Shabazz Palaces - Most important musical group/moment in Seattle since Nirvana at OK Hotel?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5RG8k2WPw0

No, basically the entire Shabazz track is constructed from samples / loops lifted directly from I'd Rather Be With You.

geez gotta be the first time someone's ever ripped off a p-funk track eh

not at all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxY___mqgZw

On closer inspection, I wouldn't say 'entire track' but there are plenty of bits of I'd Rather Be With You in A Mess...

Interestingly, the mp3s I just downloaded didn't have A Mess... on them so perhaps they're/he's aware of the potential litigation.

tbh, maybe it's the shitty cell phone recording, but i don't hear the bootsy sample at all in that clip. just sounds like muddy drums and vocals

http://www.amazon.com/Shabazz-Palaces/dp/B002EOUPC8

Check it on on this Amazon mp3 link. Track 7.

Most independent-label hiphop acts don't bother clearing their samples unless they are aiming for mainstream success.

based on the video posted upthread, I'm actually really digging the vibe of this. exactly what I wanted to hear right now, but didn't know it.

might check out the albums if/when I stop being broke. I think they'd go well with the weed I also plan to buy if/when etc

I'm listening to the album right now and it's great. I wish I'd known about it sooner. Sounds kind of like if The Bug was American.

has anyone on this thread heard the Cherrywine album? because according to this thread, not that many people have. i really like it btw

Cherrywine - Digable frontman goes solo - how is it?

Nope. Has Ish done anything other than DPs/Cherrywine/Shabazz Palaces?

I'll search out that Cherrywine cd.

I kept an eye out for that Cherrywine thing but never came across it. love love the second Digables album especially, myself. this sounds okay but earth-shattering...? eh, I dunno. clips upthread are pretty inaudible.

Critical consensus around these parts of the cubicles is that Cherrywine was wack.

I like what I hear of this so far

fuck a critical consensus. have you heard the album? do you also hate sa ra and the q-tip 'soul' albums?

yeah I was gonna say if the above clips remind me of anything its the Sa-Ra stuff jaxon gave me years ago lolz

I've gone from lukewarm/this is ok but nothing more than a Clipse rip-off to non-stop listening/holy shit this is amazing in about 24hrs. BTW, this is basically a "laidback Clipse without the booger-sugar obsession" as Dave Segal stated but it's still fun to listen to.

http://www.biznotic.com/images/01_13_09.jpg

what? how does this sound anything like Clipse beyond "it is rap"?

Have you heard Til The Casket Drops? It's a pretty obvious comparison to me.

Raw, minimal drum machine beats, similar lazy cadence and delivery.

Bah, this actually sounds nothing like Til The Casket Drops but it does still sound like Clipse to me. Better than Clipse though cuz i'm sick of listening to coke raps.

Looks like there were two 2009 releases - were they at the same time?

Good question. I don't think they were released simultaneously but I think they were released close together. I've ripped the stream from their live appearance on KEXP. It's not very good but here it is in case you want to check it out: http://www.mediafire.com/?ky1ynzu5bjw

I like that little "film" although I wouldn't mind someone explaining it to me

Ok, I listened to the SP album again and thought about the whole Clipse thing. I really don't see at all how those two groups are more similar to each other than any other two randomly picked rap acts. The most notable stylistic difference between them is Clipse's fussy concision in rhyme/beat/song construction vs Shabazz's more ramshackle nature. As far as the rapping, besides their divergent subject matter, the Clipse deliver everything with a sneer, in contrast to Ish's more laconic rap style. The comparison with The Ecstatic makes more sense, but the Shabazz album(s?) is/are way better and altogether less boring than Mos' most recent.

Can we change this silly title already?

maybe use some iteration of the thread title for the next excelsior?

New Kingdom 2010 edition

The CD's are at Sonic Boom for 10 bucks but if you order them from the website, they ship from 420 High Street!

This is pretty tite imo.

into shabazz btw

i like almost everything i've heard, keep forgetting to dl the ep's

I love the two eps. Met Ishmael at a show. Super nice guy. If you get the chance to see them perform live, don't miss it. Can't wait for their Sub Pop debut.

thetroyblog.com/2010/12/13/shabazz-palaces-re-mystifying-cool/

this is a v nice piece on shabazz places

also, i'd like to take back my clipse comparison. it was hastily made and ill-considered.

positions him w/in a historical milieu & seems to accurately gauge precedents & how his work has changed over time, also I like the constellation of different-but-similar rap artists he describes (i would also include it was written-era nas in it tho)

I think "Gunbeat Falls" is my favorite track from this.

ayo deej, have you read this article about Blowout Comb? http://archive.ohword.com/features/5/slicker-that-year

yah thats thun too, he posts as thun on philaflava

i checked shabazz palaces out on deej's mention in another thread—i'm really enjoying it.

I'm listening to the album right now and it's great. I wish I'd known about it sooner. Sounds kind of like if The Bug was American.

i can't really say about the bug but i do get a kind of british/international beat science vibe from the EPs—in a good way, kind of like that stuff has been improved on by being americanized. (i don't think it's just hearing an american voice, either.) it makes it sound fresher than you would expect for what is otherwise pretty traditionalist.

it's odd how many of the tracks just kind of end.

lol i had no idea this was revived when i linked keyes to it. just followed my own link, listened to belllhaven film again, scrolled and here were u guys

maybe use some iteration of the thread title for the next excelsior?

