Ishmael Butler (Shabazz Palaces) has announced a mini-album called Exotic Birds of Prey, the follow-up to his October 2023 LP, Robed In Rareness. News of the forthcoming, seven-track tape arrives alongside the project’s lead single, “Angela,” featuring chopped archival broadcast footage describing the song’s title character as a “female gangster” killed in a foiled robbery, as well as digital jazz drumming, a slinky bass line, a denaturing vocal loop, soft-spoken bars from Stas THEE Boss that evoke Butler’s fellow Digable Planet Ladybug Mecca before moving into less charted territory later in the track, and eerie, sing-song interludes from Dust Moth’s Irene Barber.
Listen to “Angela” below, and scroll further for Exotic Birds of Prey’s cover art and tracklist.
Exotic Birds of Prey album art and tracklist
1. Exotic BOP (feat. Purple Tape Nate)
2. Angela (feat. Stas THEE Boss & Irene Barber)
3. Myths Of The Occult (feat. Japreme Magnetic)
4. Goat Me (feat. Cobra Coil)
5. Well Known Nobody (feat. OCnotes)
6. Synth Dirt
7. Take Me To Your Leader (feat. Lavarr the Starr)