Shabazz Palaces’s aptly titled Exotic Birds of Prey opens with a guarantee to spin “the latest in eclectic music.” Depending on your appetite for adventure, that will come off as a promise or a threat. Like last year’s Robed in Rareness, the album feels at times designed to weed out casual listeners, with Shabazz Palaces mastermind Ishmael Butler making no effort to sweeten his brash experimentalism with memorable hooks or conventional song structures.
Exotic Birds of Prey maintains an unsettling vibe as it wanders through hip-hop subgenres and warps them into abstractions of themselves. “Exotic Bop,” for one, feels chaotic and claustrophobic, with cavernous synths blurring the edges around guest Purple Tape Nate’s monotonously simple vocal melody. The glitched-out “Goat Me” similarly features reverb-drenched interjections from Cobra Coli buried beneath a spacious cloud-rap beat.
While Stas Thee Boss and Irene Barber offer a little more of substance on “Angela,...
Exotic Birds of Prey maintains an unsettling vibe as it wanders through hip-hop subgenres and warps them into abstractions of themselves. “Exotic Bop,” for one, feels chaotic and claustrophobic, with cavernous synths blurring the edges around guest Purple Tape Nate’s monotonously simple vocal melody. The glitched-out “Goat Me” similarly features reverb-drenched interjections from Cobra Coli buried beneath a spacious cloud-rap beat.
While Stas Thee Boss and Irene Barber offer a little more of substance on “Angela,...
- 3/25/2024
- by Nick Seip
- Slant Magazine
imdb.1eye.us, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.