The Don Of Diamond Dreams - Shabazz Palaces: Review
Shabazz Palaces
is the Seattle pairing of rapper Ishmael Butler with producer Tendai aka "Baba". The Don Of Diamond Dreams is the projects first album in three years and it's first as a predominate solo project of Ishmael Butler, serving as producer, performer and primary song writer across the record.
Review By Lavender:
Back in 2011 Shabazz Palaces showed up with an absolute bang when they released their Sup Pop debut album Black Up. The creative song structures, heavy lyrical focus and rich instrumentals made for one of the more unique rap albums of the past decade, but they have only declined from there. 2014 brought the sophomore record from the duo Less Majesty and while I don't hate the record it is certainly less exciting then their debut. The real drop off comes with the pair of 2017 records Quazars vs. The Jealous Machines and Quazars: Born On A Gangster Star. While the latter is better than the formal neither of the records possess the creativity and unique sonic approach the duo once had, and their difficulty innovating results in their music being lost in a sea of old head rap style releases. I was admittedly pretty interested in this record because this was the first where Ishmael was taking over the project entirely as a solo effort. As a result the album has a stronger lyrics and conceptual approach than any before it, but the instrumentals and performances suffer in a way that is becoming predictable for Shabazz Palaces.
The record had two singles and by far the more standout cut was Chocolate Souffle. The beat is a slick sounding blend of natural and synthetic aesthetics and while the rapping is often so measured that it borders on spoken word the song is still exciting and the lyricism that's highlighted is effective. The only other track on the album that I have nothing but positive thoughts towards is the closing track Reg Walks By The Looking Glass. While I think the song is a strange choice for the closing song in the record sonically it is the only one of the lengthier songs on the record that actually lives up to its runtime. The track makes up a solid seven minutes with a jazzy breakdown right in the middle that swells like a composition all it's own before leading wonderfully back into the songs refrain.
My most common complaint of songs on the record is that the tracks simply go on for way too long and waste a bunch of time on the record. Fast Learner is decent and also has a feature to break up a little bit of its monotony. The track has a pretty psychedelic instrumental as well, but by the times it's 6 minute mark arrives the song has become super boring. Thanking The Girls is decent and has some cool rumbling percussion but ultimately unfolds in slow motion. It seems obvious to me that you could cut this song in half and make a better tune in almost every way. The worst of these offenders is Bad Bitch Walking a track that is 6 minutes long primarily because it spends nearly half it's time in a tedious and meaningless build-up. The beat is pretty slick and I genuinely enjoy the ethereal spoken word passages so it's a real shame that this track is more wasted time than not.
Wet was the only other song I enjoyed on the record but it is very out of place. For somebody like Ishmael that is such an old head this sounds like a song from a high school SoundCloud rapper who is big on TikTok. The chorus is extremely simple and has some silly adlibs, and the beat is instantly catchy with its rhythmic keys and snapping percussion. Despite the strangeness of the song appearing here as it does I do enjoy it.
Ad Ventures is a track that is iidt way too dry in the vocal department. The delivery is super lowkey and the mix buries it even further to the point where it is way too hard to hear and goes well beyond the appeal of lo-fi. The biggest mess on the entire record is Money Yoga with a beat that is on par with the super generic trap instrumentals that clearly inspired it and has almost no change whatsoever until some sliding synths enter way too late. Almost the entire sing is dedicated to an absolutely exhausting chorus like refrain and the entire first verse is just one line related over and over. I could see the last minute or two of the song being okay on it's own and those moments are the only thing that save the song from being a total disaster.
This record just honestly isn't that good. Way too many of its tracks ramble on well past the point where they have become stale and even at its peak creativity it is muddled and rarely all that impressive in any of its performances. While there are individual moments that remind me of better days from the project here and there even they seem more like a distant memory now than a solid connection. 4.5/10
Review By Lavender:
Back in 2011 Shabazz Palaces showed up with an absolute bang when they released their Sup Pop debut album Black Up. The creative song structures, heavy lyrical focus and rich instrumentals made for one of the more unique rap albums of the past decade, but they have only declined from there. 2014 brought the sophomore record from the duo Less Majesty and while I don't hate the record it is certainly less exciting then their debut. The real drop off comes with the pair of 2017 records Quazars vs. The Jealous Machines and Quazars: Born On A Gangster Star. While the latter is better than the formal neither of the records possess the creativity and unique sonic approach the duo once had, and their difficulty innovating results in their music being lost in a sea of old head rap style releases. I was admittedly pretty interested in this record because this was the first where Ishmael was taking over the project entirely as a solo effort. As a result the album has a stronger lyrics and conceptual approach than any before it, but the instrumentals and performances suffer in a way that is becoming predictable for Shabazz Palaces.
The record had two singles and by far the more standout cut was Chocolate Souffle. The beat is a slick sounding blend of natural and synthetic aesthetics and while the rapping is often so measured that it borders on spoken word the song is still exciting and the lyricism that's highlighted is effective. The only other track on the album that I have nothing but positive thoughts towards is the closing track Reg Walks By The Looking Glass. While I think the song is a strange choice for the closing song in the record sonically it is the only one of the lengthier songs on the record that actually lives up to its runtime. The track makes up a solid seven minutes with a jazzy breakdown right in the middle that swells like a composition all it's own before leading wonderfully back into the songs refrain.
My most common complaint of songs on the record is that the tracks simply go on for way too long and waste a bunch of time on the record. Fast Learner is decent and also has a feature to break up a little bit of its monotony. The track has a pretty psychedelic instrumental as well, but by the times it's 6 minute mark arrives the song has become super boring. Thanking The Girls is decent and has some cool rumbling percussion but ultimately unfolds in slow motion. It seems obvious to me that you could cut this song in half and make a better tune in almost every way. The worst of these offenders is Bad Bitch Walking a track that is 6 minutes long primarily because it spends nearly half it's time in a tedious and meaningless build-up. The beat is pretty slick and I genuinely enjoy the ethereal spoken word passages so it's a real shame that this track is more wasted time than not.
Wet was the only other song I enjoyed on the record but it is very out of place. For somebody like Ishmael that is such an old head this sounds like a song from a high school SoundCloud rapper who is big on TikTok. The chorus is extremely simple and has some silly adlibs, and the beat is instantly catchy with its rhythmic keys and snapping percussion. Despite the strangeness of the song appearing here as it does I do enjoy it.
Ad Ventures is a track that is iidt way too dry in the vocal department. The delivery is super lowkey and the mix buries it even further to the point where it is way too hard to hear and goes well beyond the appeal of lo-fi. The biggest mess on the entire record is Money Yoga with a beat that is on par with the super generic trap instrumentals that clearly inspired it and has almost no change whatsoever until some sliding synths enter way too late. Almost the entire sing is dedicated to an absolutely exhausting chorus like refrain and the entire first verse is just one line related over and over. I could see the last minute or two of the song being okay on it's own and those moments are the only thing that save the song from being a total disaster.
This record just honestly isn't that good. Way too many of its tracks ramble on well past the point where they have become stale and even at its peak creativity it is muddled and rarely all that impressive in any of its performances. While there are individual moments that remind me of better days from the project here and there even they seem more like a distant memory now than a solid connection. 4.5/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson: This is a cool mix of patterns and my eyes can't seem to focus on one aspect of the image, although in this case it can be a bad thing. While the mixture is good it seems too heavy and needs something to show that there is excitement in the music. Also the hard flash look rarely works for everyone and Shabazz Palaces isn't exempt from this fact. 3/10
For more old school hip hop check out my review of Jay Electronica's A Written Testimony here
