Digable Planets burst onto the music scene in 1993 with their Grammy-winning single, “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”. Made up of Ishmael Butler (“Butterfly”), Craig Irving (“Doodlebug”) andmMary Ann Vieira (“Ladybug Mecca”), the trio carved out a unique style of jazz-informed Hip Hop. Shortly after, Digable Planets followed up with their debut album, Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time And Space), an ambitious offering that Pitchfork praised as “a world within a world, complete with its own language and monuments.” The group celebrates the 30th Anniversary of Reachin’ in 2023.
Melding Jazz samples, and complex rhymes that touched on everything from the nuances of city life (Where I’m From) to abortion rights (La Femme Fetal), Reachin’ was a rich and vibrant artistic statement as well as a huge commercial success (RIAA certified gold). Digable Planets immediately followed up with Blowout Comb, a bold and colorful meditation on Black liberation. While the album did not initially reach the immediate commercial successes of Reachin’, the album has aged beautifully, influencing future generations of Hip Hop heads, young Jazz musicians and Afrofuturists. The trio spent the 2000s establishing their own individual creative voices with Butler’s Cherrywine and Shabazz Palaces projects, Mecca’s work with BROOKZILL! and Irving as “Cee Knowledge” leading Cee Knowledge & The Cosmic Funk Orchestra.
In 2015, the group embarked upon a string of wildly successful live shows and has been very active as a tight touring unit ever since. In 2017, they released Digable Planets Live, a live album that showcases many gems from the group’s catalog as well as the trio’s skill at rocking the crowd with a live band. A pioneering act that continues to cast a wide-ranging, genre-bending influence, Digable Planets have left an indelible mark on music. More than 30 years after their debut, their music still shines, and the iconic group continues to bring their celebrated stage show to excited crowds around the world.
The Soul Rebels
The Soul Rebels are riding high in 2019, receiving national attention for recent performances with Katy Perry and DMX, and featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk series and a debut late night TV appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The band continues to expand its international reach touring four continents including Europe, Australia, China, South Korea and Japan. Their explosive stage presence has led to live collaborations with Nas, G-Eazy, Robin Thicke, Macy Gray, Portugal. The Man, Robert Glasper, Pretty Lights, Curren$y, Joey Bada$$, Talib Kweli, GZA, Macklemore, GZA, Metallica, and Marilyn Manson among others.
The Soul Rebels started with an idea- to expand upon the pop music they loved on the radio and the New Orleans brass tradition they grew up on. They took that tradition and blended funk and soul with elements of hip hop, jazz and pop all within a brass band context. The band has built a career around an eclectic live show that harnesses the power of horns & drums in a deeply funky party-like atmosphere. The Soul Rebels continue to chart new territory as they feature in major films, tour globally, and combine topnotch musicianship with songs that celebrate dancing, life, funk and soul.
Most recently The Soul Rebels wrapped up recording for their upcoming fall 2019 album, Poetry in Motion. The album will put the band front and center and showcase the wide breadth of musical genres and collaborations that have come to identify the musically chameleon-like band.
