Shabaka Expands His Sonic Universe on New Solo Album Of The Earth

Internationally acclaimed musician, composer, and producer Shabaka releases his new solo album Of The Earth, out now via his imprint Shabaka Records. Written, produced, and mixed entirely by Shabaka, the record marks a defining moment in his artistic evolution, expanding his practice into beatmaking, production, and lyricism.

Over the past decade, Shabaka has reshaped global perceptions of British jazz and experimental music through projects including Sons of Kemet, Shabaka and the Ancestors, and The Comet Is Coming, moving fluidly between jazz, electronic, spiritual, and diasporic traditions. On Of The Earth, those threads converge as rap, production, flute, and sax exist on equal footing, unveiling a fuller picture of his creative language – a grounded yet exploratory statement that pushes beyond genre.

On Of The Earth, Shabaka returns to the saxophone with renewed clarity following his appearance at Louis Moholo-Moholo’s memorial concert last year. Years of flute study – spanning traditions from Japan, the Americas, and beyond – reshaped his understanding of resonance, breath, and form, fundamentally altering his relationship to melody and flow upon returning to the horn.

Developed in part during the pandemic, the album also reflects a deepened engagement with beatmaking and electronic production. Working hands-on in DAWs and samplers, Shabaka approached the studio as a laboratory, building grooves from fragmented loops and self-sampled phrases while drawing influence from the time-bending swing of J Dilla and the architectural sequencing of Flying Lotus.

That rhythmic experimentation led to the album’s most unexpected turn: Shabaka rapping. Inspired by André 3000, he studied ’90s rap icons like Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., and Wu-Tang Clan, focusing on breath and cadence as technical craft. His verses, akin to the nonlinear poetics of billy woods and ELUCID, emphasize emotional throughlines. Throughout the album, the voice serves as a vessel to explore psychological pressure, digital saturation, collective disorientation, and the possibility of recovery through stillness and awareness.

The album signals an expanded sonic palette, weaving meditative textures, processional energy, and ambient space into a sound that feels intimate and communal. Though faint echoes of earlier work linger, they surface as ancestral DNA rather than overt callbacks. Stepping fully into the role of producer, vocalist, instrumentalist, and sonic architect, he resists genre constraints in favor of something fluid and self-defined. Of The Earth is an unveiling: straightforward yet dimensional, rooted yet exploratory, vulnerable yet assured. As ever, Shabaka remains in motion, chasing the future he hopes the music will become.

Of The Earth is available to stream here: https://shabaka.ffm.to/oftheearth

Following the album’s release, Shabaka will bring Of The Earth to life on stage this Spring across the US, UK, and Europe with a live show blending improvisation, live instrumentation, and real-time manipulation of beats and electronic textures. The tour begins in Philadelphia at Solar Myth on March 25th, with stops in New York, Knoxville, and Chicago before returning overseas (full dates below; more info and tickets here).

US TOUR DATES:

25th March - Solar Myth Philadelphia

26th March - Knockdown Center, NY 

28th March - Big Ears, Knoxville (Headline show + Collaboration w Thurston Moore)

29th March - Constellation, Chicago