Music Preview: Shabazz Palaces

The music industry doesn't always look kindly upon reinvention, and only the rare artist is able to find success in more than one incarnation - but if there's anyone who can do it, it is Butterfly.

Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, one-third of Digable Planets, the face of a popular strain of bohemian hip-hop in the early 1990s, has re-emerged in recent years as "Ish," founding member of Shabazz Palaces, a reticent postmodern hip-hop collective based in Seattle. Comparing a track like "Rebirth of the Slick," the catchy Grammy Award-winning single that propelled Digable Planets to mainstream acclaim in 1994, to any track on the three Shabazz Palaces releases, it's clear Butler has gone through a nearly unfathomable musical evolution.

Where Digible Planets was jazzy hip-hop, complete with hooks and refrains, Shabazz Palaces' music is loping and open-ended, more obsessive than insistent, and almost never resolves into anything resembling closure.

"An Echo from the Hosts That Profess Infinitum," from Black Up, released in 2010, is a crawling, dirge-like three-minute track with long instrumental breaks and a thumb piano solo that envelops rather than propels Butler's quixotic lyrics. Shabazz Palaces makes art music, and will be more appealing to those who are willing to journey with the group rather than expecting to be led. Butler and company may not get you onto the dance floor, but they will certainly make your head nod as you reconsider notions of what hip-hop can be. This is what rap must sound like in outer space.

"The conviction I had as a younger person has been replaced by the understanding that there are multiple possibilities and outcomes in any situation. That's reflected in the music. I've realized that resolution isn't always necessary, and there are always more places you can go in music," Butler tells The Prague Post.

What Black Up lacks in pop palatability it more than makes up for with its dense patina of literary and cultural allusions. The Black Muslim tilt of Butler's project is clear enough from the group's name and logos, but that's not all. Interminably long, poetic track titles like "blastit at the homie rayzer's charm lake plateau bbq july at outpalace pk" recall the titles of ancient Chinese poems, which provide necessary hints toward the mood and setting of the piece.

In another example of allusion beyond the realm of hip-hop, the video for Shabazz Palaces' single "Belhaven Meridian" is an artistically shot homage to Killer of Sheep, the classic 1977 film depicting African American life by Charles Burnett. The video also features a cameo appearance by Ernest Wadell, who played Dante on the hit television series The Wire.

"I don't believe you can create something and be influenced only by that art form. I pay attention to all areas of life and realize I'm influenced most by things that are so natural to my taste I don't even notice them," Butler says. "I listen to less hip-hop now than I once did, but I was never staunchly a hip-hop guy."

An outgrowth of Butler's openness to music and art forms beyond hip-hop has been a lack of adherence to the prevailing hip-hop styles of the day, whether it was gangster rap during the early '90s heyday of Digable Planets or the bling and 24-hour hype of the current hip-hop industry. Butler is famously reticent, granting interviews rarely and refusing to divulge the names of his collaborators, even in album credits. The band has no Myspace page, and their website provides only the scantest information.

Shabazz Palaces has received more attention since signing with Sub Pop records and releasing Black Up, having released two previous EPs with little fanfare on their website. But Butler maintains his refusal to embrace the spotlight is less a political stance than a necessity.

"Publicity is a choice. People see the insanity of hype as an endeavor, as a career, whether it's modeling, acting or music. People try to build a personality and sustain it by spreading their personality through colonizing thoroughfares like the Internet. I don't have the energy to maintain a persona; I just love to make music."

Along with Butler's musical evolution, his onstage activities have shifted as well, from straightforward rapping to manning the computer, producing beats and samples that propel Shabazz Palace's music forward on an ethereal layer of sonic information. One of the biggest advantages of the group's insistence on rap without closure is that it allows for improvisational elements in each track, which keeps the experience of performing "enchanting," Butler says.

"I always wanted to be more involved in the music part of the stage show, instead of just rapping, like playing an instrument or now doing the beats," he adds.

Shabazz Palaces performance in Prague as the headliners at Stimul Fest comes in the midst of a string of international dates that includes shows in Lebanon, France and the Netherlands, among other nations. Butler says he's looking forward to Prague "with an open mind," adding it is somewhat surreal to be playing a post-communist country. But most of all, he's looking forward to getting back in the studio.

"I'm always working on new stuff. We have a studio at home, so we're always going back to the lab. It's something we do every day," he says. "After you make a bunch of tracks, you might see a theme; you look for an energy and an idea you can follow and you go with it."

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com