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SHABAZZ PALACES

Shabazz Palaces

Robed In Rareness

    Shabazz Palaces is masterminded by Ishmael Butler (Digable Planets), whose relentless drive to reimagine hip-hop – even as he enjoys his fifth decade on Earth – remains undiminished.

    When Robed in Rareness hit digital platforms in 2023, NPR Music called it “enchanting and subversive," while Pitchfork observed that “the futurism of Shabazz Palaces has always been interwoven with the past and present, their songs scintillating tapestries of old-school shit talk, proggy psychedelia, and melodic flossing. Robed in Rareness is draped in this multiplicity as Butler and a team of close collaborators swagger across eras of rap.”

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Binoculars (feat. Royce The Choice)
    2. Woke Up In A Dream (feat. Lil Tracy)
    3. P Kicking G (feat. Porter Ray)
    4. Cinnamon Bun (feat. Lavarr The Starr)
    5. Scarface Mace (feat. O Finess)
    6. Gel Bait (feat. Geechi Suede)
    7. Hustle Crossers

    Shabazz Palaces

    Exotic Birds Of Prey

      Shabazz Palaces is masterminded by Ishmael Butler (Digable Planets), whose relentless drive to reimagine hip-hop – even as he enjoys his fifth decade on Earth – remains undiminished.

      Exotic Birds of Prey furthers the modus operandi of Robed in Rareness: a respectful eye on the past, an embrace of an ever-evolving present, with its feet firmly planted in the future. Where Robed warped sounds like shoegaze and ambient music into the Shabazz Palaces multiverse, Exotic cross-pollinates these elements with twisted electro and funk vibes.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Exotic BOP (feat. Purple Tape Nate)
      2. Angela (feat. Stas THEE Boss & Irene Barber)
      3. Myths Of The Occult (feat. Japreme Magnetic)
      4. Goat Me (feat. Cobra Coil)
      5. Well Known Nobody (feat. OCnotes)
      6. Synth Dirt
      7. Take Me To Your Leader (feat. Lavarr The Starr)

      Shabazz Palaces

      The Don Of Diamond Dreams

        Shabazz Palaces’ Black Up, the group’s Sub Pop debut, was recently hailed as one of the best albums of the decade by outlets like Pitchfork, Gorilla Vs Bear, and Variety. Pitchfork summed it up thusly: “Black Up is drowned in murky instrumentals and bombastic, introspective rhymes. The sounds flirt with jazz but also root themselves in a firm understanding of silence, or the sparse magic of simplicity. The songs teem with unexpected climaxes...From great mystery exploded an album of impossible vision.” That “impossible vision” has continued to confound and engage Shabazz Palaces fans over the course of four acclaimed albums and two EPs. Each release feels like an evolution, letting the music speak for itself, while slowly revealing more about its creator. With The Don of Diamond Dreams, the group’s fifth album, that spirit remains, this time embracing modernism in hip-hop and rap.

        Featuring 10 tracks in 43 minutes, the album features the highlights “Fast Learner (ft. Purple Tape Nate),” “Chocolate Souffle,” “Bad Bitch Walking (ft. Stas THEE Boss), and “Thanking The Girls.” It also features contributions from singer/keyboardist Darrius Willrich, Seattle’s OCnotes (who collaborated with Shabazz leader Ishmael Butler on the Knife Knights project), Los Angeles musician Carlos Overall, and bassist Evan Flory-Barnes. The Don of Diamond Dreams was recorded throughout 2019 and produced by Shabazz Palaces at Protect and Exalt: A Black Space in Seattle, mixed and engineered by Erik Blood at Studio 4 Labs in Venice, California, and mastered by Scott Sedillo at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles.


        TRACK LISTING

        Portal North: Panthera
        Ad Ventures
        Fast Learner Ft. Purple Tape Nate
        Wet
        Chocolate Souffle
        Portal South: Micah
        Bad Bitch Walking Ft. Stas THEE Boss
        Money Yoga Ft. Darrius
        Thanking The Girls
        Reg Walks By The Looking Glass Ft. Carlos Overall

        Shabazz Palaces

        Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star

          Twinned with "Quazarz Vs The Jealous Machines", this companion album from Shabaz Palaces also shines and growns under the crushing weight of the future. Imbued with the energy and ideas from all the creative embers floating in the atmosphere like fireflies, Shabazz Palaces recorded this entire album over the course of two weeks with Blood in Seattle. New gear and new equipment disintegrated comfort zones into dust and a new path appeared in the rubble - aurally evident thoughout this painfully visionary album. "Born on a Gangster Star"  continues the intrepid and unfathomable quest through cosmic-rap, a genre that SP is practically inventing. The beats wobble and ricocheting as if unaffected by gravity, while Palaces' vocals are hushed, ushered and delivered with a biting effeciently which has had me previously drawing comparisons to Dean Blunt / Hype Williams and Earl Sweatshirt. Appearing here, in body or in spirit, are Julian Casablancas, Thundercat, Darrius Willrich, Gamble and Huff, Loud Eyes Lou, Thaddillac, Ahmir, Jon Kirby, Sunny Levine, and Blood. This, my friends, is the sound of the near future. 

