smith described it as "a celebration of self-determination, a nonstop joyride through some very complicated brains" and commented that The Roots "can fulfill nearly all of their sweeping ambition to resuscitate soul’s past". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

gave the album four out of five stars and commented that the band "seem[s] exclusively capable of absorbing other genres. [...] When the Roots return to more straightforward hip-hop, the results are idiosyncratic and hugely enjoyable". Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...

's Sal Cinquemani called the album "subtly progressive" and found the lyrical content to "challenge the commodification and subsequent destruction of hip-hop culture". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

writer Pat Blashill noted "a startling array of hip-hop reinventions" and called The Roots "a hip-hop band that strikes a very funky balance between righteousness and humor, between headbanging grooves and truth-telling". Allmusic editor Steve Huey gave the album four-and-a-half out of five stars and found it musically significant to the band's catalogue, stating:
Despite writing that Black Thought's "rhymes come and go without making much of an impression", Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

called the album "tantalizing" and wrote that The Roots "have been studying hip-hop history [...] they see hip-hop as a sensibility, not a sound". Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

writer Jim DeRogatis
Jim DeRogatis
James "Jim" DeRogatis is an American music critic and co-host of Sound Opinions. DeRogatis has written articles for magazines such as Spin, Guitar World and Modern Drummer, and for fifteen years was the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.He joined Columbia College Chicago as a full-time...

 gave it four out of four stars and called it "a near-classic right out of the gate, an urgent, raucous and thought-provoking 70 minutes that mine the musical territory between hard hip-hop and smoother Philly soul, while spitting takes on topics from America's sex-as-product culture ("Pussy Galore") to the hazards of the street (the 10-minute centerpiece "Water," a three-part suite that evolves from an absolutely hammering ?uestlove beat to a freaky, mind-blowing jazz jam)". Steve Jones of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

also gave the album four out of four stars and commented that "The Roots are shaping a heady brew of music that showcases hip-hop's most creative route". In his consumer guide for The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

, critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 gave Phrenology an A- rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction". Christgau complimented Kamal Gray
Kamal Gray
James "Kamal" Gray is the keyboardist with American hip hop group The Roots. He is from Philadelphia and has relatives in North Carolina. He joined the band as Scott Storch's replacement in 1995, while he was still in high school. He wrote the popular Roots' tracks "The Next Movement", "Sacrifice",...

's "keyb hooks" and stated "[B]elieve that after years of racial mythology, they've found it in their talent to put black music's long tradition of tune and structure into practice". In retrospect, The Rolling Stone Album Guide gave the album four-and-a-half out of five stars and cited "Water" as a highlight, "that begins with the age-old Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...

 beat and ends as an extended musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...

-style instrumental fantasia".

Track listing

(co) Co-producer


Sample credits/notes
  • "Thought @ Work" contains elements from the composition "Apache" by The Sugarhill Gang
    The Sugarhill Gang
    The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, known mostly for their 1979 hit, "Rapper's Delight", the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. The song uses the instrumental track from the classic hit "Good Times" by Chic as its foundation....

    , "Jam on the Groove" by Ralph McDonald, and "Human Beat Box" by The Fat Boys
    The Fat Boys
    The Fat Boys are a successful African American hip-hop music trio from Brooklyn, New York City, that emerged in the early 1980s. Briefly, the group was known originally as the Disco 3.-Members:*Mark Morales a.k.a. "Prince Markie Dee"...

    . According to Questlove, recording artist Alicia Keys
    Alicia Keys
    Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...

     "drop[s] in" on the track.
  • "Water" comprises three parts, noted in Questlove's liner notes as "a. the first movement / b. the abyss / c. the drowning", and contains elements of "Her Story" by The Flying Lizards
    The Flying Lizards
    The Flying Lizards were an English experimental rock band, who were formed in 1976 in England. They are best remembered as New wave one-hit wonders, thanks to their deliberately eccentric cover of Barrett Strong's "Money", which became a UK and US chart success in 1979.-Career:Formed by and led by...

