Deep Rooted

If this was Deep Rooted's hip-hop aptitude test, they'd easily pass. It's all there: catchy R&B hooks, grooving synth beats, nice cuts, heavy bass, competent rhymes about things all West Coast rappers rhyme about. But that doesn't mean it's very good; it's monotonous and unexciting. Perhaps that's what happens when you limit yourself with similar producers and a female R&B singer who sounds like every other female R&B singer. On this, their third album, it's not until the fourth track, "From the Heart," that a "damn!" moment finally occurs. Sadly, it's because a cameo by Blu infiltrated the proceedings. After that, the repetitiveness takes hold again. There are a couple songs that break the cycle, and there is one titled "Fade" that is definitely the heart of this otherwise skin-and-bones album.