Shabazz Palaces is an American hip hop group from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

led by

Ishmael Butler Ishmael Reginald Butler (born July 3, 1969) is an American rapper, record producer and songwriter. He is best known for his work with such groups as Digable Planets in the 1990s and Shabazz Palaces in the 2010s. Early life Butler, who is a nati ...

a.k.a. Palaceer Lazaro (formerly Butterfly of

jazz rap Jazz rap (or jazz hip hop) is a fusion of jazz and hip hop music, as well as an alternative hip hop subgenre, that developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. AllMusic writes that the genre "was an attempt to fuse African-American music of the ...

group

Digable Planets Digable Planets () is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987. The trio is composed of rappers Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, Mariana "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira, and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving. The group is notable for their contributions to the subgenre ...

). Much of the Butler's work as Shabazz Palaces has been made in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Tendai "Baba" Maraire, son of

mbira Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and p ...

master

Dumisani Maraire Abraham Dumisani Maraire (27 December 1944 – 25 November 1999), known to friends as "Dumi", was a master performer of the ''mbira'', a traditional instrument of the Shona ethnic group of Zimbabwe. He specialized in the form of ''mbira'' called ...

. Active since 2009, Shabazz Palaces has released five studio albums on

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

after self-releasing two EPs. Their most recent album, ''The Don of Diamond Dreams'', was released on April 17, 2020.

Biography

Two anonymously self-released EPs titled ''Shabazz Palaces'' and ''Of Light'' in 2009 led to Shabazz Palaces becoming the first hip-hop act to be signed to

. Their debut full-length album, ''

Black Up ''Black Up'' is the debut studio album by American hip hop duo Shabazz Palaces. It was released on June 28, 2011 in the United States on Sub Pop. The album was produced by Knife Knights at Gunbeat Serenade Studio in Outplace Palacelands." Rece ...

'', was released in 2011 to widespread critical acclaim. ''Black Up'' was listed #1 in ''

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington st ...

'' music columnist Andrew Matson's "Local Top #10" of 2011. Their sophomore album, '' Lese Majesty'', was released on July 29, 2014 after being premiered at Seattle's Pacific Science Center Laser Dome. In 2017, Shabazz Palaces released its third and fourth full-length records concurrently. ''Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star'' and ''Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines'' were accompanied by a short film directed by Nep Sidhu, and a limited-run comic book illustrated by Joshua Ray Stephens. In 2019, Shabazz Palaces joined up with frequent collaborator Erik Blood to release a full-length LP titled ''1 Time Mirage'' under the moniker ''Knife Knights'', originally a moniker used by Butler for his collaborative production work with Blood on previous Shabazz Palaces records, though now formalised as a touring band signed to Sub Pop. Shabazz Palaces' fifth full-length record, ''The Don of Diamond Dreams'', was released in 2020.

Collaborations

Shabazz Palaces' collaborations include guest features with or from

Flying Lotus Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), known by his stage name Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, Disc jockey, DJ, filmmaker and rapper from Los Angeles. He is also the founder of the record label Brainfeeder. Flyi ...

, Thundercat, Theesatisfaction, Stas THEE Boss, Erik Blood,

clipping. Clipping (stylized as clipping.) is an American experimental hip hop group from Los Angeles, California. The group consists of rapper Daveed Diggs and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes. History Diggs and Hutson met in grade school, ...

Battles A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

The Helio Sequence The Helio Sequence is an American indie rock duo from Beaverton, Oregon, signed to Sub Pop. The band consists of Brandon Summers on vocals and guitars and Benjamin Weikel on drums and keyboards. History Summers and Weikel formed The Helio Sequ ...

, Porter Ray, Sunny Levine and Carlos Overall. One notable collaboration is the supergroup WOKE, formed with

and Thundercat, which released one single, "The Lavishments of Light Looking", featuring George Clinton. Chimurenga Renaissance is a project led by Maraire, in collaboration with guitarist Hussein Kalonji and with contributions from Butler. The project released a mixtape, ''Pungwe'', in 2012, and published it as an album on March 5, 2013. They released their full-length debut album ''riZe vadZimu riZe'' on March 25, 2014. Two EPs followed: ''Kudada Nekuva Munhu Mutema'' on February 3, 2015, and ''Girlz With Gunz'' on February 5, 2016. Shabazz Palaces form part of the Black Constellation, a Seattle-based collective including visual artists, fashion designers, and musicians. An April 2020 article on ''The Don of Diamond Dreams'' confirmed that Tendai Maraire was no longer part of Shabazz Palaces.

Style and influences

Butler notes that the work of Shabazz Palaces differs from his previous work stylistically. He cites his primary influences as "abstract", pulling from podcasts and mixtapes. Butler attributes the use of African percussion and jazz overtones to his family's musical preferences.

Discography

;Studio albums * ''

'' (2011) * '' Lese Majesty'' (2014) * '' Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star'' (2017) * '' Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines'' (2017) * ''

The Don of Diamond Dreams ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

'' (2020)

References

External links

*
Sub Pop Records: Shabazz Palaces
{{Authority control West Coast hip hop groups Hip hop duos Sub Pop artists American musical duos Alternative hip hop groups Five percenters American experimental musical groups Musical groups from Seattle Musical groups established in 2009 Rappers from Seattle Third Man Records artists 2009 establishments in Washington (state)