311 Grassroots Lyrics

Starting where Holland's Urban Dance Squad left off--thrash rock coupled with hip-hop beats, rapping, and Jamaican-style toasting--311 found their own voice on 1994's Grassroots. Here they prove to be an estimable groove machine on cuts such as "Applied Science" and "Omaha Stylee," blending turntable moves and ska rhythms like a kinder, gentler Fishbone. Avowed stoners, they dip into noodly Grateful Dead territory on the jammy "Taiyed," touch on Meters-style funk in the sleek "Grassroots," and echo the Bad Brains on the rasta-metal mosh "Salsa." Their dub-rock lexicon is spoken by the likes of Sublime, Limp Bizkit, and Sugar Ray--players in a rock genre of which Grassroots is a modern classic. --James Rotondi