Although he remains a vital part of The Roots sound to this day, Scott Storch stops performing live
with The Roots in 1993. The Roots embark on a European tour in 1994 as relative unknowns, cramming
into a small London flat and living show to show. The lineup features MCs Black Thought and Malik B,
?uestlove on the drums, Leonard Hubbard on bass, and newcomer Nikki Yeoh on keyboards and piano.
They release From The Ground Up to European audiences, a prequel EP to their upcoming major-label debut.
With this material, which features Roots staples like “Distortion to Static” and “Mellow My Man”,
The Roots attempt to conquer Europe.
The European tour featured tracks off of From The Ground Up such as “Do You Want More?!” and “Datskat”,
as well as debuting new songs such as “Proceed” and “I Remain Calm”. A notable stop on the tour was the
Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, where The Roots managed to capture a foreign audience that was there to see
jazz, not hip-hop. But nothing energized the audience as much as “Essaywhuman?!!!??!” and an extended freestyle over the
“Dance To The Drummer's Beat” instrumental. Other highlights included performances of still unreleased songs such as
“Tighten Ya Cypher” and “Dot Dot Dot (Improvised Improvisations)”. Nikki Yeoh, the diminutive female Asian Roots
keyboardist looked completely out of place with the band as she bobbed her head off beat throughout the night. Meanwhile
Hub, decked out in tight black jeans and a shiny vest, scatted and played a stand-up acoustic bass as he was very vocal
and emotional throughout the show, a side of him not often seen in contemporary Roots performances.
