Essay on Shabazz Palaces, Fanny Howe, & Belief

 

The Personal and the Believable - Tiana Reid

Best Piece on Lese Majesty Yet

A fellow musician pens a glittering prose essay on Ish's latest masterpiece. Poetry. Dense and profound. Worthy of its subject.

Rafiq Bhatia (SonLux) Talks Shabazz Palaces' Lese Majesty

Miles

Apologies for the prolonged silence, palace people. I packed up my life into storage and moved my family to the states for the summer and maybe longer. Recently I've been deepening my relationship with the music and autobiography of Miles Davis. Since Ish said "Miles, that's my idol" and Ish is my idol, the conclusions of my findings don't surprise me: If you want to understand Ishmael's music on any meaningful level, then you have to swim in the sea of not only the Last Poets, but also Miles. I'm ready to dive in. Miles Davis is cool as fuck...!



Syncretically, as so often happens, during this period a new interview with Palaceer Lazaro surfaced in which he mentions On The Corner as something epochal in his evolution. Check it out:

"Shabazz Palaces: Never mind the past or the future" by Adam Hicks for Freq Magazine

When Digable Planets emerged in the early '90s, many people’s definitions of hip hop were shattered. Sure, the Native Tongues movement was already beginning to be noticed worldwide, but this was decidedly different. The same people who labeled De La Souls “hip hop hippies” likely called Digable hip hop beatniks, but, in both cases, the labels would be much too vast of a generalization. The common description of their music was reminiscent of poetry and smoky jazz lounges, but their fingers were on the pulse of something much bigger.

Much like Digable Planets changed the landscape of hip hop’s golden era, former frontman Ishmael Butler recently re-emerged to challenge our view of contemporary rap. Now known as Palaceer Lazaro, he leads the Seattle-based outfit, Shabazz Palaces. Achieving what the vast majority of golden-era rappers have fallen short of, Shabazz Palaces remain relevant and belong to the cutting-edge community of modern artists, such as Flying Lotus and El-P. Their glitchy beats and cryptic lyrics may be the basis for some people’s descriptions. But after briefly chatting with Butler, it is clear that the band likely hopes no two people describe their music the same. Or describe it at all for that matter.


Freq: Ishmael, from Digable Planets, to Cherrywine, to Shabazz Palaces, you can always be described as cosmically in tune, or at least seem that way. Can you sum this up into words?

Ishmael Butler: All of these ideas are given to me.

Freq: What are some of your influences inside and outside of hip hop music?
IB: Inside and outside hip hop, O am influenced by the hidden motions in the rhythms, the felt things and Buki Akib and then Kerry James Marshall and Blackthoven.

Freq: Would it be safe to say your music delves deep into both the past and future?
IB: It is unsafe to say things for certain, but say this: at our best we are delving into the moment with the past and future never minded.

Freq: Do you feel that hip hop music has any voids that you are filling?
IB: No hip hop is always and all ways filling voids in me.

Freq: If there are a couple quintessential jazz albums that our readers should check out to help the uninitiated listener understand your music better, what are they and why?
IB: Well, not to understand my music — my music is to be liked, not really understood. I don't claim to understand it, but these records will help you understand the world and some you as well: On the Corner, by Miles Davis and Make it Last Forever, by Keith Sweat.

Freq: Why is it important for people to have an open mind towards music?
IB: It’s not important, but it is very fun and exciting.

Freq: You guys have a very creative live set. How did it evolve into being?
IB: We were trying to get girls' attention.

Freq: Why is it important for hip hop artists to bring such creativity to shows?
IB: It’s not. It’s just fun as fuck.

Freq: Are there any other contemporary artists that you would recommend your
fans check out?
IB: Lil B, and THEE Satisfaction.

Freq: Why is it important to challenge your listeners?
IB: It’s not, it’s important to try hard to refresh your instinct when you do IT.

Catch Shabazz Palaces at Hi-Fi Club on June 21st and Olympic Oval on June 23rd

Meditations on Belhaven Meridian

As we await the new Kahlil Joseph-directed shabazz palaces vid which should be dropping soon, it seems about time that we spoke on Belhaven Meridian, the first and only official SP video, released in 2009.

settling dust

Back then, no one, including me, was really ready to offer more than a few words on the impression that this startling work of art made. Everyone caught on that it shouted out Killer of Sheep, Charles Burnett’s recently ‘rediscovered’ 1979 classic. There were comments on the trippy upside down effect, but beyond that and the murmurs of awed appreciation, not much else.



