Probably one of the most quoted lines I've seen from a movie in recent memory. What makes it great though, is that it really does have substance to it. How many times have you seen someone develop themselves into being a hero, only to play the role too long and eventually be seen differently? I'll give you a perfect recent example: Joe Paterno. JoePa (who I'd worshiped my entire childhood living in Central PA) was the epitome of excellence. Two national championships. One of the highest graduation rates for his players in the country. A family man. Someone who donated over $10 million back to the school to build a library for its students. The man was on such a high pedestal, that I don't think even any Ohio State or Michigan fan could foresee him being knocked down from it.
Of course, we all know what happened this past November. Joe Pa not only was done as head coach at Penn State, he was fired. Soon, questions began to arise as to how honest and sincere the man was (after all, he had closed most of his practices to scouts for years, those same practices that he allowed Jerry Sandusky to attend after the incident in 2002). Had Paterno retired, say, five years ago, there still would have been controversy. Yet, it wouldn't have been nearly on the level that it was with him still residing as the head coach. In just a three day span, Joe Paterno, a hero of college athletics, was destroyed and there were even some PSU faithful that resented him.
Staying in the game too long is something that happens in hip-hop just as it does anywhere else. For instance, take a look back Rev Run in 2005. Run, who was part of maybe the greatest hip-hop group of all time in Run DMC, decided that he still had something left in the tank and released Distortion as an attempt to regain relevance. The album proved not only that Run didn't have anything in the tank, but that the tank had been empty for a long time. Artists sometimes try to stay in the game too long, and that's exactly what happened to Mr. Simmons (although he did have success with Run's House, which was a half-decent reality show).
There are artists, however, that seem to defy the concept of time. One of them is Ishmael Butler. That name may not sound familiar, but insert "Butterfly" and those who are 90's hip-hop heads like myself will have very fond memories. Butler was once part of the group Digable Planets, which gained awareness for their jazzy persona. In fact, there are even some that argue that Planets, not the Tribe, were actually the best jazz based hip-hop group of the 90's (I'm not one of them). Butler and his crew released two albums, Reachin' and Blowout Comb, both that received critical acclaim and are now widely regarded as so called "classics" in the genre. Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long for Planets, as the group broke up when their member Ladybug felt that she was not being equally compensated for her work on their two albums.
Butler wasn't ready to get out of the game, however, and worked on releasing his solo album Ishmael Since 1999. The record never got the backing it needed though, and so Ishmael went on to his next project, which was a hip-hop/blues act called Cherrywine. That proved to be another failure for Butler, as the group's album Bright Black, released in 2003, failed to even chart, forcing Butler to reexamine his musical career.
In the late 2000's however, Butler found his niche. He paired up with multi-intsrumentalist Tendai Maraire to begin working on another hip-hop act, this time called Shabazz Palaces. Butler also renamed himself from Butterfly to Palaceer Lazaro. The two got to work and quickly released to EPs, Eagles Soar, Oil Flows and The Seven Now. The EPs gained the attention of Sub Pop records, who decided to take a chance on Shabazz. It was also incredible that Sub Pop even looked their way, as the label had never signed a hip-hop act previous (you'll know them for signing groups like Soundgarden and The Shins). That didn't faze Butler and Maraire though, and only a little over a year after they had been signed, they had finished their debut LP release, Black Up.
1. free press and curl
I half-expected Palaceer to continue with his jazz roots and produce something similar to that, but what I did not expect was this. The beat isn't funky or groovy or any of that. There's hints of some Odd Future feel, but that really doesn't do it justice either. There's also some Cudi elements you could pick on. Still, it sounds completely unlike anything I've ever heard before. One thing that's definitely for sure after listening to this though, Ishmael has still got at least something left to offer. His wordplay in the second verse for instance, flows seamlessly:
I mean it though/Lean and flow/I gleam and glow/I'm clean and oh you betcha/That I get it bro inside the glow/Just not for show/Green beans, purples, indigo/Catchy yes but trendy no/Never finished scheming though/That's beneath Barbara Jean's offspring/With po, I never seem to know
What this track really made me think of was an experiment of Radiohead with hip-hop elements. There's a lot of Kid A elements floating around in this. It's so out there, yet I still found myself coming back to it.
