Experimental composer, rapper, poet and activist Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother) has spent almost the last decade channelling her powerful, community-focused vision through various projects, musical and otherwise. Wednesday, she shared “Zami”, produced by frequent collaborator Madam Data, and announced that she’s signed to ANTI- Records.
“Zami,” Moor Mother’s first offering since last year’s collaboration with Billy Wood, is a dynamic, haunting track built upon layers of noise that cascade over each other, anchored by Ayewa’s mesmerizing lyrics. Of the track, Moor Mother says, “Using the lenses of Black Quantum Futurism, the lyrics speak to Time and Space, injustice, racism, erasure of African identity. ‘Zami’ speaks of agency and something beyond freedom. It speaks of another future. It speaks about connections free from the stains of colonialism. It speaks about the expansive temporalities of Afro Diasporan people around the world.”
Black Quantum Futurism refers to the collective Ayewa co-founded with Rasheedah Phillips, dedicated to “a new approach to living and experiencing reality by way of the manipulation of space-time in order to see into possible futures, and/or collapse space-time into a desired future in order to bring about that future’s reality. This vision and practice derives its facets, tenets, and qualities from quantum physics and Black/African cultural traditions of consciousness, time, and space.” Through various writings, gallery exhibitions, recordings, and other projects, the collective seeks to “explore personal, cultural, familial, and communal cycles of experience, and solutions for transforming negative cycles into positive ones using artistic and wholistic methods of healing.”
Check out the Arash Akbari-directed video for “Zami” and a 2017 performance by Black Quantum Futurism below.