It starts with the ignition of an engine, that of Palaceer Lazaro’s ’68 Chevy Camaro (serious car) After putting down his phone he declares, “It’s time.” We’re left to conclude that the impulse to start the journey comes almost as a command from an unknown, mysterious source, which Lazaro (who symbolises the ‘artist’, or ‘human being seeking self-realisation’) has no choice but to obey. This fits in with what he’s been expressing in interviews about the creative impulse. His lady (symbolising us, the observing audience) isn’t privy to the same secrets, but is happy to be along for the ride. She asks “Where are we going?” which beyond its obvious meaning (‘where are now driving to?’) also indicates humanity’s first question: ‘What’s the meaning of life? Why are we here and where are we going after this?’ As they drive off with that question left hanging in the air, the intro song (a mess, the booth soaks in palacian musk, palaceer in vintage LRG, yes pure NS,uppowndet watermelon lips beat) plays out and we feel we’re going to ‘find out’ the answer.

(art below by leif podhajsky)



ينقذنا

These Arabic words then appear. The meaning is “He saves us”. The first possibility is that ‘He’ refers to the Divine, i.e. the Light/God/Allah/Jah i.e. the creator with a capital C. This would prefigure the main song’s (“find out”) lyrics - the most explicity ‘religious’ of Butler’s catalogue - which lament the fact that we ‘use God to make our dough up’ and condemn the ‘depraved devil’s heart system that got us all laid down; make us content to play around n’ let God see us get clowned’. But because Arabic is a gender language, ‘things’ can also be masculine (or feminine), so the other possibility is that ‘He’ signifies ‘the Beat’ with a capital B. After all the first shabazz palaces EP (eagles soar, oil flows) starts off with the chorus “the beat will always save us”. In interviews Lazaro has said that he believes in music (“that eternal heart dance beat” as he said in gunbeat falls), and that it will take care of us if we give it its due. A truly religious dedication to music, for him the beat assumes eternal, cosmic, spiritual proportions. This is not only a fruitful and poetic conceptualisation of the matter, but if you’re a music lover and think on how it really can make you feel, you have to conclude that it can only, in fact, be true.

watts, LA

These words indicating where the action takes place immediately bring us back from the world of metaphysical speculation. The southern california hood is one of the most significant places in African American history, the scene of the riots that erupted in 1965 in protest at blatant discrimination suffered by the city’s black population and then again in 1992 when the Rodney King beating (pictured) and the acquittal of the criminally savage policemen sparked off more violence.



Despite the ‘universalist’ nature of these 3 and a half minutes, the video is at a fundamental level grounded in Lazaro’s community, another chapter in the cultural resistance which black music has always played in the story of Amerikkka.

the hero’s journey

Joseph Cambell (see video below) is known for his work on mythology, and his concept of ‘the hero’s journey’. After spending years studying all the major mythological traditions and religions of the globe’s different cultures, he concluded that all point to a basic ‘heroic journey’ that each one of us must take if we are to truly ‘find out’ who we are. All major myths in all societies seem to follow the 3 basic stages in this journey. 1) Departure. The hero heeds the call, leaving the quotidian world of convention and conformity, and sets out on the path. 2) Initiation. The hero is tested, and with the aid of supernatural powers, or divine assistance, is able to overcome the trials. 3) Return. Having conquered his or her demons and scaled the peak of a mountain most don’t even know exists, the hero returns to normal life, and with this new insight and knowledge of self, is able to play his or her part as a responsible human being, helping others. As the camera pans up to a great height, it reinforces the sense that we’re being told a real story, a grand, eternal myth. I think that because there isn't just one 'hero' in this video but three, that's a clear message that the hero can be any one of us. We're all on our own journey, hopefully.



This initial shot of the lady walking ahead seems to reflect the first stage of the journey. She’s strong, beautiful, purposeful, and set on the journey. The dude, like his game, is weak, lame, boring. She pays no attention and continues on her way.

sheep killer, est. 1977

The camera then pans to the right where there’s a re-enactment of the filming of a scene from the 70s classic Killer of Sheep, directed by Charles Burnett. That film as far as I can see doesn’t have a literal connection to the allegorical theme of the video, but on a more subtle level, it is great art born from black America, and it portrays on a human-level the pain of a man condemned to be a have-not simply because he lives in an unjust society. You feel the pain of the film’s protagonist Stan (and his wife), how his soul suffers from having to work in an abattoir and support a family; it's touching and beautiful and sad.



