Rating 9/10
Shabazz Palaces is an entity that drapes itself in mystery in order to avoid things like back stories and preconceived notions. However, details like this have a tendency to add to the musical experience so since the information is available, I will present it in the briefest of forms. Ishmael Butler aka Butterfly of Digable Planets is Shabazz Palaces out of the unexpected Seattle. He has inconspicuously released two previous EPs under this name and now a debut LP, Black Up.
The first thing you will notice is this is not your typical hip hop album. Instead, Black Up is unique and experimental hip hop that imitates a nightmarishly dream like state with beats made of the moans of haunted children, moody jazz based in smoky cafes, and sci-fi vocoder vocals and manipulations. One of the wonderful things about this album is that it’s consistently inconsistent while still maintaining a unified whole. Opening track “Press and Curl” shows just how inconsistent these tracks can be by altering beats, tempos, and vocal styles several times throughout the track. After that, the following nine songs follow suit but in their own unique and individual ways. The overall vocal and lyrical approach tends to avoid arrogance and aggression and focuses on a much more relaxed atmosphere and touches on ideas of self awareness, sexuality, and conventional truths.
Black Up is a rare occasion in which I feel as though the album as a whole, is much greater then the individual tracks that make it up. This is because the stream of conscience approach to writing doesn’t follow the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus and so individually, tracks can come off choppy and jagged, but as a whole they make much more sense.
The biggest beef I have with this album is the production, but I’m conflicted, because I know it plays a significant role in the overall feel as well, which I like. The problem is I can never effectively listen to it in my car without having to adjust the bass every couple of tracks in order for it not to be a completely muddy mess. However, this isn’t an issue at all when listening through headphones, so maybe it was simply designed to be a more personal one-on-one experience.
An abstract album of this nature is often difficult to conceive, let alone execute so successfully. Undoubtedly, it is unique and a welcome breath of fresh air in this time of recycled lines and cookie cutter beats that find their way atop the charts and blasting through our radio waves.
Album Highlights: Free Press and Curl, Are You Can You Were You (Felt), Endeavors for Never
Album Low Points:
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