Just yesterday, we showed you footage of The Roots with De La Soul on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon but today marks the 20th anniversary of their debut album. Originally a self-released album given out at their European shows, the album helped gain the band notice amongst the big names in music and it was eventually rereleased 5 years later.
For those in the know, 1993-1994 is often seen as a second “golden age” of hip hop (not to be confused with THE Golden Age of hip hop from the mid 80s to the early 90s), a period heavy in sample-based hip hop but The Roots came with a full band, giving them a creative edge. Between Questlove’s emphatic drumming and Black Thought’s powerful energetic flows, Organix’s heavy jazz hip hop groove was the perfect melding of the old and the new.
In another era, this may well have been grouped with the jazz fusion crowd with their use of live instrumentation and wider compositions.