Digable Planets 1993

Digable Planets' 1993 Album

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      Digable Planets was awarded "Best Performance by a Duo or Group" for the single called "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)." The rappers comprising Digable Planets are Butterfly, Ladybug (aka Mecca), and Doodlebug (aka Brother Cee-Know). The GRAMMY Award winning song was included on the group's 1993 album which, along with their 1994 album, calls on black gangbangers to stop victimizing blacks, but rather to continue victimizing whites and to redirect black-on-black gang crimes at whites.

      There are dozens of black identity phrases that refer to black complexion, Afros, and such, and examples are as follows: "the funk brown bass"; black folks; "angles on the move really couldn't get no blacker"; "I'm black like that"; "the hard rocking kids that did it for the black"; "Doodle soaked in Butter because we be black and hip"; "don't cover up your nappy, [instead] be happy with your kinking"; pleasurable naps; "where kinky hair goes to un-thought-of dimensions"; "we be the chocolates"; "chocolate troops, silky blond skin, all is good in the land of the honey-dipped lovelies"; "the chocolate and the braids"; "brothers with guitars, talking sense and puffy Afros"; "comb out your 'fro"; and dreadlocks.

      There are a few references to Africa, and some are as follows: when describing hip-hop culture the rappers say that "the kinks, the dance, the prints in all the shirts, my Grandmother told Mama that it's Africa at work"; when at the park the rappers say they "sit with Phoenicians digging on musicians"; living quarters in their neighborhood are described as "projects, tenements, [and] pyramids"; and at one point their NY borough is referred to as the Serengeti.

      They use their own names constantly in the songs as they describe their music or the creation of it. Their rap music is described by them as soul, funk, jazz, rap, and hip hop, and some songs give credits to black legends of jazz, soul, or rock.

      The purpose of their music, the rappers say over and over again, is to entertain, to inspire thought, to raise awareness to social issues, and to provoke actions, and in one phrase they encapsulate their goal: "rhythms and the struggle kind of funnel into one." ("What Cool Breezes Do.") Listeners who are "down with Digable Planets" are "hipsters." ("Last of the Spiddyocks".) "We rocks on your blocks," the rappers say, "soaking in the ghetto for kids that have not." ("Its Good to be Here.")

      They also say that their music has an influence: "your forward black jam takes you forward black man"; (from "Escapism (Gettin Free)";) and "black sunflowers bloom to your tune"; (from "What Cool Breezes Do.") In one phrase the hope for greater popularity is tied in with black ancestry: "the ancestors grin because rap is getting fat." (Ibid.)

      There are no denunciations of gang violence. There is one request for blacks to stop using guns when settling disputes: "everybody has got a Glock; if you got some beef, please express that in silence or else violence." ("Pacifics--NY Is Red Hot.") Overall on their album, gang membership is normalized. The rappers often speak matter-of-factly about violent behavior without condemning it, and examples are as follows: "to some of them it's grim because its youth be having gats"; "the locust low-kids with their Glocks in their ride; hoodlums in the house [club] get . . . they flams because even 'peace' gots some clout when that funky jam is on"; (both are from "Escapism (Gettin Free)";) and "what is really what if the funk don't move your butt, and if the box don't make you hot, and if the cats don't get your raps, or if your life ain't got no spice, and if the guns just wreck your fun, or if some shouts are in your house, or if your crew ain't down with you"; (from "Examination of What".)

      The rappers never condemn drug use, and they further shed positive light on drug use when they describe the delivery and effect of their music in drug terms as follows: "the opium groove, the smacked out soul; Ladybug will hit you with the nickel-bag; Butterfly will hit you with the nickel-bag; Doodlebug will hit you with the nickel-bag"; (from "Swoon Units";) "your grass be in the joint, but they licked it and rolled it"; (from "Examination of What";) "kept the jazz alive. . . . we was hip to stretching out the brain; I felt like Barry Parker when I shot it in my vein"; (from "Last of the Spiddyocks";) "our funk zooms like you hit the Mary Jane [marijuana]. . . . she sweats the beat and ask me because she puffed it. . . . us cause a buzz when the nickel-bags are dealt"; (from their GRAMMY Award winning song;) "scoop the beats in the flying-saucer kit; meet me at the port with the nickel-bags and shit"; (from "Its Good to be Here";) and "where I'm from we living off the boom-boom crack"; (from "Where I'm From".)

      The rappers sometimes describe the delivery and effect of their raps in violent or criminal terms as follows: "should I smack a ghetto punk with the live"; (from "What Cool Breezes Do";) "funk is you; funk is we; funk is us; funk is free, insects [the rappers] at the joint. . . . recognize the loot"; (from "Escapism (Gettin Free)";) "I peel your cap [cranium], y'all"; (from "Last of the Spiddyocks";) "just like busting caps, whip it 'till dawn"; (from "Where I'm From";) and "try to gank my style and I hit you to the heater"; (from "Appointment at the Fat Clinic".)

      The rappers associate themselves with gangbangers and those who portray the image, and examples are as follows: their audience is described as youth having "the knotty knotty hair" and wearing the "baggy baggy jeans"; (from "Nickel Bags";) "the proven is in the moving [dancing] of the baggy clothes at the dimly lit clubs. . . . we giggle with the thugs"; (from "Escapism (Gettin Down)";) "popping out the jive in the jazz causing rust; Doodlebug told me that the g. [gangsta, or black gangbanger] be getting down; shit, that's mandatory so you gots to demand it"; (from "What Cool Breezes Do";) "the rebirth of slick like my gangsta stroll; the lyrics, just like loot, come in stacks and rolls"; (from their GRAMMY Award winning song;) and "hanging with the rebels, sipping on a Snapple"; (from "Pacifics--NY Is Red Hot.")

