Whereas rap is mostly a teenager’s recreation, Ishmael Butler nearly single handedly proves that the outdated heads nonetheless have one thing to say.
Whereas many legends coast on information from the 90s and signature moments, Butler is consistently trying ahead, tapping into distant galaxies along with his Shabazz Palaces mission. A fusion of Afrofuturism and electro-funk highlighted by a discourse on the finer issues in life (largely sexual), Shabazz Palaces has all the time been a hybrid of traditional cool and an exploration of extremely labeled cosmic wanderings.
On Butler’s new Shabazz mission, a mini-LP entitled Robed in Rareness, the 54-year-old MC doesn’t simply lead the vanguard, he’s the vanguard. On the household affair standout “Woke Up in a Dream,” Butler cues up a beat and invitations his son, emo-rap stalwart Lil Tracy to match. Over dirty synths and sporadic, sixteenth observe hello hats, Butler free associates, sharpening verbal diamonds and tossing them off like they’re dime a dozen. It’s not that he doesn’t worth his phrases, however the bars are so persistently quotable they stream downstream like a placid river stream. “Each time I bless a script it’s a precedent,” he spits, earlier than including: “Of the jiggy OGs I’m the President.”
Ishmael Butler is the bridge between the golden age of rap and its current. It’s not hyperbolic to counsel that he’s been probably the most related voice in rap since he emerged with Digable—equal components alien and shit-talking Brooklyn transplant—in 1993. Positive, after Digable disbanded in ’95 Butler went silent—the communications from distant planets dried up and left nothing however a dial tone. However simply as rapidly as he left he emerged with a fully-formed, aesthetically diamond-sharp new mission in Shabazz. From early information like 2011’s Black Up and 2020’s The Don of Diamond Desires as much as this new mission, Butler has continued to stretch the boundaries of what this mission will be.
Robed in Rareness continues this throughline, floating alongside because of the ability of vibes and aspirations as a lot because it does forceful musical moments. If there’s a critique of this album it’s that: This can be a mission much less pressing than earlier Shabazz releases. Butler is content material coasting on his signature sound and whether or not or not you’re content material listening to it’s a matter of style. By that estimation, few have accomplished it nearly as good for so long as Ishmael Butler has, and the sunshine, nimble, informal nature of Robed in Rareness makes it a pleasing interlude inside the Shabazz Palaces discography.
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