Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
In his work as Shabazz Palaces, Digable Planets’s Ishmael Butler has charted a course toward musical and philosophical Afrofuturist lands. Where Digable inhabited a realm populated by kids in Clarks hanging out on borough corners reading Marx while passing Jeeps blasted the boom bap sound of the day, Shabazz Palaces has been focused on raising the corporeal anchor and setting sights on a new world, soundtracked by synth-helmed stargazing sonics.
Presented as a mini-album, the seven-song Robed In Rareness furthers Butler’s mission. With a rich guest list that includes two members of Butler’s immediate family, the project finds Butler ready to depart an increasingly ravished planet Earth. On “Woke Up in a Dream,” Butler’s son Lil Tracy guests over a hazy, wavy backdrop as the duo confront a situation where “my creativity linked to my survival.” “Cinnamon Bun” welcomes the enigmatic Lavarr the Starr into the fold on a track that imagines sipping vintage wine while watching civil tumult unfold in France in 1968.
Reveling in a role as a hip-hop elder statesman—Butler is in his 50s—the MC’s commentary frequently takes the form of mantras and incantations. On the aqueous opener “Binoculars,” Butler repeats a series of hopes for the future: “All I wanna do is see the girls get a chance…all I wanna do is feel free in my mind.” On serenely luminous album closer “Hustle Crossers,” Butler emphasizes the idea that moving on doesn’t mean running away—it’s just that some things are better left behind. Over graceful bass tones that manage to feel both overwhelmingly voluminous and completely comforting, Butler becomes “lost inside a dream,” stuck in a situation where “everybody knew that I wasn’t me.” It’s then that Butler arrives at a solution that seems to set up the next installment of the Shabazz Palaces journey: “Take me away from here, take me away.”
