OPINION: The Brooklyn-based trio’s 1993 debut album is a production masterpiece featuring that song that literally everybody knows and quotes.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Digable Planets — the Brooklyn-based rap trio of Butterfly, Ladybug Mecca and Doodlebug — was always a group that I felt both should’ve been more revered while also understanding why maybe they weren’t. They’re an enigma, I suppose. For starters, they made two absolutely amazing albums in 1993’s “Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)” and 1994’s “Blowout Comb,” the latter being one of the Blackest musical offerings of all time — I will forever die on that hill.
But even the group’s first album is an absolute production marvel. The album is a beautifully produced (and mixed; that cannot be stated enough) “jazz rap” album. It features jazz-heavy samples in a way that I’m sure even Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest had to appreciate. Digable Planets’ most famous musical offering from their debut album, “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat),” is as perfect a song as you’re going to get, perfectly meshing Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers’ “Stretching” with hip-hop drums and lyrical catchphrases that still work in 2023 — 30 years later. There’s a reason why it was a chart hit and won a Grammy — it’s dope, plain and simple. And if you ever needed an example of “jazz rap,” this is your song.https://www.youtube.com/embed/cM4kqL13jGM?feature=oembed
But that jazz-rap label is limiting. The album doesn’t necessarily just feel like jazz. Naw, to me, the album feels like New York City. When I listen to songs like “What Cool Breezes Do” and “Nickel Bags,” I feel like I’m listening to the soundtrack for a walk down a Brooklyn street. It’s Timberland music, through and through, to me. Perhaps that perspective was driven by my location in the South when it dropped.
When “Reachin’” was released, I was still eight years away from my first time ever stepping foot on a New York City street, but I can say with confidence that this album had the vibe I felt. The whole album’s feel is New York City. Lyrically, it fits perfectly fine in the early-to-mid ’90s. The members of the group weren’t exactly lyrical titans, but they sounded fine on the beats, and unlike some classic albums from the time, I didn’t spend the entire listening wishing somebody else had bum-rushed the studio session. Plus, vocally, each member had a distinct enough voice to be interesting.
This is why I’ve always been confused by the lack of street-level reverence for this album. By all accounts, most folks don’t really think heavily about Digable Planets as essential ’90s listening, short of “Rebirth of Slick.” The album production was dope, the lyrics were fine, and it had a monster hit single.
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