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Just over a year ago, my Albumism colleague Jesse Ducker curated our formal 25th anniversary celebration for one of the most triumphant long players in hip-hop history: The Roots’ revelatory Do You Want More?!!!??! (1995). Well, to be honest, the album warrants celebration every day, which is why the forthcoming release of its expanded deluxe edition makes for such exciting news and leaves me giddy with anticipation, as I clear room on my record shelves for its inevitable addition.
Slated to arrive June 25th via Geffen/UMe and comprised of an intriguing assortment of never-before-released rarities and hard-to-find remixes, the impressive, thoughtfully assembled package will be available in 3xLP and 4xLP vinyl configurations, as well as a deluxe digital edition. Additionally, the two vinyl iterations include an extensive 24-page booklet replete with images taken by Mpozi Tolbert, essays penned by none other than Questlove and Black Thought, and special track-by-track insights. The complete track listings can be explored here and the first official preview can be heard below in the form of the Street Mix version of “Silent Treatment.”
The Roots’ ‘Do You Want More?!!!??!’ deluxe edition arrives in stores June 25th | Pre-Order
All in all, it represents quite an event not just for longtime fans of the group, but also for more recently converted devotees who may not be as informed about their storied history. And for me personally, this news has transported me back to my own introduction to the album’s unequivocal brilliance, which I’ve enjoyed revisiting here.
Indeed, it’s reasonable to assume that a substantial number of people are now familiar with The Roots primarily—or exclusively—because of their lucrative gig as the charisma-oozing house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. But the more informed and reverential music heads among us are well aware that the Philadelphia-grown group’s history prior to hooking up with Fallon in 2009 is a bountiful one, worthy of much deeper exploration by their more casual late-night TV admirers.
Rewind the clock twenty-six years and I can vividly recall the afternoon that I was formally introduced to The Roots’ music and instantly transformed into a lifelong champion of their sound and vision. I was halfway through my senior year of high school at the time, and I routinely skipped off campus during my free periods to peruse the bins at the local record stores, forking over whatever extra cash I had on me for the latest objects of my musical affection.
The almighty Leopold Records in Berkeley, California—which, sadly, went out of business twenty-five years ago in February 1996—was my go-to shop, without question. An impressive store that stocked an extensive and eclectic array of records, yet catered more toward urban music aficionados, Leopold was my mecca of music, you could say. I adored the place and still lament that dark day two-and-a-half decades ago when I discovered its doors locked for good, while home from college for a short visit. (As a side note, Tower Records would subsequently move from its original location next door to the space vacated by Leopold, only to close as well, a handful of years later. Pretty sure that this was around the same time that record stores were formally added to the endangered species list, a regrettable trend that has shown few signs of losing steam in recent years.)
But on the afternoon of January 17, 1995, Leopold was as vibrant of a store as ever, and I strolled through its doors with giddy anticipation, as I always had. Upon carefully studying the new releases display that greeted visitors at the front of the store, contemplating which one of the featured CDs would come home with me that day, my concentration was interrupted by a gravelly, baritone, vaguely recognizable voice addressing me from behind. “Yeah, you need to buy The Roots’ album,” the voice demanded, as if through some sort of powerful premonition, it already knew where my attention had been leaning. “Don’t waste your time with the others right now.”
I turned around toward the bag check desk that was located parallel to the new releases, and immediately discovered why the voice had sounded so familiar to me. The voice belonged to none other than Del the Funky Homosapien, the elder statesmen of the Hieroglyphics crew and the now globally revered emcee known for his stellar collaborative work with Gorillaz and Deltron 3030, along with his consistently superb solo and Hiero family output.
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Yep, believe it or not, Del worked at Leopold for a short time, following the dissolution of his recording contract with Elektra, a deal that was responsible for two of my favorite LPs of all time, I Wish My Brother George Was Here (1991) and No Need for Alarm (1993)—both bona fide hip-hop classics. I was admittedly forced to do a double-take when I registered that Del (Del!) was standing before me, but I immediately thanked him for his recommendation, which was really more of a direct order that I could not in my right mind disobey, and left the store with Do You Want More?!!!??! in my shopping bag.
Little did I know at the time that the CD I grasped in my hand represented what would quickly become one of my most beloved albums of all time. In fact, I unequivocally include it within my personal top 20 LPs of all time, across all genres and styles.