― The Book of Eli Porter (ojo), Friday, January 15, 2010

Most important excelsior group/moment in Seattle since Nirvana at LOL Hotel

Just wait until LJ gets in here

i seriously would have never recognized him

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5214/5398811172_49bc0bca45_z.jpg

http://kjphotos.tumblr.com/post/3024965302/portraits-of-seattle-19-ishmael-butterfly-butler-aka

ok i've been listening to the eps on repeat all week

man i had wu-tang idea for an excelsior thread:

I'mma Put Your LOLZ on the dresser and EXCELSIOR them shits with a spiked bat

probably should end with "LMAO!"

haha yeah. i think weird stuff at like 3am when i've fed the lil' one and can't get back to sleep

ok i've been listening to the eps on repeat all week

― bows don't kill people, arrows do (Jordan), Friday, February 4, 2011 1:03 PM Bookmark

Perfect blend of hard beats and blunted/laid-back cali style.

im more into what his son's doing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzwIX4GwN8U&t=2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzwIX4GwN8U

Keep thought leading!

The new albums are great. I feel like I'll be spending the rest of the summer unravelling them.

i like the albums but ive a feeling nothing will be as good as blackup from these guys. obv these two albums are going to take a long time to figure out, but these two sound much looser than the last two. kind of relaxed, like its just two albums from a group not really striving to do anything in particular, and releasing the results (i know theres some sort of narrative at work, but im not sure it was that sustained).

The problem with these two albums to me is that it's basically just a sketched out version of a story that was also there on Lese Majesty. But, some of the details are great. I'm not the worlds biggest hip-hop expert, has there been much talk of 'Quasars' before? It's brilliant as a concept, not a star (which were negative on Lese Majesty, too corporate, too gilded pharaoh) but a quasar, QUAsi-StellAR, star-like but in fact powered by a black hole at the center. That's kinda afro-futurism at it's finest, imo.

cuz there's no theesatisfaction thread - classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2powgJ-7t_Y

Yes. Their second album, especially.

Is it just me or did these guys peak already? Def some interesting stuff on what they've done since but they seem to (despite the big concepts that they seem to adore) have become much more low key, like they just keep making music and putting it out, without any great game plan...

They peaked with Black Up. That is one of the top 10 best hip hop albums of the 2010s for me, nothing they’ve done after feels as concise and visionary.

Yeah, I feel the same. Also just weird that they went from black up to almost totally avoiding anything that sounded as tough. Maybe black up was an anomaly, and they approached it diff as it was their sub pop debut and after that they just went back to what's their comfort zone, kinda trippy, ethereal, stoner ish, less concrete material.

The first two EPs were pretty tough, and are still my favorite even if the production sounds kinda thin/DIY (though it works in their favor imo). Black Up sounds like the full realization of those EPs, and from there it seems like they kept getting more and more into ornate synth-psych production. I haven't kept up with the last couple tbh.

Last year's release was good.

Jordan xpost every word otm

i treasure my early-DIY copies of the EPs and Black Up holds up, but after that...

Theres no ambition to their post black up stuff. Or maybe its just too spacey, idk. But it seems like stuff that's fairly easy for them. Or maybe they're just taking a hell of a lot of drugs, idk.

EPs prior to Black Up are great I agree!

It’s the stuff after Black Up that has let me down. There’s still some good ideas here and there, but they don’t get even close.

I've liked most of their stuff but Lese Majesty was a peak for me

I think I preferred lil b doing ambient weirdness

I'm relistening to Lese Majesty and it sounds way better than how I remember tbh

lese majesty is at least as strong as black up, songwriting-wise, but the heavy-hitting sonics of black up put it over the top for me.

Lese Majesty was a peak for me

same here. don't think I've ever been so awed by an album on car speakers. also really liked what I heard from Don of Diamond Dreams, should probably go back to that.

same for me too

id like instrumental versions of their last few albums, esp lese majesty

Lese Majesty feels like you're lying on the floor staring at the ceiling in a darkened room where someone has different coloured spotlights trained on a spinning disco ball

I thought lese would be cool music to have playing if your masseuse was rap inclined

Hip hop spa beats

best way to experience Lese Majesty is at a laser show out of your gourd on edibles. I haven't really connected with any of their post-LM material tho. I've also just had mixed feelings since Tendai was transphobic to me in person -_-

ugh, i'm sorry.

I should give their albums more proper listens, LM sounded really cool but didn't have tracks that were as immediately arresting as a lot of Black Up, and I don't think I heard the Quazarz albums in their entirety. The last time I tried to see them live was at the Sub Pop anniversary party on Alki and the bass was so ridiculously loud that it drowned out everything else. The show I saw a couple years earlier was excellent though.

damn i'm sorry to hear that EM

he's not in the group anymore, left sometime between the last two albums so it's just a butler solo project these days i think

revisiting the first two EPs now ... shit felt revolutionary at the time.

and still does, kinda

ish butler has a new e.p. out, it’s really nice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEoE_1-Ctq4