          TRACK LISTING

          Since C.A.Y.A.
          When Cats Claw
          Shine A Light (feat. Thaddillac)
          Dèesse Du Sang
          Eel Dreams (feat. Loud Eyes Lou)
          Parallax (feat. The Palaceer Lazaro)
          Fine Ass Hairdresser
          The Neurochem Mixalogue
          That's How City Life Goes
          Moon Whip Quäz (feat. Darrius)
          Federalist Papers

          "Quazarz Vs The Jealous Machines" is one of two new albums by interstellar hip hop enigma Shabazz Palaces - aka Ishmael Butler (who, in another galaxy, performs in Digable Planets) - and Tendai Maraire. "Quazarz Vs The Jealous Machines" and its simultaneously released companion "Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star" were both produced by Knife Knights (i.b e.b.) and mixed by Blood. We've loved Shabazz Palaces here at Piccadilly ever since Michael Riley would burst into the shop at the start of a weekend shift exclaiming - "WAT A SATADEE MAARNIN!!" - instructing us of the delights of this cosmic-rap poster boy. Occupying the same interstellar recesses as Dean Blunt / Hype Williams, Earl Sweatshirt and, (tenuously) to perhaps Ratking; this is the true new school folks, abandoning hip-hop and rap's tried traditions, ditching all that's come before it for something completely new and invigorating, more in common with Burnt Friedman and Mark Ernestus than the ghosts of rap music's past. Still gritty and streetwise, but unfathomably futuristic and wrapped in celestial space dust, the album works as a whole journey, beautifully sequenced and elegantly constructed. Essential music for the right now. Recommended.

          STAFF COMMENTS

          Barry says: Crisp futuristic hip-hop beats, clicking trap snares and stellar production make this duo of outings a forward-facing and revolutionary take on the ol' hip-hop game. Part 'hop, part 'tron and fully embracing the future, this is but one half of todays hip-hop revolution.

          TRACK LISTING

          Welcome To Quazarz
          Gorgeous Sleeper Cell
          Self-Made Follownaire
          Atlaantis
          Effeminence
          Julian's Dream (ode To A bad)
          30 Clip Extension
          Love In The Time Of Kanye
          Sabonim In The Saab On 'em
          The SS Quintessence
          Late Night Phone Calls
          Quazarz On 23rd

          “Sanity, a visage of my wealth
          Lost but always found before the idols that I’ve knelt
          Strategy, the only way to cry
          Keep it do or die and always think in terms of I
          Reverie, some legend futures past
          Revelry, instead for it renders hella fast
          Capitol, a sound that’s on the rise
          It’s slaking unrealized until essence has been razed
          Sepulcher, a stage enlived by ghosts
          Floating off with bags of the blood encrusted dough.”

          - “They Come In Gold” (from “The Phasing Shift” suite)

          Herein bumps and soars 'Lese Majesty', the new sonic action of Shabazz Palaces. Honed and primal, chromed and primo. A unique and glorified offering into our ever-uniforming musical soundscape. 'Lese Majesty' is a beatific war cry, born of a spell, acknowledging that sophistication and the instinctual are not at odds; Indeed an undoing of the lie of their disparate natures.

          'Lese Majesty' is not a launching pad for the group’s fan base increasing propaganda. It is a series of astral suites, recorded happenings, shared. A dare to dive deep into Shabazz Palaces sounds, vibrations unfettered. A dope-hex thrown from the compartments that have artificially contained us all and hindered our sublime collusion.

          These reveries were sent to Palaceer Lazaro and Fly Guy ‘Dai in the year of gun beat battles in excess; In a succession of days, whilst walking in dreams and in varied transcendental states….(every minute of every day is filled with observation and composition. In action). Songs are committed and gathered by robots at Protect and Exalt Labs, a Black Space in Seattle, Washington.

          TRACK LISTING

          Dawn In Luxor
          Forerunner Foray
          They Come In Gold
          Solemn Swears
          Harem Aria
          Noetic Noiromantics
          The Ballad Of Lt. Maj. Winnings
          Soundview
          Ishmael...
          Down 155th In The MCM Snorkel
          Divine Of Form
          #CAKE
          Colluding Oligarchs
          Suspicion Of A Shape
          Mindglitch Keytar TM Theme
          Motion Sickness
          New Black Wave
          Sonic Mythmap For The Trip Back


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