Digable Planets: Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
[purchase]
Matt broke the Hip Hop barrier before I could get to this track, and it's hard to top any song that includes both Michael Franti and William S. Burroughs, so I'll keep it short: though this first single from NYC Jazz / Hip Hop fusion trio Digable Planets uses horns only for a particular post-verse emphasis on the short titular chorus, without 'em, this would be a b-side on an album which, itself, marked the height of popularity for both this unusual hybrid form and the artists that created it. Instead, the blare of the horns frames the sparse, broken beat and otherwise-silence which accompanies the dreamy, thoughtful, intelligent lyrics, making a smooth, catchy post-street neo-Beatnik jazzpoetry which not only won a Grammy in 1993 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, but lingered in this adolescent's turntable for months.
Sadly, however, it's not hard to see why Digable Planets' second album was a flop: the rest of Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) pretty much sounds just like this track, so who needed more than one album of it? As a novelty, it is powerful and refreshing, well worth having; in the long run, diversification probably would have made a difference. Today, though all involved have under-the-radar solo careers, notably, it is turntablist, soundman, producer and remixer King Britt, nee Silkworm, who often plays with ?uestlove Thompson of The Roots, who is best known, rather than the three vocalists Butterfly, Doodlebug, and Ladybug Mecca.