Digable Planets

Legendary hip hop group Digable Planets goes record shopping at Amoeba Hollywood in this "What's In My Bag?" episode. Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, Mariana "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira, and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving talk about Fela Kuti, Cocteau Twins, '90s soul, horror movies, hip hop comics and much more. Digable Planets are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their second album Blowout Comb" Visit officialdigableplanets.com for tour dates.

Digable Planets' picks:
• Alexandra Heller-Nicholas - The Hitcher (BOOK)
• J Dilla Donuts - Action Figure (MISC.)
• Outkast-Hey Ya! - Action Figure (MISC.)
• Joviale - Mount Crystal (LP)
• Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas (CD)
• Fela Kuti - The Best Of The Black President [Box Set] (LP)
• Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Afrika 70 - Zombie (LP)
• Loose Ends - Look How Long (CD)
• Jason Stanley - How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (BOOK)
• Ennio Morricone - White Dog [OST] (CD)
• Ed Piskor - Hip Hop Family Tree Book 4: 1984-1985 (BOOK)
• Charlie Ahearn - Wild Style (BLU-RAY)
• The Brand New Heavies - The Brand New Heavies (LP)
• D'Angelo - Brown Sugar (LP)
• Digable Planets - Dial 7 (Axioms Of Creamy Spies) (CASSETTE)

Featured Artist: Digable Planets

Editor: Jacob Gray
Executive Producer: Rachael McGovern
Producer/Director: Craig Miller
Assistant Director: Derich Heath
Cameras: Jacob Gray, Derich Heath
Audio Recorded by: Patrick Emswiler
Assistant Editor: Patrick Emswiler

Watch Digable Planets' "What's In My Bag?" episode on Amoeba.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

What's going on? It's your brother's butterfly. Yo, what's up? It's the creamy spot agent Ceno the Doodle Bug.

SPEAKER_08 0:05

And Ladybug Mecca. We're here at Amoeba showing you what is in our bags. But I'm cool like that.

SPEAKER_05 0:11

I'm cool like that. I'm cool like that. I'm cool like that. I'm cool like that. I'm cool like that. I'm cool like that. I'm cool.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

My first choice is this book that I found in a discount book bin. It's a cool book about the making of the movie A Hitcher. One of my favorite movies.

SPEAKER_17 0:30

Heading west on a long lonely highway, only his dreams for company.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Until my mother told me never to do this.

SPEAKER_17 0:41

Before many miles, he wish he'd taken his mom's advice.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

One of my favorite actors is in at Rucker Hauer, so this is gonna go in my collection as uh, you know, interesting little anecdotes about uh film, which is something that I'm really interested in.

SPEAKER_08 0:57

What is it about that film that makes it one of your favorites?

SPEAKER_04 0:59

I like horror movies, I like thriller movies, and um, I really like to watch Rucker Hauer act.

SPEAKER_17 1:06

You stay seated right where you are, I'll blow your brain through your ass. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

So this movie got a lot of suspense, and the scenery is pretty crazy because it kind of takes place on like a long highway, and it's just like it's one of my favorite movies, real classic joint.

SPEAKER_06 1:37

Plus, he's a Rucker Howard fanboy, you know what I'm saying? Come on, man. I was his house, he had Rucker Howard post-seller. Oh, look at that, Rucker.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

I was gonna name my son Rucker, but no. What you got?

SPEAKER_06 1:49

I'm a fan of uh comic books, collectibles, and stuff like that, ever since I was a kid, you know what I'm saying? Exactly, the true indeed stuff. So when I saw these, I had to grab these, of course. Collectibles, Jay Diller, one of the greatest producers of hip hop, you know what I'm saying, of music. And then one of the greatest groups ever, Howcast, you know what I'm saying? I'm never opening these, Doves is the trust and believe. This is one of my collection. Um hopefully my son won't dig in here and try to get the people to be like fighting big boy versus.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

What are you fighting for?

SPEAKER_08 2:46

My first choice is this artist named Jovialis. She's from London, North London, I believe. I don't know much about her, but I came across her music searching through the digital world, and um I just really love the production and her lyrics and her delivery. I believe she went to school for acting and you know, theater and dance, and um I'm just I'm I'm interested in learning more about her and just watching her career rise, you know.

