DIGABLE PLANETS / “Black Ego”
"On Blowout Comb, the Digable Planets were able to achieve something very rare among hip-hop albums: no MC stands out any more than any other, no song stands out any more than any other, no line stands out any more than any other, and I’m tempted to say no word stands out any more than any other also. I feel they subtly achieved what they tried to directly explain to the listener through their first album – lyrical communism. I have listened to this album at least a hundred times and not only do I appreciate it more every time I listen to it, but I also can hardly remember any lyrics to any of the songs." —Unknown customer at amazon.comYou only get one shot at first love. No matter who or what you encounter later, no matter how your tastes change, your first remains your first. My first love was hip-hop. With each passing day, it’s getting harder for me to remember why. The hip-hop I fell in love with was brash, didactic, furious and funny. Say what you want about the state of modern hip-hop, most of my description still applies. The thing is, it doesn’t apply to me anymore. I’m beginning my third decade of listening to hip-hop—though less and less lately—and I realize now that I’m listening for something that is rarely there. What I’m listening for is something that increasingly defines my relationships, feelings and beliefs, something that shapes my taste in food, movies, music and books, something that is difficult to describe, but easy to recognize. What I’m listening for is subtlety. I looked up ‘subtle’ in my thesaurus and found words like: ‘attenuated,’ ‘delicate,’ ‘ethereal,’ ‘faint,’ ‘illusive,’ ‘implied,’ ‘indirect,’ ‘indistinct,’ ‘inferred,’ ‘sophisticated,’ ‘suggestive’ and ‘understated.’ There are hip-hop songs that exemplify these adjectives; Outkast’s “Growing Old,” GZA’s “Beneath The Surface” and Mos Def’s “Climb” are only three of the many that come to mind. But of the 1,000 or so hip-hop albums in my collection, only one is expressive of the subtlety I’ve been listening for lately.
Blowout Comb is Digable Planets’ second (and to date, last) album. Their first album, Reachin’ (A New Refutation Of Sound And Space), sold over 500,000 copies, primarily due to the crossover success of the lead single and video Rebirth Of Slick. Reachin’ is good in the same way that many good hip-hop albums are: it’s didactic and funny, brash here and there, though not particularly furious. Blowout Comb is something else entirely. The style is murky, the tone is muted and even at their angriest, the three MCs maintain the same mellow mood. Songs begin at their own leisure and end on a whim. Grooves and riffs repeat so often and for so long that you’ll think your CD player has gone haywire. For some of the compositions, the Planets rely on samples, for others they use only live instrumentation, but throughout there is a sameness which makes it difficult to distinguish one song from the next. (This difficulty may be efficiently resolved by the listener’s intentional lack of effort—in other words, don’t bother.)
Lyrically, Blowout Comb may have offended (or more likely, confused) the Planets’ then-sizable pop audience. Most hipsters who grooved along to Rebirth Of Slick and Nickel Bags have no idea who Geronimo Pratt, George Jackson, Mark Essex or Leonard Peltier are, let alone why the Planets insist on mentioning their names in every other tune. Then again, it’s possible to dig Blowout without understanding a single word of English. In the tradition of Bob Marley’s Kaya, Miles Davis’ Filles De Kilimanjaro or the entire Cesaria Evora catalog, Blowout Comb is as much a single extended mood piece as it is a collection of individual songs. All of the above said, consider yourself warned – this album doesn’t give up the goods easily. The first time I heard it—maybe even the first few times I heard it—I was underwhelmed. Not that I considered it bad—the music didn’t leave a strong enough impression to say even that. But I kept listening. Do yourself a solid and give Blowout Comb time to sink in. Eventually it may become for you what it is for me: a sixty-minute tone poem affirming the ephemeral beauty of a hip-hop band that came and went far too quickly. And, given that it has yet to be certified gold, Blowout Comb may also be the best hip-hop album you’ve never heard.
Mtume ya Salaam
Kalamu’s response to Blowout Comb
You see, you done made me go to the office and dig up my old Digable cds. Am I right that they only made two albums? Whatever happened to them as a group and individually? Anyway, I hear why you dig them. There is both a rawness and a realness about them, plus they are conscious and use a very interesting production style that mixes acoustic with electronic, jazz with grooves. By rawness I don't mean sexual explicitness or graphic violence, I mean unpolished, not slick, sort of like they recorded in a basement or a backroom somewhere, not thinking about doing a commercial recording, just thinking about doing some shit they enjoy. The realness comes from the subject matter they embraced, and the fact that they were conscious about it, relating their likes and dislikes, their ideas and impressions to the real world around them; asking why and how come.
All of that said, I like the concept more than I like the execution (of course I gots to say, of the three, the sista Mecca is the emcee I dig the most, but that's strictly taste and not a judgment of the rapping abilities of the other two). And I do think you pegged the CD right in that any track will do, although I would have chosen the fourth track: Jettin'. So is there anybody, any group out there today you think is doing this kind of vibe? If not, why not?
