Shabazz Palaces - Myths Of The Occult (feat. Japreme Magnetic)

JUL 01 2024 · 12:00

Shabazz Palaces - Myths Of The Occult (feat. Japreme Magnetic) (2024) Director: Stephan Gray Era: Afrofuturist Experimental Hip-Hop Era (2020s) - Mid-2020s Sub Pop avant-garde rap, defined by cosmic abstraction, DIY Afrofuturism, and the Seattle Black Constellation collective aesthetic. Significant as a document of one of contemporary American experimental hip-hop's most consistently innovative artists at a peak of late-career prolificacy. The quantitative profile, extreme low-brightness (43.88/255), near-static motion (4.92), slow edit pace, produces a rare visual artifact that resists the kinetic grammar of mainstream music video in favor of meditative immersion. Preserves the aesthetic of the Exotic Birds of Prey campaign and the Black Constellation visual universe for archival purposes. Context: Released February 5, 2024 as a single from the mini-album 'Exotic Birds of Prey' (Sub Pop, March 29, 2024), 'Myths of the Occult' arrives during a prolific late-career phase for Ishmael Butler's Shabazz Palaces project, following hard on October 2023's 'Robed in Rareness.' The album cross-pollinates shoegaze, ambient music, twisted electro, and funk into Butler's established Afrofuturist framework. The track features DC rapper Japreme Magnetic and stands out within the album for its comparatively direct rapping style. Butler's work in this era is anchored in the Seattle Black Constellation collective, a network of musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers that has shaped the aesthetic of multiple Shabazz Palaces visual releases. The video's dark, contemplative palette visually embodies the esoteric, occult-adjacent thematic world suggested by the song's title. Director notes: No source directly credits Gray for 'Myths of the Occult' specifically. However, a 2024 Passion of the Weiss interview (passionweiss.com) describes Gray explicitly as 'Shabazz Palaces music video director and friend' of Ishmael Butler, and notes Butler's ongoing creative collaboration with Gray. Gray is confirmed as director of other Exotic Birds of Prey-era visuals via the Spanish-language outlet digger.mx, which credits 'la dirección de Stephan Gray' for the era's visual output. IMVDb credits Gray as director of at least three Shabazz Palaces videos. Absent a direct per-video credit for 'Myths of the Occult,' the attribution is categorized as likely rather than confirmed.