Shabazz Palaces San Francisco Tickets, The Chapel, 01 May 2026

On sale for 1 week

Event is in 2 weeks

Line-up

Headliner
Shabazz Palaces Last time in SF Bay Area: 2 years ago

Venue

The Chapel

777 Valencia Street, 94110, San Francisco, CA, US

www.thechapelsf.com/

Capacity: 500

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Additional details

Doors open: 21:00

Price: US $30.00 – US $35.00

Concert in your area for Hip-Hop and Folk & Blues.

Find out more about Hip-Hop.

Shabazz Palaces biography

Shabazz Palaces are an experiential hip-hop duo from Seattle, US, led by Digable Planets member Ishmael Butler (aka Palaceer Lazaro) and multi-instrumentalist Tendai "Baba" Maraire.

The group has been shrouded in mystery ever since their first recordings were released. In 2009, they released two EPs, a self-titled release and "Of Light" however the identity of the creators of the project was not revealed, with no accompanying promotional material and no presence on social networking sites. But despite their elusiveness, these recordings garnered significant praise from the local press, becoming favourites of the Sub Pop office, who went on to track the duo down and sign the to their label; the first hip-hop act to be signed to Sub Pop, a label predominantly focussing on alternative rock releases.

Following this, their debut album was released, titled "Black Up" in 2011, receiving wide critical acclaim and becoming an underground hit. It was revealed who was behind the music, with Ishmael Butler providing the lyrics and vocals and Tendai Maraire, son of famous mbar player Dumisani Mararie, providing the instrumentation for the track. The album was listed number one in a Seattle Times review of album releases in 2011.

Whilst maintaining the progressive lyrical wordplay of Digable Planets, Shabazz Palaces had a darker, more hard-hitting sound, creating complex soundscapes full of depth and innovation. Following their debut album, the duo remained relatively quiet, although they appeared on an AwE NaturalE track for his debut album, as well as contributing a track to Flying lotus' 2013 mixture "Ideas+Drafts+Loops." In 2014, they released their second record, "Lese Majesty," again released on Sub Pop, continuing to progress their unique and innovative sound.

Live reviews

Shabazz Palaces is the duo of Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire (although they describe themselves as a collective) from Seattle. I’d heard Shabazz Palaces before, without realising, on a mixtape that I obsessed with for a month or two a few years back. So it was a pleasant surprise when I belatedly picked up their 2011 album ‘Black Up’ and heard ‘Yeah You’ (which had been on the mixtape). I was even more pleased to find out they’d be playing at XOYO London. I heard someone once describe their music as ‘dystopian rap’, which sounds about right. It’s driving and brooding, and has drawn comparisons with Odd Future and Flying Lotus, which is perhaps the right ballpark but Shabazz Palaces has more of a dubstep starkness about it. Anway, given the production on ‘Black Up’ I was wondering how they’d recreate that live and how much of it would be already canned. Maraire was stood behind a set of congas and part of a drum kit, as well as a drum machine set up on a table, and switched between them as well as singing backing vocals. He also played the mbira, an african thumb piano which is featured on ‘Black Up’. Butler was electric, a seasoned frontman, who from behind his rig of laptop, drum machine and effects units delivered ‘Swerve…’, ‘free press and curl’, ‘Youology’, along with a few cuts from their earlier EPs. There was none of this “put your hands in the air” nonsense, it was just the pure dark energy of the music keeping everyone moving.

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