Shabazz Palaces – Black Up

heavyweight sound, ahead of it's time & an album i still return to a decade on

this is available for pretty cheap/retail on the SubPop store. Just received mine. Don’t overpay

I peeled off the subpop sticker on the front of the sleeve and found a sticker below. It read "Fatbeats exclusive. Limited edition of 500 on swerve red vinyl"

Not sure if that 500 count is accurate but I'd be surprised if it wasn't.

Pressing is great though. As reported by other listeners though, the packaging is the same as the original 2011 release.

a few minor problems with this one.

outer sleeve is totally flat like an inner sleeve. makes for a tight fit with mofi style inner sleeves. the original release appears to be the same so this is just how it has to be with this album.

where's my black smoke? my record has only a few tiny splashes of black.

All that out of the way, it plays fine and is a great album.

got the new version of this (red one) and lmao at the outer sleeve. its basically an inner sleeve. at least it was cheap and i like the music lol

seems like these have issues playing from side a, after a few seconds of play it’ll speed up and warble but goes back to normal if u stop and play again. both of my copies have this issue. plays both sides perfectly from side b using an autoreverse player.

An amazing album, a superb artwork, I absolutely love Shabazz Palaces

As soon as I heard this album, especially "An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum" and "Are You… Can You… Were You?" , I was hooked. With ambient influences and glitchy/experimental sprinkled throughout the tracks, it's a must listen if you are into Alternative or Conscious hip-hop.

Best hip-hop record of 2011, bar none. I feel this is what Dr. Octagon meant by 'from the year 3000'. Seriously futuristic space rap - hype!