From March 13 through March 15, the hip-hop collective will perform six shows — two per night — focused on their earliest releases
Thirty years ago today, the Roots went big with Do You Want More?!!!??!, their first album release on a major label. The DGC Records LP featured over an hour of music, with rap and jazz colliding through production from The Grand Negaz, Questlove, Kelo, A.J. Shine, Black Thought, and Rahzel. In March, the Roots will celebrate the record’s milestone anniversary with a series of performances at Blue Note in New York City.
“We are doing SIX early Roots era focused shows,” Questlove wrote on Instagram. “Yall better riggety rawl & cop them tix cause uh….” The Roots will perform two shows per night from March 13 through March 15. Tickets for each set, which will be held at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., are on sale now via Blue Note New York.
The Roots reissued Do You Want More?!!!??! in 2021 with previously unreleased songs, remixes, alternate recordings, and more. The release came less than one year after the death of Roots member Malik B. The rapper split verses with Black Thought across almost the entirety of the record. Leonard Hubbard, a bassist in the band, died in late 2021.
“It makes one more conscious of where you are in life. What am I able to do with the time that I have left? How much have I taken for granted?” Black Thought told Rolling Stone in 2023. “It’s a different urgency to create and to continue to evolve. It becomes that much more important when you realize how many people that began the journey with you aren’t going to be there with you physically in the end.”
A few weeks after the Blue Note mini-residency, the Roots will perform alongside Lil Wayne at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
“Hip-hop has already taken over the world, and I think the universe is the limit,” Black Thought added. “We’ve all been able to feed ourselves and build these beautiful lives and send our kids to school, while continuing to add on to this thing that we love. You talk about the invention of the wheel and shit like sliced bread and fire — stuff that revolutionized humanity — I think hip-hop is one of those things.”