    .
  • "Quills" contains elements of "Breakout" by The Swingout Sisters and features guest vocals from Tracey Moore of the Jazzyfatnastees
    Jazzyfatnastees
    Jazzyfatnastees is a vocal duo, Tracey Moore and Mercedes Martinez . Originally, a vocal quartet, they landed a deal with Tommy Boy in 1993...

    .
  • "Pussy Galore" contains elements of "Because I Got It Like That" by the Jungle Brothers
    Jungle Brothers
    The Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop group that pioneered the fusion of jazz and hip-hop and also became the first hip-hop group to use a house-music producer. The group began performing in the mid-1980s and released its first album, Straight Out the Jungle, in July 1988...

    .
  • Tracks 15, 16 and 18 are silent blank track
    Hidden track
    In the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...

    s. Track 17 is divided into two untitled songs, identified as "Rhymes and Ammo", originally from Soundbombing III (2002), and "Thirsty!".

Musician

  • Black Thought – vocals
  • Sarah Chun – cello
  • Omar Edwards – arp
  • Nelly Furtado – background vocals
  • Michelle Golder – cello
  • Kamiah "Little Klang" Gray – keyboards, klangspiel, producer
  • Jef Lee Johnson – guitar
  • Alicia Keys – musician
  • Talib Kweli – vocals
  • Malik B. – musician

  • Tracey Moore – background music
  • Mos Def – musician
  • James Poyser – Moog synthesizer, strings
  • Questlove – assistant, drums, mixing, producer, sequencing
  • Rahzel – drums
  • Ursula Rucker – performer
  • Jill Scott – vocals
  • James Blood Ulmer – guitar
  • Nuah Vi – cello
  • Hope Wilson – screams


Production

  • Jon Adler – assistant
  • Pablo Arraya – assistant
  • Jim Bottari – engineer
  • Adam Brooks – assistant
  • Cody ChesnuTT – producer
  • Jeff Chestek – engineer, mixing
  • Tom Coyne – assistant, mastering, mixing
  • Kareem Da Bawl – producer
  • Andre Dandridge – assistant
  • DJ Scratch – producer
  • Robert "LB" Dorsey – assistant, engineer
  • Caliph Gamble – assistant
  • Chris Gehringer – mastering
  • Gordon Glass – assistant
  • Jason Goldstein – mixing
  • Kenny J. Gravillis – design
  • Tom "Evil Prints" Huck – illustrations
  • Ben Kenney – mixing

  • Steve Mandel – assistant, engineer
  • Carlos "Storm" Martinez – engineer
  • James McKrone – assistant
  • Shinobu Mitsuoka – assistant
  • Kurt Nepogoda – assistant
  • Richard Nichols – executive producer, mixing
  • Omar the Scholar – producer
  • Bob Power – mixing
  • Kareem Riggins – producer
  • Kelo Saunders – producer
  • Jesse Shatkin – assistant
  • Jon Smeltz – engineer
  • Scott Storch – producer
  • Tahir – producer
  • Shawn Taylor – assistant
  • Steef Van De Gevel – assistant
  • Vince Vilorenzo – assistant
  • Scott Whiting – assistant


Album

Charts (2002) Peak
position
Danish Albums Chart
Tracklisten
Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl...

29
Dutch Albums Chart
Mega Top 50
The Mega Top 50 is a Dutch music chart, originally started on May 23, 1969 as the Hilversum 3 Top 30. Throughout the years, the chart has had several names and lengths:*1969 - 1974: Hilversum 3 Top 30...

54
Finnish Albums Chart 14
French Albums Chart
Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique
The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry...

117
Swiss Albums Chart
Swiss Music Charts
The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75...

57
UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

112
US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

28
US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...

11

Singles

Song Chart (2002) Peak
position
"Break You Off" UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

59
US Billboard Hot 100 99
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

55
Song Chart (2003) Peak
position
"The Seed (2.0)" Danish Singles Chart 2
Dutch Singles Chart 35
Finnish Singles Chart 5
German Singles Chart 67
Swiss Singles Chart 22
UK Singles Chart 33


External links

  • Phrenology at Discogs
    Discogs
    Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...

  • Phrenology at Metacritic
    Metacritic
    Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

  • Between Grooves — By Los Angeles Times
    Los Angeles Times
    The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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