Radar: Shabazz Palaces at Kazimier

Tight rhymes, smart beats and wrap-around sounds - little wonder Shabazz Palaces are destroying all pretenders to the throne right now.

With their wide-screen sonic templates and Seattle grit, some say Shabazz Palaces represent the bright new future of hip-hop. We say they’re this good because they ain’t forgotten their history. The collective is the work of Palaceer Lazaro, aka Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler of Grammy-winning NYC troupe Digable Planets.

Their rhymes and beats owe as much to Run DMC as they do to Deltron 3030. But their sound, well, that’s sort of in a league of its own. There’s inventiveness to spare here, among the stormy, cut’n'spliced drums, analogue synths and funky brass. Jazzy, messy, urgent and, yeah, a little grungey…little wonder Subpop snapped them up. The future of hip-hop? Don’t bet against it.