Only a year and a half after releasing the excellently painstaking perfection of Phrenology, Philly's finest The Roots are back with a looser-feeling follow-up in the form of The Tipping Point. The Roots are down to a four piece now that Malik B. and Rahzel are gone, but that doesn't stop them from making some of the freshest, off-the-cuff music in all of the rap game. Black Thought is definitely up to the challenge here all by his lonesome, as the one-two B-boy punch of "Web" and "Boom!" prove. Also downright amazing are the reggae stylings of "Guns are Drawn," and "Star/Pointro" propels the ghosts of Sly & the Family Stone's "Everybody is a Star" over the top of a fly ?uestlove beat and Black Thought Performance.

In all actuality, the only truly weak track here comes in the form of the silly R&B twinge influenced "Somebody's Gotta Do It." Not even guest spots from the incomparable Riq Gees and Jean Grae can pull this one through. But all one has to do is look to tracks like "I Don't Care" and "Don't Say Nuthin'" to see that The Roots are still on top of the indie rap game. The Tipping Point is yet another great album from a rap group that has become the definition of consistency. It's just about that time, and deservedly so, when The Roots need to be mentioned in the same breath as legends like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul.