The Many Moons of Digable Planets
Unlike any other veteran rap act, the idea of rating the Digable Planets’ current output against that of their heyday is hardly laughable. Just as their easily digestible debut gave way to a more intricate and enduring sophomore release, the group’s afterlife has been riding a similar tide.
Not that negotiating this post-Planets output has been easy. Ish ‘Butterfly’ Butler seemed to be deliberately keeping his comeback a secret, with the music press curiously playing along. 2004’s Cherrywine project spawned a grimy basement funk session that went all but unnoticed. I then must have blinked during last year’s release of the lurid and unstructured Shabazz Palaces, which emerged as more aggressive and challenging than the music that paved its way.
Arranging this selection of Digable Planets remixes and rarities against highlights of Ishmael’s subsequent projects presents the same progression from accessibility to experimentalism that marked those first two albums, with the recent output comfortably standing on the same footing as anything the group did before and above most of what anybody is doing now.
Track List
Digable Planets – Intro from Amsterdam Reunion Tour
Digable Planets - Nickel Bags of Bites (Excerpt)
Digable Planets - Dedicated
Digable Planets - Where I’m From (Aural G Ride 12”)
Digable Planets - Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like That) (Crashing Giant Step Mix)
Digable Planets – Excerpt from CurrentTV Interview
Digable Planets - Nickel Bags (Sneak A Beshu Mix)
Digable Planets - Appointment at the Fat Clinic
Digable Planets - Califlower (Spiddyocks Go West)
Digable Planets - Three Slim’s Dynamite
Digable Planets feat Guru - Borough Check
Digable Planets feat. Jeru - Graffiti (Noise)
Digable Planets - Dial 7 (Axioms of Creamy Spies)
Digable Planets - 9th Wonder (Amina Remix)
Tek 9 feat. Butterfly - Gettin’ Down Again
Camp Lo feat. Butterfly - Swing
Cherrywine - See For Miles
King Britt feat. Cherrywine - The Sound
Cherrywine - Dazzlement
Shabazz Palaces - N. Splendored/ Find Out
Shabazz Palaces - Capital 5, Recorded After Hrs at the Gun Ballad Resource Center
Cherrywine - 16th Minute
Cherrywine - Sleep Pretty Girl
Digable Planets feat. Lester Bowie and Melvin Watson - Flying High in the Brooklyn Sky
Digable Planets - Where I’m From (DJ Bonus Beats)
Digable Planets – Excerpt from CurrentTV Interview
Digable Planets - Marvin, You’re the Man
