For today, you can call Douglas Martin, Ishmael. Within the first minute of Black Up, Ishmael Butler conjures an incredibly loaded image. “I cried with Mooch at Papi’s wake / Snuck an extra slice of cake / When the pigs came ‘round to make they case / I looked them dead up in they face […]

Photo via Kristen Blush Between Shabazz Palaces, Hail Mary Mallon, Has-Lo, and the new Open Mike Eagle and Serengeti albums, it has been a stellar year for dense cerebral hip-hop. I am investing my 401K in both blunt and head wraps. That is, if I had a 401K. Shabazz Palaces make music like they haven’t […]

Photo by Alex Crick “Noir not withstanding.” Black Up. You don’t need to take tips from Shabazz Palaces’ titles to become aware that their music is murky, lampless Seattle rap (no Mix-A-Lot). When you dwell in a permanent mist, songs often assume a suffocating bass and aggression (see also: London). But unlike most of their […]

Photo by Josh Bis As much as the bulk of his work with Shabazz Palaces properly captures the discord of living in 21st Century America, in conversation, Ishmael Butler sounds remarkably at ease with himself and his place in the world. After a career that has had tall peaks (the well-noted Grammy nomination for Digable […]

Shabazz Palaces – Blast It (from the Village Beat film, Tough Bond) from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo. Commensurate with their role as the new lost tribe of Shabazz, “Black Up” has been pushed back to late June. Considering that the record leaked a while back, I don’t know what the logic behind this is […]

The Butterfly born Ishmael Butler went cocoon over a decade ago and returned with these crawling caterpillar raps. Political rap for an apolitical period. Songs as formless cryptograms. Dying and dust and blowing up hopes. Slaves to network’s master plans. Caustic chants of “who do you think you are?” The revenge of those who once […]

The news of Shabazz Palaces signing to Sub Pop caused some to question the logic of a rap group signing with an indie rock label. But Butterfly (or Enrico Palazzo or whatever he’s calling himself these days) is no dummy. He saw the demise of Digable Planets, and realized the absurdity of signing with a […]

Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler” once had the force to leave rappers stranded like the tribe of Shabazz, but instead like his nautical namesake, he got sucked into the whirlpool. For those too young to remember, Digable Planets crashed the rap world in ’93, part and parcel of the jazz-rap movement, one of hip-hop’s temporary panaceas that […]