Late July 2019, after a really shitty year, I was in New York and found shelter from a bad rain storm in a local Starbucks, where the sound system played Rebirth of Slick. That seemed fitting: the jazzy hip hop from Digable Planets, and this 1992 song in particular, is the music I most identify with New York. Also, it is perhaps my favourite hip hop song ever. And suddenly I thought: hey, no matter how shitty things are, I am here in New York. I am Cool Like Dat.
Bandcamp | Tidal | Spotify | YouTube
The Bandcamp song linked and embedded above is a really great live recording from 2016 The 1992 studio version, to which the other links go, isn’t available on Bandcamp.