Shabazz Palaces- Black Up

There are two kinds of hip hop listeners: those that listen to lyrics and those that listen to beats. I fall into the former category. I love reading the lyrics. I even like memorizing lyrics, everything from Rakim to “Alphabet Aerobics.” I was comfortable calling myself a lyrics man, that is until I found myself three quarters through this album without having paid attention to any of the lyrics.

This puts me in the awkward position of having to describe something for which I have no words. If you want to hear about rhyme and flow, I can talk until the cows come home. But if you want to talk about beats and rhythms I find myself speechless. So now I have no other recourse but to try and invent the vocabulary I’ll have to use. It’s like hand carving a new material and having to craft one’s tools at the same time.

I would describe these beats as “creeping.” I use that word to try and evoke an image of slow forward motion, like a tiger stalking its prey. What I mean by forward motion, is that the beats, when they were produced, were made so that each individual beat leaned into each other, one leading to another. This leaning means that there is always a feeling of going somewhere, but there is never any arriving.

The other word I’d use to describe these beats is “infectious.” They work their way into your head, under your skin, insinuating rather than demanding so that you find yourself nodding along without realizing what you’re doing. The reason for this phenomenon is that sense of slow forward momentum. The album is the lazy river, and you’re on an inner tube. It doesn’t assert itself too much so you don’t even notice you’re moving, but you’re caught up in the current.

And that’s not to say that the lyrics are great! They are! It’s not as if the beats overshadow the lyrics, more the beats lure you in, then once the album is over you say “There was so much I missed! What about the lyrics?” So you dive back in. This is all to say that this album invites many relistens, just to try and take it all in.

4/5 If you like hip hop, check out this album. If you like jazz, check out this album. If you don’t like this either, check out some of it anyway. Take a sip, and you’ll see that this album goes down as smooth as fifty year old whiskey.