Also it’s a nod to a film that wasn’t appreciated at all at the time it came out but 30 years later is revered as a classic. It’s hard not to see the correlation with Butler’s output, although the widespread acclaim that greeted Black Up is a far cry from the way that Bright Black and even Blowout Comb were ignored by almost everyone when they were released. Still, ever since 95 I’ve maintained that it’ll be a decade or two after it’s released before Butler’s work is given the recognition it deserves. This shit is just way too advanced, after all. The camera then spins upside down and the rest of the video is shot like that. I can’t see anything symbolic here but it looks very very cool, and is a second technical coup by Joseph. The main one being that the entire video is shot in one take.

initiation

Then the second 'hero' (played by Ernest Wadell of The Wire, apparently) appears, again, on the journey. He is walking, with some ominous figures on the waiting on the road ahead of him, but then an African mask appears to come down upon him from above. After some time, he turns around and grabs the mask just as it begins to float away. He then runs forward, mask in hand, towards his adversaries. This is the key point in the allegory. Only when you set out on the journey, leaving behind the status quo, will you open yourself to the ‘helping hand’ of the universe. Like Cherrywine said on A Street Gospel, if you want to be an artist, you have to “come outdoors, if you wanna breath more”, or the chorus of Swerve, the reaping of all that is worthwhile (noir not withstanding): “if you talk about it, that’s show. But if you move about it, then it’s a go.” Or the Goethe couplet:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it

But that’s not all. The supernatural power will float down into your life for a certain time, and it won’t wait for you forever. Grab the opportunity and slip through the door before it closes. But once you take that decision, you’ll make it. In the ‘heroic journey’ schema, such divine aid or guidance is often provided by a wise elder (like Virgil in Dante’s Inferno, or Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars) but in the African American context, the mask represents the supernatural mighty unseen force.



Check the first half of the Campbell clip (until 2:37) below for more on masks.



Just as he starts running forwards into the midst of the foe, (your personal demons?/the world?/the business?/personal life?/any of the sacrifices that must be made to pursue your true calling) the chorus kicks in. This is just great directing, what can I say, it’s perfect.

Find out who you are and see it
Find out what you are and free it
Find out who you love and need it
Find out what you can and be it

Find out who you love and be it
Find out what you can and free it
Find out what you love and need it
Find out who you are and see it

You could write a whole essay on each of the lines above, but that’s not the task at hand now. This other writer Graham has already spoken about the chorus, and he also sees it in a mystical self-realisation vein, enlisting Nietzsche’s words. Check out his post, which I link to at the end of this piece.

the struggle

So with this mask he able to fend off about twenty guys that are trying to pull him down, and drag him off course. Even though it seems he is finally pulled down by those two guys and disappears from the frame, he ultimately shakes them off and continues.



return

The final stage of the hero’s journey is that he has overcome the trials and is able to pass on his precious learning to the next generation. In the video, they are represented on superfast Japanese motorbikes, signifying the future. The message seems to be that even though you made that epic journey, the power that enabled you to do so was never from within you, but was a blessing that you hung on to for a time, before passing the mantle to those that follow. That’s also an allegory on the transience of life.

What’s specific about the ‘return’ stage in Belhaven Meridian is that the kalimba strains of blastit at the homie rayzer’s charm lake plateau bbq july at outpalace pk kick in and the suburban street gives way to a wider, sunnier, less built up locale, which doesn’t really look like America. What this change in sound and place indicate to the viewer is one thing: Africa. Lazaro and Joseph represent the future as African.


(Shabazz Palaces art by Leif Podhajsky)

But that’s not all. As the camera follows the bikes into ‘Africa’, Ish’s Camaro appears in a final display of technical virtuosity and drives off, in formation with the motorcycles, into the sunset. I love this ending, it’s like a really elaborate way of saying “I’ve got the unseen power now- it’s my turn to run with the mask for a few moments on the earth.”

So we sit back and think on the hero’s journey, and finally ask ourselves what it’s all for. What is our path and where should we be heading. Well, for Ish it’s obviously music (and acting?), for me it might be visual art, for you it might be architecture or motherhood or dancing or charitable work or anything under the sun. The key is, if you don’t already know what your journey is towards, then ‘find out’. Find out who you are and free it. Because, as the answer to the question goes, once we know who we are then we can go wherever we want.

==================================================

Q: What’s the name of that piece by Graham specifically looking at the chorus to this song?
A: It’s here.

