Vibe.com, August 5th, 2003
Tonight he's not only debuting his new band, Cherrywine, he's unveiling a completely new sound. The breakup of Digable in 1996 left a gaping hole in hip hop's ozone and the room is full of fans who have been jonesing for a psychedelic, intergalactic trip since Blowout Comb.
"We broke up because we started to have different ideas," confides the 33-year-old father of three, "not only about music but about life. We had a huge body of experience together and loved each other enough to know that being happy was more important than being in a group or trying to make money."
Ishmael's love of music didn't die with Digable; it was reincarnated-as Cherrywine. If Reachin' (a new refutation of time and space) was the marriage of hip hop and jazz, Bright Black (DCide/Babygrande records), his first release with his new band, is the product of a sexy love affair with funk. He's ambitiously traded his acclaimed, studio-synthesized beats for live instruments. "It's like the first time you kiss someone," gushes Ishmael about Cherrywine's first project. " It's excitement. It's anticipation with certainty."
Although Ishmael is still socially conscious, his political views don't get in the way- Bright Black's motivation is music. Almost two years ago, he stepped down from his soapbox and picked up a guitar, when he linked with guitarist Thaddeus Turner and his bass-strumming brother, Gerald. He added the musical genius of Seattle guitarist, Bubba Jones, and spawned Parliament's younger, more thugged-out cousin-Cherrywine.
"They taught me by being who they are-hot cats," Ishmael says of his introduction to the guitar and keyboards. "I listen to them and try to cop shit off them. The best thing they ever told me was in order to learn how to play music, you have to always listen."
Digable's former front man has traded his political discourse for pillow talk. These days, the pretty boy isn't giving shout-outs to political prisoners-he'd rather holla' at voluptuous females on the dance floor. His new music spews sensuality. With sexy tracks like "Girl Crazy", "Sleep Pretty Girl," and "Gracefully," the musically mature MC is clearly more inspired by a sumptuous silhouette than a political cause. Everything has sexual undertones, and he repeatedly uses love and lust as metaphors for life. Not only has his perspective changed with age, his delivery has also.
"I've tried to say more with less words," he explains of his musical evolution. "I make a point more quickly and am more honest about it. I think that's a sign of me being more mature."
Even when Ishmael gets political, his message is disguised as an allegory for love. In the spacey, electro funk jam, "Anchorman Blues," Ishmael attempts to justify deceiving his lover but is merely using romance as a metaphor. "The anchorman is always lying," explains the Seattle-born MC. "They lie to us the same way we lie to our lovers. They say they're doing it to protect us but in the end, those guys are doing it so they don't look bad."
"Dazzlement," is an ode to flossing, fashion, and fabulousness. It's a sonic Polaroid of hip hop's glossy landscape. "Its like a scene from a video," Ishmael says about one of Bright Black's hottest tracks. "I don't give a fuck where you go in America-damn near the world-it's going to be that scene in the club. It's about the power of what we've done with our instinct, our desire to survive with style. We made up this shit that basically took over the fucking world."
The crowd seems a little tipsy from their first gulps of Cherrywine-not quite drunk but definitely not sober. Many fans who attended the show anticipating Ishmael's next installment of righteous rap did not find it here. The ones who most enjoyed the show, were actually rewarded for leaving their expectations at home. Those looking for the Afrocentric, revolutionary rhetoric of Digable's poetic insects, were a little bewildered at his new creative detour, but certainly not disappointed. No one could deny the inebriating effects of the funktified musical ambush that came instead. The pure talent and chemistry of his band mates ignites a synergy of a different kind. Cherrywine is raw, hypnotic, and uncontrived.
Throughout tonight's show, Ishmael eases from flirtation, to seduction, to pure penetration. He does more than simply fulfill his promise to "get you unbored," he invites you to partake in his languid, sensual libations. As the small audience whistles its collective appreciation, Ishmael exits the stage with an orgasmic glow and the grin of someone who knows he's just satisfied his lover.