Click here to see Real Talk, an Encore video featuring Ladybug Mecca. And click here to see a press release on the 2005 Digable Planets reunion tour.
Kalamu ya Salaam
2 Albums and counting
The Planets have only two albums: Reachin' and Blowout Comb. Supposedly, they've announced their reunion and they'll be doing and album and tour with the also supposedly reunited Fugees. While that would obviously make not only this writer but half of Planet Earth very, very happy, I'll believe it when I'm standing there in the crowd and I see all three MCs (from either crew) right there in front of me.
All three Planets MCs have solo projects that are more rumor than fact. The only exception is Butterfly/Ishmael. Last year, he dropped a soul/funk/rap album under the name Cherrywine and he has a completed hip-hop album that never saw the light of day. (If anybody has a copy, please drop me a line.) Cherrywine is very good—but very different from his work with the Planets—I'll post a track from it sometime soon. If you've heard anything from Q-Tip's unreleased funk/rap project, Cherrywine is on a similar vibe.
As far as the rawness, the Planets comment on that throughout the album. Whenever they talk about how 'creamy' and 'slick' they are, they're actually saying the opposite. "We're slicker this year, slicker this year." Everytime I hear that, I start laughing.
Mecca is my second favorite female MC, right behind Lauryn, but for different reasons. Lauryn belongs on the shortlist of truly great MCs. She excels on every level (lyrics, original style, voice, flow, etc.) That's why it kills me that she wants to sing all the time. Mecca is different. Even though I love everything she's done, I wouldn't lie to myself and say she's a great MC—but her style is so fuckin cool it makes up for everything else. My favorite rhyme from the album (by any of the three MCs) is when Mecca kicks this ill couplet:
Now you see that I'm 68 inches above Sea Level
93 million miles above these DevilsJust in case you're not following along at home, the sister is saying she's 5'8" tall in physical form, but in spiritual manifestation, she's right up there with the sun. And just for that extra sickness, when she says 'Devils,' they crank up the Old School echo chamber! And as far the last thing Kalamu asked, I don't know if there's anyone else doing this style nowadays. Like I said, I don't listen to much hip-hop anymore, so I'm not qualified to say. I will say this -- whenever someone tells me some shit like, "You gotta check out [FILL IN THE NAME OF THE LATEST, GREATEST MC], they'll bring you back to '86 (or '88 or '91 or '93 or whatever)," I always end up disappointed. Mtume ya Salaam
This entry was posted on Sunday, June 19th, 2005 at 12:01 am and is filed under Classic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
12 Responses to “DIGABLE PLANETS / “Black Ego””
June 22nd, 2005 at 12:02 am
The last time i listened to “reachin” was probably 93bc (blowout comb). After “bc” came out, i couldn’t return to that second generation “native tongue”sound anymore. I remember digable getting a grammy for the “reachin” album, then “butterfly” said some pro black shit on cbs about political prisoners. If think that flushed their pop audience down the toilet. The release of blowout comb slammed the lid down on any potential terds who wanted to be seen as planet fans.
Blowout is a classic. One of the first CD’s i copped that had thump like a cassette. Ditto on mtume’s critique. However, i think butterfly is the most polished mc in this group. I can’t imagine “ladybug” being ahead of “mc lyte”, “latifah” (before living single), or “ice cream tee” in any mcing category (lady looks better though).
As far as current mc’s capturing the digable sound, check out Little Brother’s:The Listening(2002). There is a beautiful tribute to the song “9th Wonder” on “So Fabulous”. In fact, the production, which happens to be tweeked by an upstart who might have copped his name from the digable blackitolism title, sounds like a cross between pete rock’s earlier stuff and the blowout comb.
Nadir L. Bomani
June 23rd, 2005 at 5:32 am
The site is definitely an education. Isaac Hayes I know, but who are these other people? So a chance to learn without seeing the cross-eyed look of younger folks.
Unfortunately, I am still trying to deal with the muddled tones of hip/hop or rap? (What’s the difference, dear teacher?) I feel the same when I listen to the Israeli pop music that I’ve been buying. Hey! I understand that word — meanwhile they are on word 12. But I am listening. Love the music. Wish I could understand what they were saying.
* * * Mtume says: Rap is a style/type/sub-genre of music. Hip-hop is a culture (or sub-culture) of music (DJing and MCing), dance (B-boying or breakdancing) and art (grafitti, aerosal art, etc.) which was birthed in and around the South Bronx in the early 1970’s. That’s the easy answer. If you care to go deep enough, answering your question would be suitable for a doctorate thesis. Further complicating the matter, many people use the words ‘rap’ and ‘hip-hop’ interchangeably. Others use ‘hip-hop’ to mean good rap music and/or ‘rap’ to mean non-intellectual hip-hop music. I could go on, but….