2. An echo from the hosts that profess infinitum
This one is just (or even more) experimental than the first, but it doesn't work quite as well. The beat is a little more consistent than the first and it does get more interesting as the track wears on. The last minute is also pretty enjoyable, just maybe not enough to make up for the first half of the song. This was one of those songs where I couldn't decide whether it was brilliant or just a lot of noise to make me think it's brilliant. I usually tend to lean toward the latter when that's the case (but who knows, 20 years from now that comment could look stupid).
3. Are you...Can you...Were you? (Felt)
Ahh, I knew I'd be hearing at least some trace of Digable Planets with Palace's debut, and this is the track where Palaceer pays homage to his old group. It starts off slow, but then slowly increases speed before switching into the piano-laden background, where we get to Palaceer's verse. He hits on several subjects, ranging from police profiling of blacks, to how he's able to answer those "proverbial questions". He's not done there though, as he drops another verse that's probably better than his first one. Warning: this is not a song (nor album really) for those who take things at face value. You won't have a fucking clue what Palaceer is talking about. For example, just try and decode these lines:
We learn to turn the page/To mind the screen and stage/To see who got the glaze/To hustle up or fade/Either get made or played/Find your spot in the shade/And nigga, get paid/So we internalize that/But then we customize that/By the relationship between where our ground and our sky's at
Any ideas? What I've tried to gather is this: Palaceer is referring to the lessons that we are taught when we are young. We are given a particular set of rules to follow. But that relationship is different for everyone. Everyone has different experiences than the other throughout life and so by the time you do become an adult, you follow your own set of rules, compared to the general relationships and rules that everyone seems to follow when young. There's so much more that could be investigated into for this song (which would take days to decipher). Either way, this song is fucking genius. I'm sitting here still amazed that there are musicians that still exist like this today.
4. A treatease dedicated to The Avian Airess from North East Nubis (1000 questions, 1 answer)
Possibly the longest title to a song of any album I've reviewed on this blog to date, it takes a shift (as expected to be honest) from the last track. Another very spacey beat, but I still liked it all the same and it does get somewhat catchy. One thing I can tell from hearing Palaceer rap over this and the previous stuff on Black Up is that this is where he belongs. His voice's sound is actually the perfect complement for the beats that Maraire is coming up with for him (seriously, can you try and put a guy like Game or Hova over this? I didn't think so). This song isn't as spectacular as the previous one, but unless Ishmael was the Second Coming, I didn't expect him to be able to follow up something that good with something better.
5. Youlogy
The first two minutes of this is a complete trip and anyone who's on hard drugs and attempts to listen to this album will probably feel like their head is going to explode. Things cool down enough around the 2:20 mark for you to be able to hear Ishmael drop his verse. It's a dark verse that focuses on a lot of what's wrong with the world today, especially with the line "Nothing's gonna stop ya if it's bound to turn a profit". In a way, Ishmael does exactly what the song's title is. He is giving all of us a eulogy that reflects on what we do to cause us to meet our ends. It's a tricky metaphor, but again, if you really pay attention, you'll pick up on it. This is another outstanding set of wordplay, and an overall good song.
6. Endeavors for Never (The last time we spoke you said you were not here. I saw you though.)
Boy this song really threw me off. I thought we were heading toward something completely different with the horns at the beginning, but then it just goes in a whole different direction. It sounds cool, but there isn't really much here. Ishmael is just about nonexistent on this and I had no idea who the girl was who sang the only lyrics found on this track. The beat deserves attention, I'll give it that, but that's mostly it.
