Digable Planets

In the early 1990s, while Suge Knight's Death Row records dominated hip-hop with artists like Dr. Dre and Tupac, Digable Planets chose the same high road that De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest had already taken -- they all but ignored gangsta culture. MCs Doodlebug, Butterfly, and the sweet-voiced Ladybug combined a positive vibe with jazz samples to create ultra-laid-back joints that provoked head bobbing rather than drive-bys. Their debut, Reachin', invaded college boom boxes and birthed the Top 20 hit and Grammy winner "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)." While Reachin' preached self-belief, it also waxed political with cuts like the pro-choice narrative "La Femme Fetal" and avoided substance altogether on the nonsensical "Appointment at the Fat Clinic." Some of the tracks on Reachin' follow Tribe's blueprint to the letter, but by the time they released their second record, Blowout Comb, the Digables had clearly found their own sound. Blowout plays like a treatise for good living, an ethic that includes real live instruments and seven-minute epics such as the Afrocentric "Black Ego." "The Art of Easing" picks up where "Rebirth of Slick" left off, and "Borough Check," which features Gang Starr's Guru and a Roy Ayers sample, is a territorial pissing that you can dance to. Although it contained no obvious single, Blowout still cracked the Top 40. The group wasn't as lucky, though, and the Digables disbanded in 1995 due to creative differences. (DAVID MALLEY)