Ex-Digable Planets rapper challenges Tyler, The Creator.

Wham bam! ‘Black Up’ - by relatively brand new hip-hop collective Shabazz Palaces - is quite an uppercut! This group was the first rap act to reside on the rather guitar-oriented Sub Pop record label. Shabazz who? Behind Shabazz Palaces you will find none less than Palaceer Lazaro, or rather Ishmael Butler from the no-longer-existing but ever excellent rap act Digable Planets (that fused jazz with hip-hop in the early '90's). Their debut ‘Black Up’ is an inspiring avant garde hip-hop album that is rather darkly tinted by sparing beats and militant raps. Humo about it: “Tyler, the Creator probably won't give a shit but he can forget about the trophy for Most Exciting Hip-Hop Album 2011.” And we can only agree. For the first time in Belgium.

Support act will be Hasselt resident and laptop-artist Ninjato. We saw him at work recently during 'Groot Geweld' in AB and were seriously impressed. "Intense, persistent beats with a solid injection of Flying Lotus" went through our mind at the time. Ninjato - his nom de plume refers to the sword worn by the ninjas, in their day – studied at the PHL Pop and Rock School in Hasselt and makes no secret of his love of Flying Lotus, Eskmo and Amon Tobin. In '08 he established Caoutchou Records with a few friends from Ghent, with a focus on underground electronica. While you're googling anyway: surf over to www.vi.be and check out Ninjato's unrecognizable remake of Joy Division's 'She's Lost Control'.