Hunters staff pick " Here you'll find Hunter, dreaming of the summer sun and sitting back listening to the off-kilter and laid back beats of Digable Planets' underrated (if you place it next to their hugely successful debut Reachin') second album Blowout Comb. Just as catchy and memorable as their first, Blowout Comb excelled at pushing great grooves over sunny-day party jams and is just the perfect way to start your Friday evening"
Blowout Comb is 1994 second album by cult, Brooklyn-based hip hop trio Digable Planets. The album is named for the combs used to maintain an Afro hairstyle, and that's significant. The group's Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler said it summed up what they wanted to do with it: "It means the utilization of the natural, a natural style," he has said. Like with 1993's debut Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space), 'utilizing the natural' meant creating hip hop that blended jazz with the formidable rap skills of the aforementioned Butterfly, Craig 'Doodlebug' Irving and Mary Ann 'Ladybug Mecca' Vieira.
Unlike that debut, it meant broadening to include guests such as Gang Starr's Guru, Jeru the Damaja, and Jazzy Joyce. Following the gold-selling commercial success of their debut, they here set out to prove their artistic prowess. This is intelligent, alternative hip hop that sounded like party music. It's lyrics are dense with wit, social commentary and politics - and it's original inner sleeve was modeled on the newspaper of the Black Panther movement. It's instrumentation includes sax, vibraphone and flute. It's samples - gathered from global cratedigging trips while touring the first album around the world - included Grant Green, Eddie Harris, Shuggie Otis and jazz-funk pioneer Roy Ayers (whose "We Live in Brooklyn, Baby" became "Borough Check" here). And yet at the same time it's beats are infectious and it's spirit undeniable.
RIYL A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul
Tracklisting
- The May 4th Movement Starring Doodlebug
- Black Ego
- Dog It
- Jettin'
- Borough Check
- Highing Fly
- Dial 7 (Axioms Of Creamy Spies)
- The Art Of Easing
- K.B.'s Alley (Mood Dudes Groove)
- Graffiti
- Blowing Down
- 9th Wonder (Blackitolism)
- For Corners
Please note that Blowout Comb is currently not in store but is an imported title from an overseas supplier.
Most of the time it takes around 2-3 weeks for the item to arrive here and be sent out but it can take longer if there are any delays.