Shabazz Palaces announces mini-album Exotic Birds of Prey

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.