Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)

The three members of Digable Planets, Butterfly, Ladybug Mecca and Doodlebug, stand inside a glowing purple circle on the cover of their debut, with a tangle of roots hanging beneath them against a deep blue background, as if they were growing from the earth.

Their debut leaned hard into jazz, sampling records by Art Blakey and other jazz greats, and wrapped bohemian, Afrocentric rhymes in a relaxed, cool style. Its single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" became a crossover hit and won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

Reachin' was released on 9 February 1993. The roots and the cosmic circle match a group whose name joined insects and outer space and whose music joined rap to the jazz tradition, and the album remains one of the defining records of jazz rap.