Digable Planets HHV Records 2 Items

Jazz-Rap from Brooklyn

With only two influential records, the trio Digable Planets set new standards in the fusion of Hip-Hop and Jazz in the mid-90s. The realization that the sample-based beats of the Golden Era could be explosively blended with recordings of raw brass instruments, wandering basslines, and groovy keyboards slowly dawned on the community at the beginning of the 90s, giving rise to Jazz-Rap wonders like A Tribe Called Quest – and Digable Planets aimed to take it to a new level. In Massachusetts, Ishmael Butler and Mariana Vieira crossed paths, and in Washington, the crew was then joined by Craig Irving. As rappers, the trio took on the names Butterfly, Ladybug Mecca, and Doodlebug, and they began creating their first collaborative tapes. In 1992, the label Pendulum Records, later also home to the Boogiemonsters, gave Digable Planets a chance for their debut single. They relocated to the Hip-Hop-heavy Brooklyn to advance their careers. On their debut track Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat), they crafted a bass-heavy laid-back statement, and with a direct flow, they navigated a remarkably cool Jazz beat, which immediately propelled them into the top 20 of the charts – a gold certification and a Grammy Award followed shortly afterward. As simple as the concept was, Digable Planets quickly became widely known.

DJs and Jazz Bands

Their first full-length album arrived in 1993 and was titled Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space), and the artistic potential of the alternative rap group was recognized not only within the Hip-Hop community but also across various pop-cultural directions. Butterfly, Ladybug, and Doodlebug didn’t just speak the common gangster language, they aimed to remain faithful to the Jazz tradition and discover a new way of musical expression: “Rap is not by bandits.” Consequently, their concerts were atypical for the genre, as Digable Planets brought not only a DJ but also brass players and drummers onto the stage – the groovy samples from their recordings were not just a facade. Ladybug Mecca’s presence as a woman in the group was both rare and instrumental in a rap world that barely saw women on the mic during the 90s. Mariana asserted herself and formed the perfect core of the trio. On Where I’m From, they showed that the question of origin is as complex as it is unnecessary, they referred to their unique way of chilling with Pacifics, and they contemplated the concept of time: “It’s all relative, time is unreal”. The album was celebrated like few others in the alternative genre.

The Revolutionaries of Alternative Rap

The follow-up Blowout Comb brought noticeable changes in style one year later: from the renaming of the crew members to the partly unusual and darker sonic palette of the record, the Digable Planets developed the ambition to capture Brooklyn in all its facets and also expressed themselves much more politically than before by weaving ideas of the Black Panther Party into their lyrics. The new bold direction of the jazz-rap pioneers cost them sales figures and reach, but for fans, Blowout Comb struck musically and lyrically unprecedented notes, revolutionizing alternative hip-hop as a whole. “We made a concerted effort to be more literal and less abstract,” Butler says about the record that dealt with the African American reality in New York. In 1995, the crew disbanded – fans had to wait a whole ten years for their reunion. However, the renewed gathering of the three after numerous solo and side projects led to new global concerts with the Cosmic Funk Orchestra – who needs DJs when there are live bands? “Can’t believe people are still talking about it,” Doodlebug says about the old and new fans buying tickets for Digable Planets. “Time has just flown by, and people are still discovering it every day.”