the new breed

Rip It Up, Issue 191, 1 June 1993, Page 22

the new breed

"The [US] constitution is a piece of paper that promotes racism and sexism. To think that this country bases its whole ideology on that constitution just lets the world know they don't give a fuck about females or people other than the dominant race

logy behind the band is represented by the name Digable Planets.

"The word Planets basically describes our belief that every person individually is their own planet — each person has the ability to set their planet up any way they want to.

"At the same time ; each planet must be able to coexist with other planets in the universe, which symbolises society. Digable is an adjective that describes the lifestyle of the planets — if you can dig something you can relate to it, it's cool."

Doodlebug and other members, Ladybug and Butterfly have given themselves their names to show their admiration for insect society. "Insects are a species that are very communal and we try to use the insect names to symbolise what we're trying to achieve in our community, which is to have everybody working together as one for the good of the whole. "An insect individually is really nothing, but a whole bunch of them together as one make a strong impact." Unlike insects, however, they try to bring the individual into the equation — sort of. "The individual is very important — each person must be strong within themselves because if they're not, they become the weak link of the chain."

But insects aren't the same as humans are they? They aren't creative in the individual sense like humans can be, are they? "Yeah, that's true, we're

bination of existentialist and absurdist writers like Kafka and Camus, but also from political thinkers such as Marx, and the insect idea certainly seems to have something in common with the original aims of communism. But one more akin to the existentialist side is their concept of "a refutation of Time and Space" for which they've titled their album.

"Refuting time and space is an idea that stems from our belief that each person must develop their own definition of what time and space is for them."

Refuting time and space means overcoming the pressures to conform that society places upon the individual, as part of being the master of your own destiny. This seems a little at odds with their concept of everyone working together like insects, except the band feel that working together for the people around them is what they should choose to do with their lives.

The idea of community, and family in particular is very important to the band. No teenage rebels going against their family here, Digable Planets are quick to point out the role their parents played in making them what they are, both musically and personally. "Just being family oriented is a good way to know who you are... I was fortunate enough to have parents who didn't just listen to music, but who tried to teach about the relevance that it has, with me, my people, and the music that we hear today." In contrast Doodlebug is

CAMPBELL WALKER

cal, they use sex to sell everything in the marketplace, but then as soon as you ask a question about sex they repress you, "Oh don't talk about that, you're too young to learn about that", and then they put every little kid in front of the TV and the TV is selling everything with sex...

"The education system just teaches kids to regurgitate, they don't really learn in school, they just memorise something that the teacher told them, then they spit it out just to get a grade...

They just learn to do what they gotta do to get by, they don't try to go the extra mile, to actually be themselves. All well and good, but there's something difficult about taking anybody who calls themselves Doodlebug seriously, and that uneasiness can be applied to all that they stand for.

They talk about the importance of the individual, and go on to deify insects society, where the individual is valueless.

They talk about finding themselves and doing their own thing and then go on to produce an album, where the most distinctive part of it is the samples — someone else's work. Possibly most tellingly, they preach a philosophy that is complex and multi-faceted, while playing a music that is largely simple and minimalistic. But who said hip hop was simple? It's certainly a long way from the one dimensional "bitches, hos and Uzis" mentality of some of the genre.