If you’ll forgive just one more personal anecdote (last one, I promise), nearly four years after Do You Want More?!!!??!’s release, during my senior year at UCLA, I interned at the West Hollywood headquarters of Geffen/DGC Records, The Roots’ first major record label and the company known for bankrolling behemoth rock albums including Nirvana’s Nevermind (1991) and Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction (1987). As acclaimed as Geffen/DGC’s artist roster was in the late 1990s (also comprised of Sonic Youth, Beck, and Hole to name a few), I recall being ecstatic about the opportunity, primarily because it was with the company responsible for releasing Do You Want More?!!!??!.
My familiarity with The Roots hadn’t been a completely naïve one, prior to receiving the ringing endorsement from the aforementioned reliable source at Leopold. “Distortion to Static”—Do You Want More?!!!??!’s hypnotic lead single—had already been tickling my eardrums for a few months, after I first heard the song via Sway & King Tech’s The Wake Up Show on my local Bay Area radio station, KMEL. And I was aware that the band had already released two records—1993’s self-released, criminally underappreciated Organix LP and 1994’s From the Ground Up EP released through Geffen in the US and consummate tastemaker Gilles Peterson’s UK-based Talkin’ Loud label in Europe. The latter release actually featured a handful of songs that would also be included on Do You Want More?!!!??! months later, including “Distortion to Static.”
These precursor releases were fantastic in their own right, don’t get me wrong. But Do You Want More?!!!??! seemed to signify the proper arrival of this dynamic group with a refreshingly distinct voice and sound. Before I even popped the disc in the player for the first time, two aesthetic details made a big impression on me.
First, the sleek cover art evocative of Blue Note Records’ classic album designs (by Reid Miles) and photography (by label executive Francis Wolff), which simultaneously suggested credibility, cool and fidelity to the great music of the past. An apropos artwork choice, considering the natural fusion of hip-hop and jazz that pervades the album.
Second, the fact that the track listing on the back cover did not begin as expected with Track 1, but curiously with Track 18, picking up where Organix’s closing Track 17 left off. The implication being that Do You Want More?!!!??! didn’t represent a new and separate work disconnected from the record that preceded it, but rather served as the next chapter in The Roots’ broader, evolving story as a band.
Musically, what initially struck me—and still excites me—upon listening to Do You Want More?!!!??! is the profoundly unique aural experience of the album. It simply doesn’t sound like any other hip-hop records that were being produced in the mid-90s, and certainly not like anything you’ll hear today. The Roots are a hip-hop band—a phenomenally talented one—with live instrumentation, a fundamentally different proposition than the standard DJ & MC(s) manning two turntables and a microphone.
Propelled by the harmonious conflation of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s deftly executed percussion (the album’s sonic foundation), Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter’s commanding rhyme flow (which warrants recognition among the master class of emcees like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Biggie), and the headnod-inducing production wizardry of The Grand Negaz (among others), Do You Want More?!!!??! is damn near flawless. Just shy of perfect, because no album can be completely devoid of flaws, right? Trouble is, after 26 years of wearing this record out, I’ve yet to locate any flaws here. Go figure.
“In my head, when I replayed our record next to other records that I loved, I was convinced that we were in the company of other classics,” Questlove confides in his introspectively astute 2013 memoir Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove. “De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising was such a creative record and the world ate it up. A Tribe Called Quest’s Low End Theory was such a creative record and the world ate it up. But there was one thing both of those albums had that we lacked, and that was a hit single. If you were De La Soul, you could talk all you wanted about your commitment to artistry and pushing the boundaries of the genre, but the fact was that ‘Me Myself and I’ was a gold single, and it moved the record along. It was the same thing with Tribe’s ‘Scenario.’ The Roots didn’t have that. In fact, I wasn’t sure what we had.”
Despite the absence of any commercially fruitful singles, what The Roots did most certainly have, in my opinion, was a collection of songs that rightfully belongs within the pantheon of timeless albums that Questlove refers to. To my ears, Do You Want More?!!!??! is just as vitally important as 3 Feet High and Rising, The Low End Theory, Illmatic, Paid in Full, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, and the handful of LPs regarded as irrefutable hip-hop classics.
As the album title rhetorically inquires, the album did indeed leave me craving much, much more from these gentlemen. And they’ve more than delivered, with album after album after album that has followed. To this day, my appetite for The Legendary Roots Crew’s music and prolific discography remains insatiable. The Roots are the quintessential class act, and Do You Want More?!!!??! is one of the most beautiful, masterfully executed albums—hip-hop, jazz or otherwise—ever made. If you’ve never indulged in the undeniable thrill of this brilliant LP, you’re forgiven (for the time being) and there’s still plenty of time for you to do yourself the favor.
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