Shabazz Palaces
Chocolate Souffle
Sub Pop
Seattle’s black consciousness hip hop duo return with a tasty number from their forthcoming LP to be released in mid-April. The Don of Diamond Dreams is the collective’s fourth album and follows the double-release Quazarz from 2017. Formerly of Digable Planets, rapper Ishmael Butler continues to innovate in his career, with Shabazz Palaces channelling Sun Ra, Funkadelic, Gil Scott-Heron and even Biz Markie to bring to life tales of space, time and technology in their tunes. Multi-instrumentalist Tendai “Baba” Maraire is the other half, an accomplished percussionist in his own right.
The vibe of Chocolate Souffle is that of a P-Funk jam, with a looping syrupy bass synth line and a simple steady drumbeat that does just enough on the cymbals and snare to push the groove forward. A panoply of voices accompanies Butler’s words throughout, near but far, and sounding fused and phased to produce a kind of unholy space chorus that adds to the freaky funk feeling.
Butler’s rhymes touch upon observations of digital life such as “This is high art/ I tear the form apart/ My phone’s really not that smart” to the more whimsical “No wait/ I live life like a velvet cupcake/ I’m all in/ What’s the stakes?”. He rarely lets up during his five-minute stream-of-consciousness delivery, most of it leaning towards the spoken word side of the rap spectrum.
Even though Shabazz Palaces’ musical vision arrived fully formed at the beginning of the 2010s, their continued evolution makes them an intriguing act to follow. Chocolate Souffle brings the fun to the funk and manages to tickle the cosmos in the process.
PAUL DOUGHTY
