“This shit is gorgeous” snarls Palaceer Lazaro on “Youlogy”, beginning the hardest, most accessible, and structurally schizophrenic song on Shabazz Palaces’s debut album Black Up. It’s a declaration of understanding what he’s 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 hip-hop 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 hip-hop 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 “Swerve…The Reeping Of All That Is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding)”, a Boosiean edit overtakes the middle hook; high- and low-pitched 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 album’s 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 modern-day mainstream hip-hop. Black Up is pure, perfect, and positive. This shit is gorgeous

10/10

Other hip-hop releases of note this week:
Caleborate - Winter Break | 7.4/10
Chevy Woods - Gangland 3 | 6.1/10
Doomtree- All Hands | 7.0/10
Mike G - Award Tour II EP| 5.6/10
Young Scooter - Juug Season | 7.8/10
2 Chainz - T.R.U. (The Real University)| 6.8/10