My Philosophy

Union, Jackson, Yesler, 2-3…

It had to feel good for some 206-born MCs to lace “Home,” the
Seattle ode that closes out Jake One‘s White Van Music.
Vitamin D, C-Note (of Narkotik), and Maine all did their thing in a major way (word to
Funkdaddy)—invoking the town’s chill swagger and shitty
sports teams, representing right for the city that rightly knows them
well as local institutions. But it really had to be some kind of
cathartic for Seattle native Ishmael Butler, aka Ish (formerly known as Butterfly), of gold-selling, Grammy-winning
hiphop crew Digable Planets to close the track out without his
Central District–heavy verse—rapwise, it was no less than a
homecoming for an MC who most heads for years thought was from
Brooklyn. Understandable, as Digables repped BK to the
fullest—although none of the talented trio (well, quartet, if you
count their DJ Silkworm, known to you today as the amazing
King Britt) hailed from there.

After the he-yooge crossover success of their fantastic 1991
debut Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) and its
ubiquitous hit single “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat),” DP found
themselves in critical danger of being the poster children for the
nongenre known as jazz-rap. Some wrote them off as one-hit wonders,
gimmicks, frauds. (Shit, I remember at the time swearing to the homie
that Reachin‘—a record I loved, and still
do—liberally ripped off A Tribe Called Quest‘s debut
People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, just to
sound like I knew something; to this day, I am still guilty of this
same type of shit.) Then they dropped their timeless second album, the
undeniably classic Blowout Comb, thus proceeding to fuck a lot
of heads up. Goddamn, 1994 was a good year.

Blowout Comb is one of my desert-island hiphop
albums—bass heavy, fluid, impossibly mellow, laced with raps both
sharply political and blunted beyond measure. Ish, C-Know (also
called Doodlebug), and Ladybug Mecca traded off rhymes so
breezily it almost seemed like they were freestyled right in the booth;
the production, borrowing heavy from vibey greats like Roy Ayers and Bobbi Humphrey (word to Pops) was jeep-appropriately
booming, jazzy in its source material and structure, flush with
inspired live playing that laid a fresh topcoat on their deeply dusty
grooves. That said, all swoon units and creamy spies report to Neumos
on Wednesday, November 12, to see Digable Planets, soulful local hiphop
combo Godspeed, Big World Breaks, and DJ Topspin (aka Blendiana Jonez).

God knows, I’m gonna need a good night of breezy, head-nodding
hiphop after the insanity that is sure to be 2 Live Crew at
Nectar(!) on November 7, along with Champagne Champagne, Mad
Rad, Jay Barz, and DJ Money D, all hosted by Sonny
Bonoho. Uncle Luke and the 2 Live fucking Crew in Fremont?
What in the hell is that gonna look like?