Shabazz Palaces Announces New Album It’s A Style Sport: Hear “Ahh World (I Won The Alphabet)”
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Shabazz Palaces, the Seattle art-rap project led by Digable Planets member Ishmael Butler, has announced a new album titled "It's A Style Sport", due out on Sub Pop Records. The record follows 2024's mini-album Exotic Birds Of Prey and the standalone single "Time Knows Me", marking the latest release in Butler's now largely solo-driven project that still draws on a rotating cast of collaborators.
The album was co-produced by Butler with longtime collaborator Erik Blood, who also contributed instrumentation, and was largely recorded during an eight-day session in Seattle with contributions from several musicians including singer Marquette Miller and drummer Kassa Overall. It's A Style Sport is set for release on 23rd October and features ten tracks, with lead single "Ahh World (I Won The Alpha Bet)" accompanied by an animated sci-fi video. Shabazz Palaces are also due to perform at clipping.'s Splendor & Misery Festival in Queens, New York, this Thursday.
- Shabazz Palaces announce new album "It's A Style Sport", out 23 October
- Album co-produced by Ishmael Butler and Erik Blood on Sub Pop
- New single "Ahh World (I Won The Alpha Bet)" released with animated video
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Shabazz Palaces is the long-running Seattle project fronted by Ishmael Butler, a rapper best known for his earlier work with the group Digable Planets. Once a duo, it now functions largely as Butler's solo vehicle, though he continues to work with a shifting group of musicians and producers on each release. The project is known for atmospheric, experimental hip-hop that sits outside the mainstream of the genre.
The music is released through Sub Pop Records, a Seattle label historically associated with alternative and independent music. Butler's regular collaborator on production is Erik Blood, who also plays instruments on the recordings, and past albums have drawn on contributions from various guest musicians and vocalists.
This kind of announcement matters to followers of the project because Shabazz Palaces albums tend to arrive irregularly and each one is treated as a distinct artistic statement rather than a predictable follow-up. The wider context includes other independent and experimental hip-hop artists, such as the group clipping., whose members overlap with similar underground scenes and events.
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