Do You Want More?!!!??!

The Artist

The Roots are a Philadelphia hip-hop collective built around the foundational partnership of MC Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, who met as teenagers at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. What set them apart from the jump was their commitment to live instrumentation at a time when rap production was dominated by samplers and drum machines — a choice that felt radical in the early 1990s and became their defining identity. Their sound draws equally from jazz, funk, soul, and classic boom-bap, creating a hybrid that resists easy categorization. Do You Want More?!!!??! is their second studio album and the record that introduced them to a national audience, marking the moment the band's ambitions and abilities fully aligned for the first time.

The Album

Recorded largely live to tape and released in January 1995 on DGC Records, Do You Want More?!!!??! captures The Roots in an almost purely organic mode — there are virtually no samples on the album, an almost unthinkable constraint for a rap record of its era. Production was handled primarily by the band themselves, with Questlove's drumming and Scott Storch's keyboards and bass forming the rhythmic and harmonic spine of the record. The sessions drew heavily from the band's years of busking on South Street in Philadelphia and touring the jazz festival circuit in Europe, giving the performances a loose, exploratory confidence. Thematically, the album circles ideas of artistic authenticity, Black cultural identity, and the pleasures and philosophies of music-making itself.

Listen For

Live instrumentation as production. Notice how the absence of samples forces each player to create texture in real time — the record breathes and shifts in ways a programmed beat simply cannot. Pay particular attention to how the rhythm section locks in on tracks like "Mellow My Man" and "Lazy Afternoon."

Scott Storch's keyboard and bass work. Before his later career as a superstar pop and hip-hop producer, Storch was a remarkably fluid multi-instrumentalist, and his contributions here are foundational — listen for the warm Rhodes voicings that give tracks their jazzy, unhurried center of gravity.

Structure and space. The Roots resist conventional verse-hook architecture throughout, letting tracks stretch and breathe more like jazz compositions than radio rap. "? vs. Rahzel" is the most extreme example — a battle between freestyling and beatboxing that functions almost as a live performance piece.

Black Thought's vocal delivery. His cadence on this album is notably looser and more conversational than the dense, pressurized flow he'd develop later — hear him ride the pocket on "Distortion to Static," fitting into the groove rather than dominating it.

Artistic self-reflection as lyrical theme. The album repeatedly turns inward to examine what it means to make honest music in a commercial landscape. "Proceed" is the clearest statement of intent — a meditation on forward movement and artistic integrity that doubles as a mission statement for the band's entire career.