Q: You didn’t tell us what “Belhaven Meridian” means…wtf.
A: Good question – any ideas? Lazaro’s cryptic references come from diverse sources (often black history, science fiction, etc.) What does Belhaven Meridian signify? A Meridian is “A circle passing through the celestial poles and the zenith of a given place on the earth's surface” which sounds cool, though my head hurts just thinking about it. I don’t know. Neither can I say why there’s what looks like a rifle poking out of the Camaro at the end…

Q: Why bring up stuff about Watts and Rodney King?
A: Obama being president doesn’t change much. The same story is going on over and over again. What about Troy Davis? It’s on a global scale too. What about the soldier who killed a boy in Afghanistan for fun, and posed smiling for pictures next to the body? He got 7 years; the ‘judge’ told him “I hope and believe you will have a long, happy life."

Q: Can you recommend any Joseph Campbell stuff?
A: I’m new to him. Reading his first book The Hero With a Thousand Faces which lays out his archetypal ‘heroic journey’ but I find it slightly heavy. Surely his later, more popular stuff explains things in a more accessible way. He’s also made lots of videos and audio books, with PBS.

Some Thoughts on An Echo From the Hosts That Profess Infinitum (part I of II)

The only thing we know about the LP, beyond the release date and tracklisting, is this song. It became a sensation on the web immediately and everyone is gushin over it, calling it spacey etc. but what is it about? To me it’s one of the more cryptic of Lazaro’s productions but, here goes.

An Echo From the Hosts That Profess Infinitum - lyrics

[Intro]

Pin-ups in a shady purpose
(Wow)
All that diamond dust,
Blowin’ up your hopes?
Flamboyant obstacles, or deals made to cope?
(Wow)
???? ???? ???? ????
Shouts at all these soft niggas,
Ideas in recline
Rise of the lost
Yeah yeah
Yeah yeah
No, yeah
Yeah yeah
Yeah yeah

[first verse]

Hey
Here we stand
Slaves to networks’ master plans
Swag’s the brand, open a can
Chains off, still y’all never ran.
“I brag, I boast, I kill, I coast,
I toast to cake and crime.”
Doing the most
A stronger dose
A king at leisure time
So
So erase your mind (?)
Dough is laced, fantasticize
Gang signs point to hang ‘em high
“Who, swindle? Oh yeah, that’s my guy”
The forecast: heat with chance to blast
Hustle dough sure don’t seem fast
My kiss, my list, my dreams, my stash
Since certain things need not be asked

[second verse]

You.
You.
You.
Are you.
You think I’m selfish
Exist only to wish on stars
Lay in wait n’ cut the bars down then go ice the guards
Touch the hood (?) n’ go kiss gran n’ catch a box of food
Play that blade n’ feel that sunlight till you’re in the mood

But who you think you are?
Who you think you are?
Who you think YOU are?
Who you think who you are?
Who you think who you are?

[thanx to Anonymous for correcting these transcriptions... see comments below]

Let’s start by acknowledging the track’s most startling feature: that disturbing sample. One of my friends can’t really even listen to this because it freaks him out! It’s disturbing for a reason (or two), though. This is a song about self-discovery. That’s a scary proposition for most of us. We’ve become used to what we know and think we are, and going deeper into the self elicits terror. But the sample is also apt because the reason for all the world’s problems is that people are not asking the question that this song wants us to each ask of ourselves. Who am I? That has resulted in a terrifying reality and future. We’re afraid of finding out who we are but in fact we should be afraid of staying the same and maintaining the status quo.
Ultimately, and despite the darkness of this track, it is optimistic. By virtue of the fact that it encourages us to go in this direction it shows the artist’s belief that we are basically good, even divine. I say divine because of the word “infinitum” in the title “An echo from the hosts that profess infinitum”. ‘Infinitum’ is the latin root for infinity. ‘Host’ is an archaic term for a multitude, a throng, a legion. Until the modern age, the vast host of humanity has professed infinity, which is to say has believed in eternity. That this existence is part of a much older and greater story. Calling this song an ‘echo’ acknowledges that we live in different times, but nevertheless we’re being urged to follow the same advice carved in stone above the portal to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi: Know thyself.


