27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Probably The Most Slept-On Album Ever, April 4, 2001
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.
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54 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the most criminally slept on hip hop album., January 23, 2004
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.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hip Hop evolution, July 15, 1999
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!
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