Digable Planets! June 24, 2005

This band was my hip-hop revelation. Blowout Comb is one of my all-time favorite albums.

"Hey cosmic funk-a-teers, its your brother cee knowledge aka doodlebug, coming at you again from sector six. Currently, my dig-plan comrades and I are on tour across the continental USA and parts of Canada on the second leg of our reunion tour. As you may know the first leg of our reunion tour started in Europe where our European brothas and sistas came out in droves to see butterfly, ladybug, doodlebug and dj. nex millen.( Nuff respect to all who showed love in Europe). On this second leg we are lucky enough to be traveling with some great musicians and a dj. On the keyboards we have legendary keyboardist/composer Brian Jackson of Gil-Scott Heron fame, on drums Richard Williams, on bass Lawrence(bubba)Sims and our dee jay is fat beats(la) store manager dj.jedi."

With Alfred Howard & the K23 Orchestra and DJ Willow.

AllMusic.com review:
Media darlings after the commercial success of their debut, Digable Planets attempted to prove their artistic merit with this second album, and succeeded wildly. A worthy, underrated successor, Blowout Comb was just as catchy and memorable as their first, and also offered the perfect response to critics and hip-hop fans who complained they weren't "real" enough. Except for a dark, indecipherable single named "Dial 7 (Axioms of Creamy Spies)," Blowout Comb excelled at pushing great grooves over sunny-day party jams, even when the crew was providing deft social commentary -- as on "Black Ego" and "Dial 7 (Axioms of Creamy Spies)." The trio used their greater clout to invite instrumentalists instead of relying completely on samples, and the music took on more aspects of the live jam than before. Though Blowout Comb still borrowed a host of riffs from great jazz anthems (from Bob James to Bobbi Humphrey), Digable Planets used them well, as beds for their back-and-forth freestyling and solos from guests. The Digables remade Roy Ayers' "We Live in Brooklyn, Baby" into "Borough Check," and invited Guru from Gang Starr to salute Brooklyn's block-parties and barbershops. (The focus on the neighborhood even carried over to the liner notes, laid out like a community newspaper.) The closer, a brassy, seven-minute "For Corners," also captured that fleeting feeling of neighborhood peace. Though Blowout Comb lacked the commercial punch of Reachin', Digable Planets made great strides in the two areas they'd previously been criticized: beats and rhymes. The beats were incredible, some of the best ever heard on a rap record, a hip-hop version of the classic, off-kilter, New Orleans second-line funk. The productions, all crafted by the group themselves, were laid-back and clearly superior to much hip-hop of the time. The raps, though certainly not hardcore, were just as intelligent as on the debut, and flowed much better. While Reachin' came to sound like a moment in time for the jazz-rap crowd, Blowout Comb has remained a timeless classic.