Earlier this year Shabazz Palaces announced a sci-fi rap follow-up to their excellent 2014 sophomore album, Lese Majesty, with not just one but two new records. At first we got news about Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star, along with the early single “Shine A Light” featuring Thaddillac, but the Seattle experimental rap duo quickly followed that up with news of yet another record, this one called Quazarz Vs. The Jealous Machines, and shared a track off that album called “30 Clip Extension.”
As if that wasn’t enough of a taste, they popped back up with the Thundercat-featuring “Since C.A.Y.A.” which will be on Gangster Star, and today also shared a fourth new track, “Julian’s Dream (Ode To A Bad),” which features The Shogun Shot. Though it trails off in the title at “ode to a bad,” after listening to the song I’m more than willing to bet the left out word is “b*tch” — the whole thing is a panting ode to a supernatural woman.
Taken together these four songs indicate that Ishmael Butler and Tendai “Baba” Maraire aren’t breaking with the beat-heavy, rubbery and cosmic rap they’ve been perfecting since their debut album, 2011’s Black Up. And while they’ve always gestured toward dystopian, sci-fi impulses and Afrofuturism, these two records seems more determined than ever to make that connection. According to the Shabazz lore released with the news of the records, our hero Quazarz is “a wave warrior wielding his sonic sword.” (More on that here.)
Some of that glittering potential violence comes through in these early tracks, but todays feels more focused on more carnal desires. Listen up above and look for the group’s double album out on July 14 via Sub Pop.
