The scheduling of pitchfork seemed quite odd to me. On Sunday, there were two hip hop shows, and somehow they were left overlapping. After much deliberation, I decided to be that ass hole who gets as close as he can to Odd Future only to leave after three songs to catch as much Shabazz as I could.

In reality, I have never listened much to Odd Future, except for reading about hipster feminists bitch about their lyrics, which seemed to only increase OF’s coverage (yay for ironies). Well, that bitching was well-founded in reality, as they merely repeated “I smack a bitch” numerous times over heavy beats. I didn’t see the deeper meaning, except perhaps that these dudes are probably not who I would want my sister with.

Goodbye Odd Future, hello Shabazz Palaces.

Shabazz Palaces, it must be said, has a fuckin’ legit new album out that you should listen to. He’s got a sick flow with a unique voice over some artistic but also heavy beats—a perfect combination in my book that is rarely successfully executed. The live show did not disappoint. Butterfly performed his album live with the same calm, chill demeanor I would expect from a dude who has been in the game for awhile (though this is the first LP as Shabazz). He kept the tracks flowing with minimal banter in between. The crowd itself was somewhat a fish out of water with a bunch of people standing around who seemed to enjoy it but not be able to break the chains of hipster cooldom. Even my companion found herself unwilling to leave the comfort of the outer shade to enter the crowd to see what that environment felt like. I entered the masses only to find myself as one of the few who actively engaged with the music by bouncing my head, feet, and yes, perhaps even a bit more.

Check out the recorded version of Are You… Can You… Were You? (Felt).