Digable Planets - Blowout Comb (2LP Clear & Purple Vinyl)

Reissue of Blowout Comb, the 1994 second album by cult, Brooklyn-based hip hop trio Digable Planets. 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. Its lyrics are dense with wit, social commentary and politics - and its original inner sleeve was modelled on the newspaper of the Black Panther movement. Its instrumentation includes sax, vibraphone and flute. Its 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 its beats are infectious and its spirit undeniable.