Blowout Comb

Digable Planets | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 18, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B00000HFM2
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,382 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In 1993, the Digable Planets, a trio of New York MCs with happy insect monikers (Doodlebug, Butterfly, and Ladybug) and nonthreatening auras, created manna for the pseudo-beatnik crowd. On Reachin': A New Refutation of Time and Space they melded jazz records, hip-hop beats, and rhymes--like Gang Starr and the Dream Warriors before them. Much to their dismay, the single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)," which combined their be-boppy flows with a catchy Art Blakey loop, captured the clove cigarette contingent. Their sleeper follow-up, Blowout Comb was a De La Soul-esque reaction to their pop success. They forsook the bohemians (and probably scared them as well) by waxing poetic about the Black Panthers and Fidel Castro and giving shout-outs to their peeps in the Five Percent Nation of Islam. Loaded with live instrumentation, the album includes "Black Ego," an interpolation of a popular Meters composition laced with nice guitar plucks, and "K.B.'s Alley," where a schizophrenic trombone perfectly complements their wordplay. Despite strong guest spots by vet female DJ Jazzy Joyce, Guru, and Jeru the Damaja, it's the hidden messages, somber mood, and understated beats of "9th Wonder (Blackitolism)" or "Dial 7 (Axiom Of Creamy Spies)" that outshine the gloss of their debut. --Dalton Higgins

Product Description

CD

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably The Most Slept-On Album Ever April 4, 2001

By Tourmaline

Format:Audio CD

This has got to be the most underrated, slept-on album in the history of hip-hop. I consider myself to be an avid hip hop fan, yet I slept on this album until November of last year!! I have heard that this album was a classic time and tiem again, but I never considered buying it until recently. This album is dope from the beginning to end. The production is reminiscent of The Roots, but I think it is much more mellow and organic. All of the songs are nice, but my favorites are Jettin, Blowing Down, The Art oF Easing, Dial 7 and Four Corners. 1994 was one of the best years in hip-hop. Illmatic, Sun Rises In The East, Word...Life, Resurrection and Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik were released during the year, but in my opinion, Blowout Comb ranks up there with those albums because it is just as good, if not better in some cases. If you do not have this album, you are missing out on a masterpiece.

55 of 65 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars the most criminally slept on hip hop album. January 23, 2004

By Campbell Roark

Format:Audio CD

This is one of those albums that just slides through the cracks between genres. It's also the quintessential hip hop album. Along side 'The Low End theory,' 'Things Fall Apart,' Paul's Boutique,' 'Stankonia'... It takes hip hop to new places, it makes the whole more than what it was. Few albums accomplish that- stepping up the game for all involved and raising the collective ante.

The tracks are dense as hell- sticky-thick, odd effects, abyssinian-deep funkee samples, beats the likes of which I have never heard before (really- and I know beats pretty wel, aside from the shuggie otis sample on 'For Corners' and a couple others I'm at a loss for most of the album), and sick rhymes that stick in your head eternally... It is way beyond 'Reachin,' Digable Planet's debut album, which was a very good album in its own right.

Like I have said before in reviews, there are very albums that I can just sit back and listen to- the whole thing, no skipping tracks, no messing with the order. This is just perfect, like the girl you hope to take home to mom one day. If the almighty bounced into my kitchen while I'm washing dishes to Blowout Comb, while skipping around and murmuring the lyrics, and asked me- "Well, can I make it better? More echo on the jazz drums from 'black ego'? Or higher pitch on the singing on 'the axioms of creamy spies? Anything? you want fries with that perfection???"

I'd just say, "You know what, God? This one is fine as is."

Just kidding, there is no God. But this album is damn close.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hip Hop evolution July 15, 1999

By [e-mail]

Format:Audio CD

I understand that I am in the minority when I make this statement: I have listened to hip hop my whole life. I own all of the albums that are considered "essential" to the genre, from Run DMC to the Roots. I think this is the most creative and interesting hip hop album I've ever heard. Smart, layered, and seductive: It quite literally makes 99% of the hip hop I hear today seem like mundane mic and turntable chatter. Shame on you Digable Planets for breaking up!