Digable Planets X Tide Coldwater

I’m not mad at the above Tide Coldwater commercial which uses the music from one of my personal fav Hip-Hop tracks; Digable Planets’ “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat).”

The trio of Butterfly, Mecca the Ladybug and Doodlebug get their due nowadays, but I distinctly remember them getting called ATCQ hacks because of their heavy use of Jazz samples. People also got a little flustered when “Rebirth of Slick” won a 1993 Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Duo or Group in the Rap category. All good save for the fact that they beat out fellow nominees including Dr. Dre’s “Nuthin But a G Thang” and Naughty By Nature’s “Hip Hop Hooray.”

Both of Digable’s albums, Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) and Blowout Comb are excellent 90’s Hip-Hop gems. Every year or so since their initial break up around ‘95 there’s talk of a reunion (they did tour in ‘05). And to their credit, each member has dropped solo projects, though none has reached the acclaim of their previous group work.

“Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”

“9th Wonder (Blackitolism)”