music
Shabazz Palaces, the project led by the visionary Ishmael Butler, continues to push the boundaries of hip hop. This spring, the Seattle musician and producer returns to the stage with a new album that has just been released and continues to cement his legacy as one of the most innovative figures of the century.
Heir to Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane or Lester Bowie, it is impossible to describe the futurism of Shabazz Palaces, which expands with each new project. Ishmael’s relentless desire to reimagine hip hop dates back to the 1990s with the group Digable Planet. Years later he formed Shabazz Palaces, continuing his search for the most experimental veins of Afro-American music. In 2011, he made his debut with the classic Black Up, recognised as one of the most influential albums of the 2010s. In 2015, he arrived at gnration for the first time with his second album Lese Majesty (2014) in his wallet. Two years later, he returned to the blackbox with a frenetic journey through the Afrofuturist diptych of Quazarz vs The Jealous Machines and Quazarz: Born a Gangster Star.
Embracing modernism in hip hop, Shabazz Palaces released The Don of Diamond Dreams in 2020. Exotic Birds of Prey is the musician and producer’s latest work and a direct sequel to Robed in Rareness, released in October 2023. Both mini-albums consisting of seven songs, Butler’s projects traverse the various eras of hip hop, intertwining past and present, and crossing them with inspirations in shoegaze, ambient or distorted electro-funk vibes.
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