Shabazz Palaces Announces New Album It’s A Style Sport: Hear “Ahh World (I Won The Alphabet)”
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
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", set for release on Sub Pop Records. The record follows 2024's mini-album Exotic Birds Of Prey and the standalone single "Time Knows Me", continuing a project that began 15 years ago as a loose collective but now functions largely as Butler's solo vehicle, albeit one still built with the help of a rotating cast of collaborators.
The ten-track album was co-produced by Butler and longtime collaborator Erik Blood, who also contributed instrumentation, and was largely recorded during an eight-day session in Seattle featuring musicians including singer Marquette Miller, guitarist Thaddeus "Thaddillac" Turner, bassists Evan Flory-Barnes and Gerald "Tugboat" Turner, drummer Kassa Overall and saxophonist Carlos Overall. It's A Style Sport is due out on 23rd October, with lead single "Ahh World (I Won The Alpha Bet)" accompanied by an animated sci-fi video from director Jacob Kasar. Shabazz Palaces are also set to perform at clipping.'s Splendor & Misery Festival at the Knockdown Center in Queens.
- Shabazz Palaces announce new album "It's A Style Sport", out 23rd October on Sub Pop
- Ishmael Butler co-produced the ten-track LP with Erik Blood in Seattle
- Lead single "Ahh World" video released; band to play Queens festival show
New here? Start with this
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.