(Above: Ruins of the Delphic Oracle)

“Pin-ups in a shady purpose” This line gives the impression of people wanting things which aren’t what they seem, or have a sinister purpose lurking behind. Advertising? “All that diamond dust, blowing up your hopes” I love this line. Beyond the obvious cocaine reference, it recalls the consumerist stupor that we find ourselves in. Like some giant just sprinkled this magic dust on us all and hey presto we forgot about deeper issues, but instead are often inflated with vain, false hopes. What is it that we want? New iphone, big house, ridiculous car, girl like that one in that video, ice, drugs to escape, … what are these things? If you’re after knowledge of self, they’re just ‘flamboyant obstacles’. Even worse, and if we’re more truthful, they’re “deals made to cope” with the false selves that the larger society has convinced us is us. A most vicious circle. Creativity has been put on the back burner for most of us. That beautiful intuitive alive child we once were is buried under years of learning what to be, our innate creativity is “in recline”, a word which contrasts with what/who has “risen”: the lost. And he’s not pointing figures in an us-and-them type way. We need to start with the man in the mirror. We need to find that which has been lost. That’s been a key theme of Shabazz Palaces. “Find out who you are and free it”, and the recent song which is titled “Lost foundling”.

The first few lines of the first verse are self-explanatory. I especially like “dope in a can”, meaning how dopeness which is free (in both senses) and natural has become commodified and can now be bought in a handy container for your convenience.



“Chains off, still y’all never ran” is a vivid picture and beyond the obvious slavery reference which directs it at certain African Americans, it can be taken in a more general sense by all people. For many of us, the modern world gives us freedoms that our ancestors, toiling away in their lifelong jobs, never had. But what are we doing with all this freedom? The thug mentality then articulates, saying how “I brag, I boast, I kill, I coast, I toast to cake and crime.” ‘Cake’ I assume indicates luxury in Ish’s lexicon; it appears elsewhere in SP music.

“Doing the most, a stronger dose” just captures the extreme nature of our situation, the lengths we go to for our slice of cake. The next line is one of the song’s most memorable to me: “A king at leisure time”. The previous line about ‘chains off’ make you think of slaves, which we have all become to some extent and what is the opposite of a slave? That’s the whole point of this dilemma we’re in now. This new slavery isn’t about forcing us to do back-breaking work but it’s about sucking the life out of us by relentlessly feeding what Leonard Cohen memorably described as our ‘swollen appetites’. And I’m sure if we’re honest with ourselves we can all agree, no matter how aware or noble our intentions are, that we’re both “products and victims, to perpetuate this sickness” (that line’s from Belhaven Meridian by the way). You slave away at a job you don’t enjoy… what’s the reward? Well at leisure time you’re a king. You can sit on your couch in your castle, in front of a huge plasma tv with hundreds of channels at your fingertips, the web, every device you can imagine they’ll sell you if they can. Even the choice of the phrase “leisure time” is sharp- a term and concept invented by marketing men.



I’m lost with the rest of the verse, but “gang signs point to hang ‘em high” is interesting. At first it made me think of gang’s killing each other echoing lynchings by whites in the past. But also the phrase ‘hang ‘em high’ is short for “Hang ‘em high and leave ‘em dry” which is a sailing phrase meaning when a ship get’s stranded on dry land with no hope for recovery. With either reading, it’s a regret-filled observation on what is going on.

The last two lines show that with all these distractions, (‘my kiss’ = my lust/emotional wants; ‘my list’ = all that stuff I want; 'my dreams' = my vain hopes; ‘my stash’ = drugs, or escape/avoidance/denial mechanisms) it becomes possible to not even ask certain questions… namely:

Who am I?

To be continued….

PS: I realise that I’m making it sound a lot more ‘preachy’ than it is. This is a limitation with this kind of rational line by line ‘interpretation’ exercise/experiment. The great thing about it is that it’s music, so listen and say your feelings. Not just the lines where I couldn’t understand what he said, but also my readings might be totally different from others, and I’d like to know different ways of understanding this. Help.
PPS: Like the beat, the song lightens up towards the end so have no fear, check out part two of this post coming soon.

On the Method of Obtaining the Foremost Shabazz Palaces Work entitled "Barksdale Corners" and a Preliminary Attempt at Its Exegesis: Part I of II.

Listen to Barksdale Corners here.

I'm a bit late posting this story: an exclusive new Shabazz Palaces track called "Barksdale Corners" on palaceer pusher beat circa Now has been released as one side of 7-inch that came free with issue 4 of I Want You magazine (see 7-inch artwork above, by davidope). I Want You is a quarterly art magazine. Each issue is full color, large format (9.5″ x 13.25″) and limited to 1,000 copies. Current issues are always FREE. Being free means you still pay postage of $5 but it's well worth it for this mindbending track and some art too some of which is fine. Needless to say the fact it's by SP, is limited to 100 copies, and is made from tastful mauve-coloured vinyl means future generations will be losing their inheritances when the odd copy surfaces on ebay. As for the song, it is just too much. How can I describe that which has never been heard or dreamed of? You can hear it for yourself. What I can say is that it most convincingly throws you into its own universe, which I've tried to explore below in my discussion of the lyrics. The b-side is by someone called Stellar Om Source (who also makes beautiful art) and is fittingly transcendental too. "Barksdale" refers to Avon Barksdale, a drug dealer character from the TV show The Wire (pictured below), and the song is just something else. An attempt at lyrical transcription has been made below, but I ask for your help dear readers, since as ever Lazaro's words don't reveal themselves without some effort on behalf of more than one listener.


