Review: Digable Planets Bring Retro Cool to Miami Beach

I always thought there was some alternate dimension where Digable Planets had the massive career of the Fugees. Both were 90s hip-hop trios made up of two men and a woman, and each released only two albums. But while Fugees reunion tours see the act playing arenas, Digable Planets are content to play in front of a thousand of their closest fans as they did Friday night at the Miami Beach Bandshell. The show and tour were promoted to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their second and final record, Blowout Comb, but their hour-and-fifteen-minute set had close to as many songs from their debut record, Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time And Space), along with a couple of covers. 

The party started at 8 p.m. with a DJ set by Mr. Manuvers, spinning some classic hip-hop tracks. The lights dimmed a bit after 9 p.m. when a saxophonist blew into his horn to some cheers. Instead of relying solely on samples and backing tracks, a Digable Planets concert does something rare in hip-hop: it incorporates a live band featuring a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and the aforementioned saxophonist.

As the band jammed on stage, from somewhere offstage, we could hear the laid-back vocal delivery of Butterfly hyping up the crowd by calling out Miami and Collins Avenue and asking if we wanted to go back in time with three insects. Eventually Butterfly strolled on the stage, sunglasses on and his shirt completely unbuttoned as though he was headed for the nearby beach at sunlight rather than playing a show at night, rhyming the opening lines of “It’s Good to Be Here”. Next was Doodlebug’s turn for his verse. The loudest screams were reserved for Ladybug Mecca, who delivered with her trademark smoothness.

With the full group out there, we were taken back to the mid-’90s when Digable Planets represented something new, even if they always had their eyes on the past. Their beatnik vibe set them apart from their peers. Influenced by beat poets, spoken word, and jazz clubs, accompanied by pop culture references and political idealism, they built a cult following that three decades later still had Miami show up strong to dance to their tunes.

With only two full-length recordings to draw from, Digable Planets had to mess around with the arrangements if they wanted to do something new with familiar tunes. With the live band, they were able to stretch out songs and mix in other artists’ familiar lyrics. And so midway through “Grafitti” they threw in some lines from Grandmaster Flash’s “the Message”. Later, they dedicated a song to Phife Dawg before spitting some lines from his A Tribe Called Quest song “Can I Kick It” that morphed into a cover of  the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”, before devolving into an instrumental with Butterfly repeating the refrain of “a nickel bag of funk” even if that was a song they already performed. 

There were seemingly no rules for this set, except that they would end the night with their most famous hit, “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”. Butterfly said, “I don’t know how many times you heard this song, but here it goes” before that unforgettable bassline ripped, and we all shouted along about being cool like dat. The band left the stage, and in a strange occurrence for a concert, the audience all left right away. There was no shout for an encore. The lights stayed dim for a while. I wondered if they would come back out even if no one asked for it, but sadly, a moment later, the house lights came on. The show was over without an encore. Or maybe the show itself was the encore?