As early as their self-titled 2009 EP, and plenty times since, Shabazz Palaces’ songs have orbited the voice of Ishmael Butler, a smooth, droning instrument in a sea of organic and digital rhythms. It doesn’t matter whether he’s delivering old-school flexes or embodying an astral traveler; Butler’s voice is Shabazz’s center of gravity. Starting from the Quazarz double album in 2017, his raps became more shamanistic, sinking deeper into increasingly airy and synthetic beats. On last year’s Robed in Rareness, reverb and creative mixing made it seem like Butler was phasing through dimensions any time he opened his mouth. His latest record, Exotic Birds of Prey, amplifies that feeling—it’s a mixtape you might expect to find floating amid the space debris of an Afrofuturist universe akin to Saul Williams’ sci-fi musical Neptune Frost.
Butler’s presence is still grounding, but on Exotic Birds of Prey his performances are noticeably more weightless. No longer tethered by the mbira and percussion of frequent collaborator Tendai Maraire—who left sometime around 2020’s The Don of Diamond Dreams—he sounds permanently disembodied. He’s whispering in your ear from another plane, when he’s speaking at all. On “Exotic BOP,” his verse and ad-libs waft like smoke around drums, synthetic chirps, and the more tactile melodies of guest Purple Tape Nate. Butler raps the least he ever has on a Shabazz project; he lets his electro-funk trips breathe, keeping the bars to a minimum and ceding space to guests.
The spacey vibe remains intact even as Butler drifts away. His only contribution to lead single “Angela” is its rolling drum break and skittering synth patterns, which back up Dust Moth singer Irene Barber and longtime collaborator Stas Thee Boss as they unspool thoughts on urgency and Black power, respectively. The only song that doesn’t achieve lift-off is “Well Known Nobody,” a one-minute burst of spiky electric guitar and distortion; it sticks out on a tape otherwise committed to seamless blending. Still, Birds is an elegant and subtle display of Shabazz’s increasingly interstellar range, Butler’s raps providing flavor and body to the rest of the ensemble.
Like its predecessor Robed in Rareness, Exotic Birds of Prey is a more free-wheeling offering from Shabazz. It feels more curatorial than any prior Shabazz project, too, a position seemingly confirmed by penultimate track “Synth Dirt.” Here, Butler—voice still reverberating from the shadows—casts himself as a DJ introducing a grip of artists on a broadcast that could be beaming from his home in Seattle, or from the Crab Nebula. As the geometric tones of closer “Take Me to Your Leader” blip and fold into themselves, it becomes clear that, short as it is, Exotic Birds of Prey still has the loose and expansive feel of a radio show. There’s no easier way to visit outer space.