SPEAKER_04 3:52

Then I had to hit him with the uh cocktail twins having a Las Vegas, one of my favorite uh albums. I got a CD player in my car now, so get my CD collection back together and it's gonna be it's gonna be getting spun in the whip quite often. A bunch of dope songs on here, crazy production, crazy arrangements, crazy vocal treatments. So yeah, I can't wait to uh do like we do up in Seattle, Washington, let the windows down, the sunroof opening, and bump this uh cocktail twins having a Las Vegas.

SPEAKER_06 4:55

My next selection is from the great Feyela Kuti My father Moanza played this around the house all the time. I didn't know who this was, but I just I knew the music just was in my head, you know what I'm saying? And it inspired a lot in me. When I saw this, I was like, I gotta get this. It's the best of the black president, you know what I'm saying? Nigeria's favorite son.

SPEAKER_08 5:36

I too have fella coutie. It was the first section I went to because I was listening to this specific podcast about his life and learning about the stories behind zombie and expensive shit.

SPEAKER_12 5:49

Imagine all of this from the perspective of the military. You've got a musician who's become a politician, who's become a publisher, who's threatening to run for president, who has created a song that is blaring out of every record store and every open window that seems to diminish the police and embolden the people.

SPEAKER_08 6:07

And just being really inspired by his dedication and motivation for change. Mr.

SPEAKER_09 6:16

Follow, follow, final, file, final, file, file, final.

SPEAKER_08 6:22

Do you remember what the name of that podcast was? I don't remember, but it's on Apple Music. It's very specific to his like it was created for him. But I first came across it on This American Life. They took one episode, which was about his mother and how influential she was and what she did for the community as he was a little boy. And so that brought me to, you know, it taught me about the actual podcast.

SPEAKER_16 6:46

The message which I bring you today is the message of all women who have left their stalls, their homes and children, their farms and petty affairs to come and visit you today. They are the suffering crowds who are gathered on your front lawn. They are all the womanhood of Egba. The words which you hear from me are the words of Mrs. Quitzy. She asked me to tell you on behalf of those women you see outside that the women of Egba have had enough.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

I had to hit them with the uh loose ends 1990 record. Look how long. But my favorite joint um was one called Love's Got Me. Yeah, this is gonna be in heavy rotation right here. Shout out to uh Lu Sins. Carl Matt, classic. Do yourself a favor.

SPEAKER_06 8:06

Not to mention the leads uh the uh uh female vocalist. She's in ice, she's in an ice facility as we speak right now, you know what I'm saying? Being held up. So what? Yeah, she's held in she's been held for a month now.

SPEAKER_13 8:18

What is the point of having her in this detention center while she awaits the EB1 the IN INS?

SPEAKER_15 8:33

You know, anyone here illegally regardless of the violation is put into detention until recently couldn't be released on God, and then there was an executive order. That's why you have everybody in detention.

SPEAKER_06 8:57

And that leads me to my next uh selection. A rain for anybody that's into what's going on in the world right now, how fascism works.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

The America First Movement was the public face of pro-fascist sentiment in the United States at that time. In the twenties and thirties, many Americans shared Lindbergh's views against immigration, especially by non-Europeans. The Immigration Act of 1924 strictly limited immigration into the country, and it was specifically intended to restrict the immigration of both non-white and Jews.

SPEAKER_06 9:36

The title and uh the reality of our um what's going on in this world right now hit me. I was like, I'm gonna I just want to read this. I've been reading books similar to this. I just love um understanding, you know what I'm saying, what's going on in the world. So this is a very good read. Go check it out.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

The book's author, Yale Professor Jason Stanley, whose parents were both Holocaust survivors who came to the US as refugees, shows instead that, quote, in its own history, the United States can find a legacy of the best of liberal democracy as well as the roots of fascist thought. Indeed, Hitler was inspired by the Confederacy and Jim Crow laws.

SPEAKER_14 10:14

If you're going to attack liberal democracy and replace it with power, you need to smash the truth. So fascism is an ideology based on power and loyalty. It uh it it creates, it's based on hypernationalism, so one group loyalty to one group, and one person, the leader, represents that group. It's hyper-masculine and hyper-patriarchal.

