Digable Planets

Digable Planets are playing the Neptune Theatre on Tuesday, October 20, at 8 PM. For anyone who knows them, the name is enough: they're the group that helped make jazz-rap a thing back in the early nineties, blending hip hop with a jazz sensibility that set them apart from the harder boom-bap of the era.

If you're coming to them through the music and not the name, the jazz influence is the best place to start. They didn't just sample jazz records; they built their whole sound around it, with a laid-back, conversational flow that felt more like a late-night session than a typical rap record. It's that specific intersection of hip hop and jazz that earned them their reputation as pioneers of the style, and it's exactly what they're bringing to the Neptune.

The bill is straightforward: Digable Planets are the sole feature, so the whole night is built around them. They'll be performing their material live, and given their history, that means the jazz-inflected hip hop they've been known for since the start. It's a single-act bill, so you'll get a full set from them without any opening acts to work through first.

It's a Tuesday night show, which is a bit different from the usual weekend run, so you'll want to keep that in mind when you're planning your week. The set starts at 8 PM at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle, and since they're the only act on the bill, that's the time to be there if you want to catch the whole thing from the start.