There's nothing I hate more than being tardy to the party, especially when you realize that said party was apparently THE party of the year and you arrived about five minutes after the open bar was closed. That's exactly how I feel about Shabazz Palaces' debut Black Up, which was released last June, though I sadly didn't discover it until December. If I had heard it sooner, it would've easily been one of my top picks of 2011. But alas, I dropped the ball on this one. Lucky for me and the other stragglers, the duo consisting of former Digable Planets front man Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler and instrumentalist Tendai Maraire, is still working hard at bringing their musical gem to the masses. Their single, "Are You...Can You...Were You? (Felt)," is the latest to get the video treatment. The video fits the song's flow like a glove, offering flickering images of flowers and static that flash so quickly, I initially thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. In the vid, we see the female lead as she awakens and makes a mad dash home on her bike. Butler makes a brief (yet beautiful) appearance as a driver who almost runs over the bicycling beauty. After exchanging some words that are clearly less than pleasant, she arrives home only to get into an argument with her mother. Though the argument alternates between English and Amharic, it's evident that her sparse clothing is at the heart of the disagreement. Equal parts strange, beautiful, and disconcerting, this video makes me happy that I finally arrived to the Shabazz Palaces party, no matter how late I was.
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