Do You Want More?!!!??!

“You are all about to witness some organic Hip-Hop-Jazz! One-hundred percent groove!”, exhorts The Roots’ mouthpiece Black Thought at the outset of 1994’s *Do You Want More*. What follows is a remarkable demonstration of instrumental and lyrical virtuosity that finds Black Thought and drummer and arranger ?uestlove leading The Roots through a series of loose, abstracted instrumental grooves and Old School inflected rhymes. They chart a bold course through the history of African American music, embracing the jazzy meanderings of Horace Silver, the tight grooves of the JB’s, the enlightening lyrics of KRS-One, and countless points in between. This music is, at its root, classic Hip-Hop with it’s feet firmly planted in the progressive aesthetic of contemporaries like Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and a host of other boundary pushing rap outfits of the early nineties. The Roots’ subsequent triumphs, such as 1999’s sublime *Things Fall Apart*, have overshadowed the significant accomplishments of *Do You Want More* an album that deserves to be considered a Hip-Hop classic.

The singular hip-hop band’s second album is a story about America and Philadelphia, memory and survival. Like a good book, it goes by quickly, yet you force yourself to linger.

Because the Roots were pioneering a new style during the early '90s, the band was forced to draw its own blueprints for its major-label debut album. It's not surprising then, that Do You Want More?!!!??! sounds more like a document of old-school hip-hop than contemporary rap. The album is based on loose grooves and laid-back improvisation, and where most hip-hoppers use samples to draw songs together and provide a chorus, the Roots just keep on jamming. The problem is that the Roots' jams begin to take the place of true songs, leaving most tracks with only that groove to speak for them.