      It is true of all "gangsta" rappers that the messages are addressed directly to gangbangers and those who portray the image, and examples follow: "the beats is infinite where I'm from. . . . gangsta-lean where I'm from; I'm interplanetary; my insect movements vary; it's kinky if it's hair, g., where I'm from"; (from "Where I'm From";) and "I'm free so let me pass it to my g."; (from "Time and Space.")

      For decades blacks have used the title "Uncle Sam" to refer to whites. In his speeches, Malcolm X referred to whites in government and society by the title "Uncle Sam," and Digable Planets like many other "gangsta" rappers have carried on its usage. One example of them doing so is as follows: "Uncle Sam showed us all the space; we refuted it; tell them that ghetto was the aim; let go of my brain; then we changed your boogie because your boogie had to change"; (from "Appointment at the Fat Clinic".)

      Even though apartments are small and expensive for New Yorkers of any race or ethnicity, the Digable Planets' rappers narrow their concern to its effect on blacks. ("Examination of What".) Digable Planets uses phrases that represent today's experience of blacks in the United States as that of an oppressed people, and examples follow: "rhythms and sounds spinning around confrontations across the nation, your block, my block, dreadlocks; what a shock; land of the free but not me, not me, not me, not me"; (from "Femme Fatale;") and "we help to liberate through this butt-shaking funk"; (from "Swoon Units".) Even if a black can avoid "the shanks, and the pistols, and the Glocks," they still must deal with politicians whose "mask is worse than Holloween," and rappers ask the listeners, "now tell me who is the vict's and tell me who is the victims." ("Examination of What".)

      Digable Planets says that whites collectively have lied to blacks: "I bust raps, y'all; in love with naps, y'all. . . . don't trust the flag, y'all. . . . I'm pinning Uncle Sam for the death of swinging quotes. . . . the killer-coolers [Digable Planets rappers] breeze in this land of the free, and it been like that since they lied about they flag; like all my main mans gave their beats up for skags; so that's why I pops it at your throat. . . . I lay it on the caps [heads] about [Thelonious] Monk, the logical extensions coming booming out that trunk; assuming that the rumor which was room-designed by your mind, not the Stars and Stripes. . . . the rat-atat-tat. . . . I'm sinking deep to the slickness of the horn; I'm thinking take the hitness and just lay it in my form; so when the hoodlum thugs are waiting for another anthem, I say, it's in the blood 'cause there ain't no other rhythm. . . . the sickness to the world is because of Sam, so the blues." ("Last of the Spiddyocks.")

      What flag should be believed in, one might ask the rappers. They declare that "Planets pledge allegiance to the funk in all its forms." ("Where I'm From.") The federal government cannot be trusted for the "feds was cracking domes." ("What Cool Breezes Do.") Black youth are in "an economic state" that the rappers "wish to terminate," yet "the feds" have "dissed" blacks, ignoring and dismissing them. The quotes given in the previous sentence come from the "Femme Fatale" track, and other issues also brought up on the track are abortion and welfare. "The pro-lifers [who] harass" outside clinics are the ones who really hate, we are told. People who "don't want a woman to . . . have the right to choose" are "the fascists." "The fascists" are the same ones who do not want a woman as President and who will send listeners off to a war to die. Listeners are forewarned that "if Souter and Thomas have their way, [listeners] will be standing in line unable to get welfare," and, all the while, the Justices would be out "hunting and fishing." "Supporters of the H-bomb and [the] fire bombing [of] clinic[s]" are matched together as "the fascists." The role of the Digable Planets' rappers in all the controversy, we are told, is "to lay it on the masses and get them off their asses, to fight against these fascists."

      The rappers plainly relay their affiliations to Communist ideologies, and examples are as follows: "you can ask my Dad's Chairman Mao comrades, squatting at they pads, thinking of they jazz. . . . I dig Planet's race. . . . you could either read a little Marx or hang with Smitty Ox"; (from "Appointment at the Fat Clinic;") "nappy hair is life; we be reading Marx where I'm from"; (from "Where I'm From;") and "the hip-hop digging cats just delivering the words, from the ghetto-dwelling youth to the bourgeois in the 'burbs"; (from "It's Good to be Here.) There are some references to the police, and they are as follows: they say that they watch reruns from the TV show "Hawaii Five-O"; (from "Pacifics--NY Is Red Hot";) they describe themselves as "the Crooklyn non-pigs"; (from their GRAMMY Award winning rap;) they describe themselves as those who "duck out from the fuzz"; (from "Where I'm From";) and "what is really what if . . . the streets don't dig your beats . . . if your 'hoods don't think you're good, or if your church don't really work, or if the pigs want to knock your wigs"; (from "Examination of What.")

      Affiliations to Nation of Islam are not forthcoming like they are on their '94 album; nevertheless, the examples are as follows: a reference to Muslims is made on the "Swoon Units" track; and a reference is made to 5 Percent Nation in the form of referring to a class of people as belonging to "85"; (from the track "Where I'm From.) Affiliation to the Black Panthers occurs on their "Jimmi Diggin Cats" track. On the track the rappers project how black icons from the past would get along in the present. "The Black Panthers would have their own cartoon," we are told, and "Planets freaking havoc is as constant as the rain." There was a sample taken from a song by The Last Poets. Samples were taken from songs by artists who won GRAMMY's in the past, namely K.C. and The Sunshine Band's "Ain't Nothing Wrong," Art Blakey's "Stretchin," and Kool & The Gang's "Summer Madness," and the companies who handle their licensing gave approval.

Reference
Reachin--a New Refutation of Time and Space, Digable Planets, 1993, Pendulum Records, a subsidiary of Thorn EMI, now being called The EMI Group.

Posted at http://home.att.net/~phosphor on June 30, 1999.

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