Duane Cramer
Ladybug Mecca
Issue #26
The Digable Planets’ MC tries something new on her solo album, Trip the Light Fantastic
By Ann Heppermann
Published: December 1st, 2005 | 12:00am
When I talked to Ladybug Mecca, she was in a car somewhere along a winding road in Connecticut. She just completed a U.S. reunion tour with her former band, Digable Planets, the poet-rappers that burst onto the scene in the early 1990s with a platinum-selling, Grammy-winning first album, Reachin’, and then broke up only a few years later after their second album, Blowout Comb.
While on tour, Mecca also was premiering her new solo album, Trip the Light Fantastic. The album is an eclectic mix of rock, hip-hop, and Brazilian music. It also reflects some of the changes Ladybug Mecca has gone through in the past 10 years. She’s now a wife and mother of four children — all of whom were in the car with her during the interview. “The need to nurture spilled over into other areas of my life and is reflected on this album,” Mecca said. Mecca talked about what it’s like to have a comeback, even when you’ve never really left — and what it’s like to be asked the same question, over and over again.
Is your solo album less political and more a reflection of you as you have grown?
I don’t necessarily think of myself as a political person. I just think that I am conscious of my government and certain things in life, and I make mention of these things on my album. I haven’t really changed the essence of who I am — there’s just been more that’s been added to me.
Was there anything you were hesitant about at all? People usually expect to hear the same old hits or Digable Planets. Were you afraid that people wouldn’t accept your solo stuff?
Yeah, of course, and then I just had to say to myself, “Fuck it” and just do it. I had to say, “Who cares if they’re expecting just hip-hop from me.” It’s an extension of me. I don’t want to be known just for doing jazzy hip-hop. My love for music didn’t start with hip-hop — it started way before.
Your parents were from Brazil. Did you ever visit the country?
I went there as a little girl and as an adult. I went when Digable Planets opened up for James Brown.
Did that experience shape your music?
Absolutely. As an adult, I was able to understand why my mother and my father — even though they met in America — chose to leave the country in search of something so-called “better.” The situation for children and for indigenous people — it’s heartbreaking. At one point during the trip, Ishmael, Butterfly, was in a car and police drove up and put a whole bunch of shotguns in the windows. It made me angry at life, at politicians, at so-called “people with power” who were doing nothing about it. It definitely put me in an angry state before we put Blowout Comb together, and I think that’s why you hear what you hear from me specifically on Blowout Comb. I was just sick of all of the “isms” of the world and having to absorb all of that at such a young age. It was really tough.
Your solo album is a celebration of Brazilian culture.
Right, because negative and positive exist at the same time, you know. On this album I’m at a place of contentment now. I mean, yes, I see injustice. Yes, I’m dealing with them in my life on a daily basis. But I’m still at a place where I can be content and where I can move forward.
Your parents passed away in the months before Digable Planets broke up. Did you feel as though you had to let go of music for a while to deal and get through that hard time?
I guess you could say that I let go of it in a sense. I made the decision to stop making music with the group, but music has always been a crutch for me. It guides me. Music can help you deal with things. I let go of it, in just that one way, in creating music with Digable. But I continued to create it with my own songs, and I continued to envision musical works.
Do you ever get tired of people asking you why Digable Planets broke up?
Of course! I’m tired of “Why did you break up?” “When did you break up?” “What have you been doing this whole time?” It’s like the fans don’t really want to know that, they want to know what’s up right now and what the future is going to be.
I was reading some fan blogs and somebody had written that seeing a Digable Planets concert was like the Beatles reuniting. One person wrote, “This is one of the greatest shows I have ever been to and one of the greatest nights I have ever had.”
We’re just so excited. First of all, we can’t even believe that our fans have stuck around this long and we’re just as excited to have the opportunity to get onstage and to have fans just as excited as we are. It feels really good.
What do you want to tell Digable Planets fans about your solo album, Trip the Light Fantastic?
I just ask that people be open to change because no one is the same as they were 10 years ago. Neither am I. I grow and evolve just like everyone else, so don’t expect my album to be strictly hip-hop or sounding like any Digable material. I mean even our next Digable album is not going to sound like the other two albums. We’re going to bring something fresh because that’s what we did from Reachin’ to Blowout and we’ll do that from Blowout to the unknown.
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