Barksdale Corners - Lyrics

[First Verse]
Let's make it a place to go.
With a hundred new styles we'll shine.
Drop shadowy zebra print. [?]
The white horse with the wings to fly.
Make it a time to move.
Twist the knives for the place to go.
The black light will illuminate the sound,
and pushers on blocks will run.

[Chorus]
System. I'm up in your system. System. (x2)
System. I’m up in the system. System. (x4)

[Second Verse]
Lights slice across the set
Gold dice tumble towards the riches off my bets
Crashing institutions, shooting eastward in a jet
A revolution down to the glitches in our sets
Threats try to pose
The flash froze em cold
Gold never fold
Royal colours gettin rogue [rolled?]
Flights book, rice cooks, ice looks dazzling
Seats on the lay back, time on javelins

I rock the brunos in a varied tone
Wavy like a herring bone
My shades boast the ice glaze
My Tacomas is cherry chrome
I stays the ???
???-delic
The styles in a plasma charisma
That's what's selling.
We snuck the choppers hundred-fifty clicks on camels
Holy Land mercenaries' blood oaths we bound to.
The fixer's villa, it overlooks the channel,
He promised he could touch the judge before he dropped his gavel.
Gun point straight while Sway test the powder
1.8, beast'd estimate the value.
Red rooms, black lights, cross indigo carpets
We ghettoize the market,
fraternize in utter sharpness
We watch you white lights making sparkles in the furnace
It's midnight down here though so you get swallowed up in darkness

Automatic push-button remote control,
Synthetic genetics commands your soul.


Thoughts

The first verse starts with a call to “make it a place to go.” What does “it” refer to? Perhaps it’s the corners that an Avon Barksdale fights with other drug dealers over. How many neighbourhoods around the world are infested with drug crime? Though the track at first listen appears to reference a glamorous and dangerous culture of international organized crime, that’s just part of the genius of it. To many (poor) reviewers, Cherrywine was just an extended to ode to ‘bitches, gangstas, and cocaine’! But for those willing to listen, there’s also a powerful message: let’s get better. Let’s make these corners a place to go, instead of somewhere to buy crack. “A hundred new styles” implying the creativity that’s needed in order for “us (the African American community?) to shine”. But how? “The white horse with the wings to fly” is a clue. Such a beast is also featured on the artwork in the inlay card of Eagles Soar, Oil Flows. It is none other than Buraq, (see fanciful 17th-century Mughal representation below) the winged horse that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) mounted before the Night Journey (Al-Israa wal-Mi’raaj) and ascended the seven heavens until the Lote Tree of the furthest boundary, into the direct presence of Allah. This connection with Islam brings to mind the stories one reads periodically about African American communities embracing Islam and forthwith ridding their communities of crack houses, brothels, and drug dealers in instances of vigilante community-level justice. A famous example was the cleaning up of part of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn under the leadership of Imam Siraj Wahhaj (photo below), may his life be extended.



“Make it a time to move” continues the sense of urgency Lazaro understands is necessary to bring about such a change. I can’t make much of “twist the knives for the place to go” other than the possibility that things will necessarily get worse before they get better. But hopefully “the black light will illuminate the sound, and pushers on blocks will run.” Now they run from blue cop lights only to return before long, but only when black light illuminates the scene, perhaps meaning change from within, will things be transformed for good.



The chorus is my favourite thing: I’ve never heard that kind of vocal sound effect. The different voices he uses each time allude to the different meanings of system. First it’s “your system” and as you listen with earphones plugged, bass drum thumping, synth lines pursuing their slow, demented wobble, there’s no doubt he is in your system. But then it’s “the system”, bringing to mind the way in which this music was released. No mention of who it was, no publicity whatsoever, nothing. They just put it out there and sat back as it infiltrated the system. This gloating tone is contrasted yet again with a third possible way in which to take the words, as the voice becomes childlike: an existential rumination on being. Oddly enough, I exist in this reality. I’m up in the system.

