Have your brain warped by the hypnotic witchcraft of Seattle avant garde hip-hop collective Shabazz Palaces.
Shabazz Palaces
Here’s the tip-off: Shabazz Palace’s debut album Black Up was the first hip-hop album released on grunge pioneer label Sub Pop, back in June this year. Since the group confirmed an appearance in Australia in January 2012, now’s the time to get on board.
The ringleader of the Shabazz Palaces circus is Ishmael Butler aka Palaceer Lazaro aka Butterfly from Grammy-winning New York jazz-rappers Digable Planets.
The music is a hypnotic, deep, full-body experience, with African percussion, thick synths, spacey samples, dubby atmospheres, and intricate, esoteric rhyming. Black Up is a trippy experience to say the least, but not so self-consciously experimental that it’s hard work.
Shabazz Palaces play the Sugar Mountain festival which culminates at the Forum in Melbourne on Saturday 14 January. They play a side show at the RAOB GAB Buffalo Club in Melbourne on Thursday 12 January 12.
You wanna hear the whole album? Yes, Sub Pop have put it up on YouTube. Check it out below.
For fans of: Flying Lotus, DJ Shadow, Pharcyde, Prefuse 73
