The Roots Speak On One Of Their First Gigs On The 20th Anniversary of 'Do You Want More ?!!!!??!'
This month marks the 20th Anniversary of The Roots' very first official major label album release Do You Want More?!!!!??! We have to say 'official' because of course The Roots made their name with the very unofficial black-label release of Organix and also managed to squeeze out the From The Ground Up EP before their debut release (with a little help from the renowned Gilles Peterson--more on all that later!). Some sources list the release date as January 10th but we believe today January 17th is the correct date and with that date in mind we coerced co-founders Black Thought and Questlove to sit down in front of a camera and reminisce about the recording of the album and the maiden voyage of what is only the most legendary but also hands down the most long-lived dynasties in music. Once the reminiscences started though, we quickly realized that this was just the tip of a much bigger story that needed to be told; the birth of a legend(ary) crew. Some of the key episodes have already been related--most importantly in the early chapters of Questlove's memoir Mo' Meta Blues--but never in documentary form, with all the music and archival video material that can't fit within the pages of a book.
Accordingly, on this official we are proud to share with fans of The Roots (and the world) this two-sided story of Questo and Thought relating the experience of one of their very first proper gigs, a potential nightmare scenario that found the crew on the wrong side of town ("Norf Philly--Norf with an F," in Questlove's words) rocking the wrong look ("broke 'rrested Development!" in the words of one patron). But they say you can tell a star in the making by the way they bomb (or more importantly, rise phoenix-like from the ashes of said bomb) and that's certainly true of this particular show at Prince's Lounge, an event which made a fan of Cosmic Kev (and a few others, too). But take it not just as a celebration of this momentous anniversary, but also as a teaser of a much bigger, more expansive, more, well, legendary documentary coming you way soon. Watch below via OKP TV:
