Kassa Overall is a jazz drummer and bandleader, and he has also dabbled in rapping and beatmaking. Later this year, he'll follow his guest-heavy 2023 album ANIMALS with CREAM, a new instrumental collection of rap covers. On this one, Kassa Overall and his band go entirely live, staying away from the samples and drum machines that Overall often likes to use, while putting their own spin on classics from the Wu-Tang Clan, Biggie Smalls, Dr. Dre, Outkast, Juvenile, and a Tribe Called Quest, as well as one song made famous by Miles Davis. The lead single is a very cool meditation on Digable Planets' greatest contribution to society, the 1992 banger "Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)."
Some of us are old enough to remember when Digable Planets were presented to the world as a revolutionary new fusion of jazz and hip-hop. They filmed their great "Rebirth Of Slick" video in a jazz club and everything. That iconography was at least a little bit cheesy, but it worked. I thought those guys were unbelievably cool. On his ANIMALS track "Going Up," Kassa Overall already worked with Digable Planets member Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, now known as Shabazz Palaces. (Lil B and Francis And The Lights are on that song, too.) The horn-laced "Rebirth Of Slick" groove gives Overall and his band plenty of room to play around, and it's cool to hear such a different version of such a familiar track.
In a press release, Kassa Overall says. "CREAM isn’t just covers -- it’s a full-on reimagining of hip-hop through jazz, digging into the musical guts and soul of both. It’s a fresh take on how these genres talk to each other -- not just a collision, but a conversation that’s been brewing since the '90s." Below, check out Kassa Overall's version of "Rebirth Of Slick," as well as the classic original Digable Planets video, the CREAM tracklist, and Overall's upcoming tour dates.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Freedom Jazz Dance" (Miles Davis cover)
02 "Big Poppa" (The Notorious B.I.G. cover)
03 "CREAM (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)" (Wu-Tang Clan cover)
04 "Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" (Digable Planets cover)
05 "Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang" (Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg cover)
06 "Check The Rhime" (A Tribe Called Quest cover)
07 "SpottieOttieDopaliscious" (Outkast cover)
08 "Back That Azz Up" (Juvenile cover)
TOUR DATES:
7/11 - Sardinia, Italy @ Siligo
7/12 - Gaeta, Italy @ Gaeta Jazz Festival
7/13 - Rotterdam, Netherlands @ North Sea Jazz Festival
7/17 - Berlin, Germany @ Gretchen
7/18 - Bari, Italy @ Bari Jazz Festival
7/17 - Wroclaw, Poland @ WROsound
9/03 - Philadelphia, PA @ Solar Myth
9/04 - State College, PA @ Mannys
9/05 - Elizabethtown, NY @ Otis Mountain Get Down
9/06 - Holyoke, MA @ De La Luz
9/08 - Marlboro, NY @ The Falcon
9/09 - Boston, MA @ Cafe 939
9/10 - Portsmouth, NH @ Jimmy's Jazz & Blues Club
9/12 - New York, NY @ Jazz Gallery
9/13 - New York, NY @ Jazz Gallery
9/14 - Baltimore, MD @ Keystone Korner
9/16 - Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor
9/17 - Durham, NC @ Missy Lane's
9/18 - Durham, NC @ Missy Lane's
10/08 - Tokyo, Japan @ lue Note Tokyo
10/09 - Tokyo, Japan @ lue Note Tokyo
10/10 - Tokyo, Japan @ lue Note Tokyo
10/23 - Los Angeles, CA @ Minaret
10/25 - Seattle WA @ Earshot
10/31 - Frankfurt, Germany @ JazzKlub
11/03 - London, UK @ Lower Third
11/06 - Prague, Czech Republic @ Mladi Ladi Jazz
8th - Groningen, Netherlands @ Rockit
CREAM is out 9/12 on Warp.