To be continued...

Q: Could the white horse not refer to Pegasus?
A: I have not discounted that idea. Buraq is more likely I think because of the other Islamic symbols in the EPs' artwork, however Pegasus also ascended to heaven at some point, so the idea of elevation is still there. Incidentally, from the 'renaissance' onwards, Pegasus came to symbolise poetry.

The Names - I

The Shabazz Palaces EPs that were released in 2009 have titles, although few know them. It's commonly supposed that the one with the 'palace' logo is simply self-titled, while the one with the sword logo is called 'of light', due to the words Shabazz Palaces of Light on the spine. In fact, the names of the EPs are to be found on the back flaps, in Arabic. As for the 'self-titled' EP, the words translate to Eagles Soar, Oil Flows. The 'Of Light' EP is simply named The Seven New.

Eagles Soar, Oil Flows

There are many ways we could read this. Most obviously, it's a summation of the age we live in, one dominated by the empire's geopolitical designs. In this reading, the eagle symbolises the empire, which invades countries, topples elected leaders, and maintains tyrants in power in order to secure a 'strategic advantage'. While others fly low having had their wings clipped (or ripped off), the empire is able to soar far above. The reason? Oil.



It might remind you of a lyric from one of SP's songs: "One eagle, a billion crows" which in turn is reminiscent of a lyric from Sleep Pretty Girl by Cherrywine: "For every playground, there's ten empty lots".

The reason why this title works so well, however, is its 'elemental' power. That seems to me to be a key adjective to describe SP's sound. Raw. Primal. Furious. And what bird is more elemental than the Eagle? S H Nasr points out the poverty of the modern scientistic way of viewing the world that equates reliable knowledge only with empirical science by asking that because the Native Americans didn't dissect and study the Eagle in a laboratory, should we then conclude that they didn't know anything about the creature that was central to their deepest beliefs? They knew. Because their hearts were open to the metaphysical realm, and after all man needs art because it is provides an avenue through which we can connect to this beyond and thus transcend our physical form and fulfill our true potential.



Oil likewise is an elemental substance whose composition is full of meaning. What is it made from? Countless dead animals, plants, and minerals that changed form over millions of years. Life has died to create it, and as we see today, lives are being lost in chasing it and extracting its precious hydrocarbons. But while the lives lost in its creation were those of lesser life-forms, and happened naturally over eons, the lives lost in its extraction are those of humans, and their deaths are abrupt, unnatural, and needless.

In a Cherrywine interview, Lazaro said of See For Miles (with its baffling refrain of "cocaine's coming") that the thing about cocaine is that "it's so white. When you start thinking about that, the connotations get real real heavy." One might likewise say, the thing about crude oil is that it's so black.

The choice of verbs too is interesting. Soaring and flowing represent effortlessness. This is a quality that we all associate with genius in every field, not least of which, art. Many artists are good, but to be great (or a genius) you have to exhibit effortlessness born from some intangible 'divine instinct' whose source is cloaked in mystery, although light is a good place to start.


Q: Did SP choose Arabic for the EP titles just because it looks cool?
A: There is more to it than that. On a general level, writing something in a language the audience generally doesn't understand encourages us to ask someone who knows. In the case of Arabic, its speakers (and Muslims generally) are being attacked and vilified today just as other groups were previously. The empire's propaganda machine tells us what to think of them. But what if we actually spoke to that Arabic girl in our class, or the guy in the shop, and got to know them? In an age where friends are more likely to sit round a coffee table each staring into a computer/phone/ipad screen this is a wake up call. It was after dinner with some brothers one of whom was an Arabist that we translated the names, and it was great fun! Initially we translated it as Oil Pours Eagles Circle, (Arabic words can have several meanings) the initials of which are OPEC! But after hearing the words "eagles soar n' oil flows, we will pay back what they owe" in one song, the truth was uncovered.

[To be continued...]

Who am I?

Graham from The Scroll of Bifurcating Considerations website has penned a nice piece on the chorus to Find Out, showing how it echoes Nietzsche in the belief that we shall 'become ourselves'. It's a thought-provoking analysis and I'm sure Ish knows Nietzsche (I don't) but "You shall become the person you are" seems a decidedly modern European sentiment. Let's contrast that with an aphorism this time from a non-European tradition, by Abdul Hakim Murad (aka Timothy Winter, Lecturer in Divinity at the University of Cambridge): "Islam is not about ‘being yourself’; it is about improving yourself."

