LIVE: Shabazz Palaces at Soul Of Brooklyn Festival

The Museum For Contemporary African Disaporan Arts (or MOCADA for short) brought kicked off their Soul of Brooklyn festival in Cuyler Gore Parkin Fort Greene. The week long event (capped off with the Afropunk Festival) started off with vendors selling African styled art and clothes along with Sub Pop signees (home of little known bands like Soundgarden and Nirvana) Shabazz Palaces.

In a live setting Shabazz Palaces differentiates themselves from the rest of the hip-hop pack with how spontaneous they are. Songs on the album that were relatively straightforward grew longer; they churned and stopped at random points. The natural way they used electronics along with live instrumentation (such as the mbira) made the show feel like a organic take on experimental music.

Their label mates, the neo-soul heavy female duo THEESatisfaction, helped by warming the crowd up with a DJ set and even popped on stage for a live rendition of their collaboration with the band “Endeavors for Never”. If you wanted to go to a rave but still get some head nodding hip-hop shit (mixed in with a few pro-black raps) you were in heaven. Shoot, if you liked good music period you were in heaven.