Selecting from their creative hallmark debut album, “Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)” (Pendulum/Warner), innovative rap group Digable Planets was a tour-de-force in live performance. The sold-out concert Friday evening at Cabaret Metro, 3730 N. Clark St., featured layered music from be-bop to hip-hop.
Despite the cumbersome name, Digable Planets’ apparent spaciness did not distract from their lyricism. In a time when formula hardcore rappers appear predominant, Ladybug, Butterfly and Doodlebug, the three rappers who front the New York group, showed how to reinvigorate the genre.
Their anthemic “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” all but exploded Cabaret Metro. It was as if Digable Planets, along with others such as Arrested Development and Dream Warriors, have diagnosed our hankering for hip-hop to show its true breadth. Their answer makes us want even more.
On Friday evenig, Digable Planets wasted no time in discarding lazy rap cliches: “Don’t `throw your hands in the air’/Don’t `wave them like you just don’t care.”‘ Instead, they improvised, “Get free, get free, y’all.”
None of this suggested that Digable Planets has compromised their street credibility. Their deft quotation of anything from rap pioneer Grandmaster Flash to existentialist poetry endeared them to the broad spectrum of listeners.
Digable Planets’ fusion of hip-hop aesthetics and be-bop sensibilities extended to their very able backing quartet-drummer Steve Williams, trumpeter Gerald Brazel, tenor saxophonist David Lee Jones and acoustic bass-player Alan Goldsher of Chicago-augmented by turntable wizard King Britt. The brassmen answered the rappers’ calls with confidence, and the band displayed great cohesion.
There remains room for this hip-hop outfit to grow. For example, some rhymes on “La Femme Fetal” were easily anticipated. And the rapport among the two male rappers seemed strong while Ladybug at times idled (or rested) at the side.
But the surprisingly crisp acoustics for a hip-hop show provided a clear airing of Digable Planets’ superlative talent.
