Butler, Maraire messing with us

"I'm not messing with your mind."

So raps Ishmael Butler of experimental hip-hop duo Shabazz Palaces on "Harem Aria," a track from the recently released Lese Majesty. Of course, Butler and cohort Tendai Maraire spend pretty much the entirety of the 17-track album giving our minds a thorough messing-with, and it's quite the experience. The Seattle-based duo will perform Sept. 15 at the Rev Room in Little Rock's River Market District.

Lese Majesty -- that's French for, roughly, a crime committed against a sovereign power -- the group's follow-up to 2011's Black Up, is a slithery, experimental hip-hop ride that passes over regular song structure for watery, groovy beats dappled with odd time signatures, samples, conversation snippets and Butler's stream-of-consciousness lyrics. This is hip-hop that Dali or Sun Ra would have loved -- surreal, thoughtful, horizon-expanding and imaginative.

Pitchfork.com raved in its review. "This is a call to arms to hip-hop's creative fringe ..." wrote critic Craig Jenkins. "The soul of Shabazz Palaces is pairing next-gen sounds with classic brass-tacks show-and-prove emceeing, and Lese Majesty tugs those extremes as far as they've been pulled ..."

Butler told NPR.org that the album was an affront to the current trend of self-centeredness in media and society -- think of the stream of constant selfies, materialism and 'look at me' updates that clutter our communication.

"It's like a sonic attack on the 'me-mania' that's sweeping our culture of late," he said of the record's intent.

The Palaces aren't lacking in confidence. "Make no mistake," Butler said in the same interview, "this is an attack. This is our style, this is what we do and we're ready to put it up against anybody else's stuff."

Even if you haven't heard Shabazz Palaces, you've probably heard Butler's music. Back in the '90s he was known as Butterfly and fronted neo-jazz outfit Digable Planets, winning a Grammy for the catchy "(Rebirth of Slick) Cool Like Dat" from the album Reachin', (A New Refutation of Time and Space). He's also part of Black Constellation, an artists' collective in Seattle, whose members have contributed to artwork and video for Shabazz Palaces.

Style on 09/07/2014