Shabazz Palaces are: percussionist Tendai Maraire and Ishmael Butler, formerly of Digable Planets and Cherrywine. Ishmael provides the group’s vision and vocals, while Tendai employs ancient instruments from his homeland Zimbabwe. They deliver sincere and radical lyrics with sounds and beats that include sounds from around the world. Containing echos of funk, minor-key jazz, London dubstep and mbira sounds they structure their songs outside the 16-bars/chorus/repeat form of much hip hop.Their music won them the first ever Music Genius award from The Stranger in 2010.