This shit is gorgeous snarls Palaceer Lazaro on Youlogy, beginning the hardest, most accessible, and structurally schizophrenic song on Shabazz Palacess debut album Black Up. Its a declaration of understanding what hes created, and in a year when Kanye and Jay Z openly proclaimed This is black excellence, the unassuming Black Up preferred to lead by example. Finding a release so flawlessly, quintessentially hiphop in a year starting with a 2 that simultaneously sounds like nothing else before it is a rarefied category reserved only for Stankonia, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and this album in a week where hiphop underwhelmed and no albums I listened to earned over an 8.0, I feel a responsibility to expose the readers to 36 minutes of irresistible brilliance The most enticing aspect of Black Up, undoubtedly, remains its ability to show off intricately detailed production and frequent shifts in song directions all while flowing so effortlessly that a listen through finds kin in the serenity of a lazy river and the unexpectedness of highway hypnosis the end emerges sooner than you thought. When you listen actively, however, an even more rewarding experience occurs. Goosebumps and adrenaline rushes are to be found in each song, with chants reaffirming the self occurring throughout the album. This is as human as an album can be, void of pretentious metaphors in the place of accurately portraying the human experience. And in doing so, they use every weapon at their disposal Complementing the myriad instruments highlighted throughout the work, from standard synth gulps to subdued drum sets, from marimbas to orchestral compositions, stands the most powerful instrument of all, the human voice. Over the aforementioned marimbas, the wailing of a distorted voice echoes on closing track SwerveThe Reeping Of All That Is Worthwhile Noir Not Withstanding, a Boosiean edit overtakes the middle hook high and lowpitched edits are interspersed to emphasize certain words. For Black Up, what is being said shares importance with how it is being said And, finally, who is saying it. To talk about Black Up without speaking to the message of, simply, black, up! would be an awful mistake. Throughout the album, the influence of Africa permeates, from the repetition of the Ethiopian word konjo, or beautiful, following the desire, Get lucked out, wish I was in Africa on opener Free press and curl to the albums final minute, a repetitive proclamation of Black is you Black is me Black is us Black is free. Lazaro and guest vocalists THEESatisfaction embrace their roots and culture and give back tenfold. Nowhere on the album is found the destructive trappings of modernday mainstream hiphop. Black Up is pure, perfect, and positive. This shit is gorgeous 1010 Other hiphop releases of note this week Caleborate Winter Break 7.410 Chevy Woods Gangland 3 6.110 Doomtree All Hands 7.010 Mike G Award Tour II EP 5.610 Young Scooter Juug Season 7.810 2 Chainz T.R.U. The Real University 6.810
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