L-R: Stasia Irons, Tendai Maraire, Ishmael Butler Palaceer Lazaro, Catherine Harris-White

The big news from last night's Shabazz Palaces concert at the Moore:

The time-traveling Central District rap act and recent Sub Pop Records partner performed a fully integrated set with local lesbian jazz-rap duo THEESatisfaction.

The best part was when Shabazz Palaces covered THEESatisfaction's "Obama," and Shabazz honcho Palaceer Lazaro rapped Stasia Irons' verse:

"Turn off the radio / Turn off that bulls__t / But you already know / I preach to the pulpit."

At that point, the unifcation of the two pro-black, anti-mainstream, rap/soul/jazz-influenced groups was clearest.

Not that the crowd was expecting anything traditional from Shabazz Palaces, but from the get go, something was up.

Irons and Catherine Harris-White took the stage first, wearing two-foot tall animal masks on their heads attached to goggles, like tribal lawyers sent to represent Shabazz Palaces in the group's absence. Approaching the center stage tables holding Lazaro's drum machine and Shabazz man Tendai Maraire's auxiliary African percussion instruments, the two women cued up "A Mess...," the "hit" from last year's sensational "Shabazz Palaces" and "Of Light" sibling micro-albums, and began rapping it.

The first thing that occured to me was, "Whoa, they're covering the song. This is like DOOM or Andrew W.K. sending out frauds to perform their concerts, making easy money and also maybe a statement about 'what is a performance, what are your expectations, etc.' Except this is the sincere version."

Then I thought, "OK, this is a torch-passing."

The THEESatisfaction women are spiritual children of Shabazz Palaces and also Shabazz honcho Palaceer Lazaro's old group, Digable Planets. Irons once told me that when she was growing up, her dad used to dance around the house to Digable Planets' 'Cool Like Dat.'"

But as the song ended and Shabazz men Palaceer Lazaro and Tendai Maraire came on stage, also wearing goggles and masks, everything started to make much bigger sense.

Over the course of an hour-long set, Shabazz wowed the crowd with its crushing, ancient/modern rap. Bass and drums were consistently tectonic events, vocals were clean and understandable — at least the words; the messages behind Lazaro's impressionistic raps will take years to sink in — and guest verses from pimpish area MC Dougie were tough and ornate. Choreographed stage movements had martial flair, with THEESatisfaction unflinchingly flanking Shabazz, and then Shabazz staying calm in the middle while the women danced on the periphery. Two women dancers came out stomping and whirling for "Chuch," Shabazz's most hypnotic song. Lazaro and Maraire had a few secret handshakes, and at one point backed up against each other and crossed their arms in a b-boy stance.

It was all quite a show. Organized by The Stranger — who deemed Shabazz Palaces "Genius" and gave the group $5,000 — the evening ended up introducing Shabazz's next chapter, and finished with an unreleased track featuring angry, wobbling drums and the hook:

"Was you there tonight?"

Photo by me, video to come