One other thing. You don’t have to understand what the MC is saying to dig the record. As the quote at the header of the review implies, most of the lyrics on Blowout Comb float through one’s subconscious mind without fully changing from semi-abstract sounds/tones/rhythms into what the conscious mind would recognize as “words.” I can easily repeat whole sections of Rakim’s lyrics from his 1987 Paid In Full album or Andre’s lyrics from Outkast’s 1996 album ATLiens even though I haven’t listened to either album in months, if not longer. By contrast, I can’t repeat more than a line or two from Blowout Comb even if I’ve heard it five minutes previous. Nature of the beast. * * *
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:17 pm
Great spotlight on an amazing album. But, for me, “9th Wonder” is one of my 10 favorite hip-hop songs and definitely an album stand-out.
June 23rd, 2005 at 2:37 pm
oliver wang’s praise for your site is well deserved. digable planets’ 2nd is a great choice… i think a lot of people neglect(ed) this album in a manner reminiscent of the cold shoulder given to pharcyde’s 2nd record. perhaps a sign that too many of us like our art ‘dumbed down’ – don’t make us think, please! hmm, i thought that’s what art, popular or not, was supposed to do. thanks. * * * Mtume says: Pierre is referring to Oliver Wang’s site which can be found at http://www.soul-sides.com. Soul Sides is an excellent audioblog that focuses on hip-hop and the music hip-hoppers love to sample (meaning–as a generalization–’60s jazz and ’70s R&B). Note: To launch Soul Sides outside of the BoL viewer, CTRL-click the link (for Windows) or APPLE-click (for Mac). Or open a new window and type it yourself. 😉 * * *
June 23rd, 2005 at 8:46 pm
I love Jettin’ from BC. It exudes a mature & confident/cool sound which (arguably) marks the change in hip hop from the daisy age era (fun new & fresh) to the hip hop of the mid 90’s. A great transitional track that makes me remember “the good old days” of hip hop.
June 23rd, 2005 at 10:51 pm
Great site guys and with regards to whoever it was that asked if there are any other hip hop acts out there with a similer sound to the Planets, check out
Diverse – one a.m. Some tracks sound very much like Digables.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:43 pm
First off, my first visit to the site has been very pleasant. Soulsides led me here and I instantly see Blowout Comb. One of my favorite albums. Instant bookmark. So forgotten. Until very recently for some reason, I started to see this record pop up at turntablelab and record stores. Digable Planets dropped Reachin somewhere in ’93 and was begining to end dope. When Blowout dropped their fans where expecting the same jazzy hippy vibes to be laid out only to find a more charged, afrocentric, darker, political (if you have the cd as well you know what i mean), mature DP. This album is beautiful, soulful as hell just good hiphop good music. My recommended tracks are Dog it. Horns, nuff said (pop my junk my junk). For Corners ends the album just right. 2 albums. 2 styles. Both enjoyable. Love and respect to the DPs, hope the rumors of reuniting are true, I’m sure they’re rumors. Love and respect to creators of this site. Sorry about not mentioning Black Ego once. These open replies are going to be outlets for people to just rant on, me included. thank you.
June 25th, 2005 at 9:42 am
glad to see it finally happening after the long hiatus. i`m dialing in from the other side of the globe but feel like i`m right there with you cats listening to what you have to say. it just so concidentally happens that i`ve been listening to some digable selections lately with a touch of zap mama in my md walkman. there are some selections from both digable albums in my rotation and i couldn’t totally abandon reachin after bc came out. my favorite would undoubtedly have to be the third? cut from bc. i`m not sure of the title. perhaps “back in black”? for all the same reasons everyone mentioned. i rarely have to repeat or remember more than a verse to feel the entire song of a digable cut. `back in black` is often on repeat as i ride the train and i have to say i can’t quote the opening verse for you now to save my life. bc is one of the few albums i can let play in my cd player undisturbed. i never was completely high on all the cuts but as mtume said, the more you listen to it, the less you find wrong with it.
* * * Mtume says: Kamau’s talking about track #3 – “Dog It,” and I always thought they were saying “Black meaning Black.” But, who knows?
And, for those not in the know: “bc” is Blowout Comb, “reachin” is Digable Planets’ first album, “md” is Minidisc, and “the other side of the globe” is Japan. * * *
June 27th, 2005 at 10:21 am
great, great site i must say and the selections…digable is one of my favourite groups and as it seems – although i dig (no pun intended) blowout a lot – i share the opinion of others, cause i prefer the first lp over the second too.
to check it out at amazon.com. * * *June 19th, 2012 at 6:48 pm
if ‘blowout comb’ aint on the playlist when the Rapture comes, then they can just go on and keep heaven to they selves; i’d be better off down here on the grind. when the revolution comes, the first five hip hop albums i’m grabbing are this one, the rock hard ep by the beastie boys, the doc’s no one can do it better, outkast (yes, i’m counting all their albums as a single release!), and ice cube’s death certificate (or at least the first side of it! – that album should have been released as two separate eps, because pound for pound, ‘the death side’ might be the best hip hop album ever)
May 12th, 2015 at 11:06 am
I’ve in most cases dearly loved just about all categories having to do with Hip-Hop. I’ve been a very big lover, awesome blog post.
Leave a Reply
| top |