Digable Planets

FORMED: 1991

Though they were not the first to synthesize jazz and hip-hop, Digable Planets epitomized the laidback charm of jazz hipsters better than any group before or since. The trio's 1993 debut album Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) was a mellow ride packed with samples from Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins and Curtis Mayfield, and the single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool like Dat)" became a Top 20 pop hit. After embarking on an ambitious tour which included several live musicians, the Planets returned in late 1994 with their best album yet. Blowout Comb continued the group's jazz-rap fusion, but also saw them branching out to embrace the old-school sound of the street as well.Digable Planets formed in the early '90s, when Butterfly (b. Ishmael Butler, Brooklyn, NY) met Ladybug (b. Mary Ann Vierra, Silver Springs, MD) while attending college in Massachusetts. The two later hooked up with Doodlebug (b. Craig Irving, Philadelphia, PA) in Washington, D.C., and began recording. Their first single, "Rebirth of Slick (Cool like Dat)," released on the Pendulum subsidiary of Warner, hit the R&B top ten while their debut Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) was a critical and commercial success. Digable Planets' resulting tour had a laidback vibe more in keeping with a jazz show than any hip-hop concert, though the live musicians were criticized for doing little more than re-creating samples from the album. The trio solved that problem with the release of their second album, Blowout Comb, in late 1994. Much stronger than its predecessor, it used fewer samples and even included several solos; with no strong single to carry it, however, Blowout Comb's sales performance was not up to that of Reachin'.

~ John Bush, All Music Guide