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Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)

Hip-hop / Alternative & jazz rap · 1993

Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)

Digable Planets

Why listen

Three distinct voices turn repeated samples into an agile, conversational musical space.

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Tracks · previews

English editorial edition

Album story

The relaxed surface of Reachin’ is not the same thing as rhythmic simplicity. Listen beyond the rounded bass figures and inviting refrains, and the placement of each phrase becomes the attraction. Butterfly, Doodlebug and Ladybug Mecca make a shared space without sounding like interchangeable occupants.

Digable Planets released this debut in 1993. In a 2011 interview, Doodlebug identified Butterfly’s production and the recording work in New Jersey. That studio context matters: jazz colour does not make this a document of rappers performing in front of a jazz group. Samples, programmed rhythm and voices are assembled into a new relationship, with repetition making differences in delivery easier to notice.

A familiar musical vocabulary

In the liner-note interview excerpt published in 2018, Butler recalled jazz being present at home and playing alto saxophone during his school years. This gives the record’s musical vocabulary a personal context without making it necessary to identify every borrowed source. Start with the length of a repeating sound, then follow a sentence as it passes across that boundary. Knowledge of a sample’s history can come afterwards.

Places made through speech

It’s Good To Be Here and Where I’m From offer useful entrances into the group’s world. Rather than turning insect aliases and cosmic titles into a rigid science-fiction synopsis, hear the exchange of voices as its everyday life. The last syllable of one passage and the beginning of the next can change how a familiar beat feels. A shared atmosphere still allows individual timing and character.

Keep going past the single

Rebirth Of Slick is an inviting centre, but it need not define the limits of the album. Continue through the later tracks, comparing the weight given to longer statements and shorter repeated phrases. The listening programme here contains fourteen tracks. A licensed reissue spreads that programme across two LPs; expanded vinyl space does not mean added songs. Reaching Examination Of What at the end lets the album reveal its sustained attention to language, rather than leaving only an impression of effortless cool.

The album through its tracks

Use Rebirth Of Slick as an entrance, then return to track one and follow changes of voice across the full sequence.

  1. Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)

    The repeating bass figure and concise refrain make the song easy to enter. Stay for the differences in how the three voices place their phrases. A recurring backing becomes a ruler against which a line can arrive early, settle into the pulse or seem to hang behind it. The single preceded the album, as KEXP’s retrospective introduction notes, but this guide uses track six of the fourteen-track album rather than a remix or concert performance. Try listening to the refrain first and then returning to the full verses. Familiarity with the hook can make the surrounding rhythmic detail more noticeable instead of reducing the song to its best-known phrase.

    Reference · KEXP: Ishmael Butler interview, March2018

  2. Where I’m From

    Treat the title as an invitation to consider a musical environment, not just a geographical answer. Butler’s recollection of jazz in his childhood home gives one context for the sense of familiarity here, without turning every lyric into a verified autobiographical statement. Learn the repeated backing first, then notice how the arrival of a voice shifts its emphasis. The loop can become a partner to the sentence rather than furniture behind it. You do not have to name every source record to follow that process. Afterwards, return to It’s Good To Be Here and consider how the opening tracks build a place through speech, rhythm and shared cultural references.

    Reference · KEXP: licensed Larry Mizell Jr. liner-note excerpt, February2018

Listen next

A Tribe Called Quest’s People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm offers another approach to the relationship between samples and conversational flow.

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm ↗
References & editorial note

Written for English readers. Album facts are referenced below; listening suggestions are editorial interpretations. AI-assisted editorial review; not independently human-reviewed.