SPEAKER_12 10:44

You got yourself an attack dog.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_12 10:47

Come on, Julie, a dog trained by professionals to attack people.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

Christy McNichol's in it, and it's basically about this dog that she finds that has been trained to automatically attack black people when the dog sees them. And then she tries to, through love, basically change the dog's training. And I won't spoil it for you, but it has a crazy ending to it. And and the soundtrack by, you know, by the master NEO is uh top-notch.

SPEAKER_12 11:25

You did it, Mr. Keys.

SPEAKER_06 11:35

This right here is a great book. Uh my man right here put me on. He said this is like more, it's multiple volumes to this. This is my first one, so I gotta catch up. You know what I'm saying? I'm late to the game, but this is incredible. It reminds me of like um the old source magazine where they used to have a little um comic strip in there. And my man tramp from Philly and um Carlos, they they drew that. And this kind of reminds me of their style of artwork, you know what I'm saying? And it's dope. So now I'm stuck. I'm gonna do my best to research and search down around this world when I'm traveling to see if I can catch the rest of these vlogs.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

These are fly too because all the stories in them are are real stories.

SPEAKER_06 12:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

Like, and they really go deep on the research. And so the way they put it together and and the and obviously the artwork is just is really fantastic.

SPEAKER_10 12:20

There's like that really great story too, uh, about the blackout of 1977 when Grandmaster Cat is and DJ Disco whiz were like playing just in a basketball court. Like, there are several people at the party who are like, I'm gonna steal your speakers. Like, I'm taking your records, and and Grandmaster Cat's the DJs pull out guns, like, no, you guys got better go that way.

SPEAKER_06 12:38

Kind of also similar to Wild Style, the Wild Style movie.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

Yeah, it's dope.

SPEAKER_07 12:43

It's a great find.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

It is. Speaking of Wild Style, I had the cop the Wild Style box set joint. For those that don't know, Charlie Ahn didn't Charlie Ahern? Yeah, Charlie Ahern did this one. And it's a hip-hop movie uh with Lee in it, the graffiti writer, Fat Fire Freddy's in it, Deborah Harry's in it, Cold Crush is in it. Like, this is the Fantastic Freaks. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 13:16

Fat Fire Freddy. Yeah, this is um this is a classic.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

This is really something that's exciting to see and watch.

SPEAKER_06 13:22

You beat me to that one, that's a good one, dude.

SPEAKER_08 13:34

I was really happy to find this, the brand new heavies, specifically for this song called Stay This Way, which is probably my favorite song by them.

unknown 13:47

Stay this way forever.

SPEAKER_08 13:52

You know, takes me back. It taps into my heart strings. I was really juiced to to find this.

SPEAKER_06 14:08

My next selection is my dog right here. Rest in peace to the great D'Angelo. I had this album in my collection years ago, but I lost it in moves over the years. Saw this and I was like, damn, especially now with the fact that he uh passed away. I want to make sure that my kids, um, I can play this around the house and my kids can hear this and get uh onto what D'Angelo was about, because he was a great musician, a great brother, and I don't want his music to ever get lost in the sauce. You know what I'm saying? So it may his legacy live on.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

Last but not least, we're gonna do the O P out of print, digger with Planet's Dow Seven Cassette single. Come on, baby. Wow, that's crazy. With a graffiti on the B side.

SPEAKER_11 15:25

I got the concrete under my feet. I got the shadi by next to my bite. I got the nose and street feature float on. I got the E's backstage, watch out work.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

This is this is tough right here. That it is tough. Yeah, featuring the mighty J-Root the damager. And dial seven with the with the beat that uh that C brought from the Tavaris album. Tavaris. Come on, baby.

SPEAKER_06 15:56

I was so proud of myself when I found out. Ishwood took that joint and flipped it.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Yeah, this is it. Sarah Webb singing on it from uh DMs Magnificence.

SPEAKER_04 16:09

So this is uh this takes us back to a real sweet time. Shout out to me with records, digable planets. Forever, baby. Peace.

SPEAKER_05 16:28

We get it, we check in downtown, we check it, we get it, we check in cross town, we check it, we check it, we check it, we check it, we check it out and down, we check it down, downtown, we check in cross, cross town, we checkin' all around. No wonder no one no one wind us.