SPACE IS THE PLACE

When Shabazz Palaces cryptically surfaced in 2009, their dense and recondite alloy of styles—inner-city griotry, Zimbabwean melodies, and nomadic sub-bass frequencies—was considered “avant-rap.” Since then, a whole new generation of indigo rap kids have been building online, lacing DatPiff.com releases with knowledge and esoteric references (or, on Underachievers’s “Herb Shuttles,” references to their “esoteric tattoos”). And Future managed to crossover from second-wave ATLien to mainstream Astronaut Status with interplanetary braggadocio raps (he’s on Pluto and Mars at the same damn time!) and genuinely weird Auto-Tune vocal experiments. But space has been the place since at least Sun Ra, and Shabazz Palaces were always more Afro-Future-istic, anyways. With THEESatisfaction and Malitia Malimob.

Fri., April 26, 9 p.m., 2013