The monoculture loves this vague notion of 'finding oneself'; it's a cliche, the man who drops his everyday life and goes off wandering aimlessly to 'find himself'. The idea is that we have the 'real me' buried deep within and that if we travel enough or immerse ourselves in whatever our 'self' tells us it wants for long enough, we'll be there. But what is this 'self' we're being commanded to? Big question, but don't we all feel the self has many possibilities? For practical purposes we could say we have a higher possibility and a lower possibility. "Find out", then, in the sense of transcend your lower possibility, reach for your celestial self. I read an interview with Ish once where he distilled his philosophy. If memory serves it was "elevate. relate. enlighten". Elevation and transcendence are at the heart of all true art and all authentic religion. It's an epic battle to turn your back on that lower possibility. You feel a "pain in your neck, comes from staring at stars" but who said transcendence was easy? Moreover, as another of Shabazz's themes remind us, "ain't promised daylight". Life is fast. My friend's little brother passed away in his sleep a few months ago, he was 24 years old, healthy, and happy. But his heart simply stopped beating and that was that.

Find out. The urgency with which he repeats those words is palpable. The monoculture or "depraved devil's heart system", with its marketing men will welcome the ego and ensure it stays super-sized, but listen to the chorus again. The emphasis is on those two words "find out", not on "you" or "love" or "want" or "need". Ish is clearly taking the spotlight off the ego and its desires and shining it onto the path.

The second part of Graham's piece is about how if you look at the last word of each line in the chorus it can be reread in fascinating ways. This is beautiful. I realised the same thing when I transcribed the lyrics to Rebirth of Slick ten years ago for the sole Digable Planets website during that maddening dry spell. The first words of the first eight lines are: we, them, us, you, he, she, our, they; and of the next eight: who, where, why, when, what, how, was, and finally after all those questions, "'cause". Repeated listens can reveal new musical details and that has always been true of Ish's work, but to me the amazing thing was just finding out more about life, black music, african-american history, and thus finally 'getting' many of (though still nowhere near all) those references on Blowout Comb for instance. Transcribing lyrics has to be added as a third way in which we can engage with these messages.

Q: What's wrong with going off wandering?
A: Don't get me wrong; I'm all for wandering and getting free but if it's an important journey you have to know where you're going or you might get lost!

Q: Where can I find the interview with that quotation from Butterfly?
A: Brian Coleman's Check the Technique: Liner notes for hip-hop junkies (Villard Books, 2007) Its illuminating interview has Butterfly and Doodlebug speaking on what was going on around the time Reachin' came together.

This Time... Can Blow Your Mind

I'd forgotten how beautiful this song was: In Here feat. Nia Long from the never-released Ishmael Since 1999 LP. I know there are some promo copies around so if anyone knows how I could obtain or at least hear it please let me know... reading the press release on the old Red Ant Records site was as far as we got. I recall it was co-produced by a Marcel Sanders, and that Ish "wanted the songs to sound like the beginning of the world." A suitable feel for what was to be his rebirth as a solo artist, and perfectly describes the vibe of the few tracks I have heard.

Ish's ability to paint a picture with so many details while keeping an overall harmony is bewildering. Listen to this song: the disillusionment with 'the world' in the first few verses, the mystical/paradisal aspect as "something frozen slides in place", the emotions build up as she listens to his bitter reflections on life before trying to finally reassure him "I'm not going anywhere", at which point the guitar kicks in and man and woman come together as they've always done. No words, just vibrating electric strings making waves. This time can blow your mind, but we've also been given a sanctuary from all that. Coming back down to earth, the last verse can only be one of promise, of fidelity, which is another word for faith. We can't control much of what's outside but our hearts remain our private garden, to either neglect or nurture. There are so many other things about this song that amaze me but which I lack the eloquence to articulate. A true love song.

In Here lyrics:

A thousand plans, a million dreams
The slow crash of everything
The babies know all the words to sing
Spotlight burning down the kings
Out there

Twisting up the shiny wheels
Love kills, fake is real
Can't forget you dollar bill
Everyone'll cut a deal
Out there

It's wild in the rats race
We trying to win and beat the case
Famous(?) leave without a trace
Something frozen slides in place
Out there

It all happens razor fast
Waiting for your chance to blast
Trade love for fun and dough for trust
Ash to cash and dust to dust
Out there

This time
Can blow your mind

But you won't lie and I won't flee
We rich, we broke, we trapped, we free
And I won't lie and you won't freeze
We rich, we broke, we trapped, we free
And we can solve this mystery
Then me is you and you'll be me
In here