7. Recollections of the wraith
Another track with clear Planets influences, with most of it being evident with the drums at the beginning of the song. Palaceer and Maraire decided to have a female vocal sample in this, which works and I'm glad they didn't let it dictate the rest of the beat, letting it fade out before Ishmael goes into his verse. I really liked some of the lines that Palaceer uses here, including "dilemma of this bitch-ass-cliche. Rap's gettin soft". The subject matter is far lighter on this track than previous ones, but with the beat being lighter as well, it fits. Another track that I found myself replaying more than once.
8. The King's new clothes were made by his own hands
Just as track "Endeavors" went in an opposite direction from what it you originally thought it would sound like, this one does the same. This is a short song, but it's actually one of the album's stronger pieces of work. Ishmael takes a deeper look into his (or possibly your) mind and really makes you think about what he has to say. That's a hard thing for most artists to be able to do. Ishmael makes it sound easy (One pattern I've noticed that may explain Palace's genius is that they use their beats as almost a hook to reel you in. You're so transfixed on the music that when Ishmael does start actually rapping, you already have been sucked in so you can't avoid listening to him. Well, it'll do either that, or you'll be thinking to yourself 'Why the fuck am I listening to this' and move on to Take Care).
9. yeah you
There's definitely strokes of brilliance on this album, but I can't really say that for this song. This beat in particular is pretty damn boring for the first two minutes and except for a brief 20 second period, it's not nearly anything as good as a lot of what's on this album. I also wasn't crazy about whatever the fuck Palaceer did to his voice on here (it sounds almost as if he had surgery on his voicebox, except that it left him sounding like a combination of Stephen Hawking and his own voice). The "you're corny nigga" also kind of ruined this one for me.
10. Swerve... The reeping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not withstanding)
Now this is more like it! Not only is the beat extremely catchy, but this sounds like the old Butterfly I loved (and still do) listening to on the Planets records. The hook is so damn good, it's possibly one of the best I've heard all year. The first two lines of it really make it for me:
Now, if you talking bout it, it's a show/But if you move about it, then it's a flow
This basically meaning that if you only talk about things, you are only trying to show how cool you are to everyone else, which in turn, doesn't make you cool at all. But if you move, actually do, the things you talk about, then that is you, that is your flow, and yes, that does make you cool. Palaceer absolutely destroys his verse and its maybe his best on the album (I say maybe for good reason. His verse on "Are you.." is also pretty amazing). This may be the most accessible song on the entire album and if any song will gain Palaces more fans, I think this would be the one. I loved it all the same, though.
Closing Statement: Out of all the reviews I've done in my short blogging career so far, this may have been the toughest one I've tried to write yet. That's almost ironic, considering that this is also one of the shortest albums that I've ever reviewed. And you know what? That's probably a really, really good thing. Looking back at this, I'm still blown away at how much depth there is to it. Rappers like Saigon, Kendrick, K.R.I.T., Common, Nas, etc. can have some amazing messages in their songs and they're also are tremendous with their vocabulary. I wonder though, if any of them could produce something quite like this. Don't get this confused with one of those modern art paintings that just has three stripes and people call it brilliant. You can actually pick apart the reasons of why this is so damn good lyric by lyric, beat by beat. There are a few songs where Palaces did lose me. I thought "Endeavors", "yeah you" and "An echo" were all a tad much, and yes, that is almost 1/3 of the album there alone. So no, Black Up is not perfect. It is however, the most intelligent and thought provoking album I've heard all year and this is one I could spend days mulling over what's all going on here. I think Palaces also deserve a ton of praise for even having the balls to release this as their debut album and not try and make a single just to get more people to listen to what they have going on. It may not be for everyone, maybe even a small minority, but for those willing to give this a chance, you will be handsomely rewarded.
The Verdict: This one depends on whether you are willing to have the patience for something like this. If you like listening to music just to have something cool on while you're driving or doing something else, then you don't need this in your library. However, if you do have patience for intelligent and thoughtful music, music that you'll sit down for 45 minutes and do nothing but listen to, then I suggest you find your credit card ASAP. It's by far one of the best works released all year and you'll be missing out on a hidden treasure if you decide to ignore it.
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