Afrofuturism in Music
J. Griffith Rollefson, associate professor at the National University of Ireland, argues that “Afrofuturism is most prominent in music … because a number of its artists have continually highlighted the mythic qualities of both historical tropes of magic and futuristic narratives of science through the seemingly paradoxical figure of the soulful spaceman" (qtd. Hamilton, Afrofuturism and the Technologies of Survival). Afrofuturist artists like Sun Ra and Janelle Monáe use their music to advocate for what Black people could do if they were liberated from the systematic oppressions that they are trapped in.
"Ooh, you shock it, shake it, baby
Electric lady you're a star
You got a classic kind of crazy
But you know just who you are
You got the look the Gods agree they wanna see
All the birds and the bees
Dancing with the freaks in the trees
And watch the water turn to wine
Outer space and out your mind
Ooh shock me one good time"
Janelle Monáe has long been a champion of the Afrofuturistic aesthetic. In a 2010 interview with Rolling Stone, back when her career was just beginning, she told the interview that she “only date[s] androids”. Monáe embraces a technologically-advanced future for Black people, specifically Black women. In her song Electric Lady, Monáe likens a woman made of electricity to a nearly god-like figure, elevating the black woman to a status that is so prominent, it is not worthy of being bound only to Earth.
"Time to save the world
Where in the world is all the time
So many things I still don't know
So many times I've changed my mind
Guess I was born to make mistakes
But I ain't scared to take the weight
So when I stumble off the path
I know my heart will guide me back
...
Love is life
And life is free
Take a ride
Of life with me
Free your mind
And find your way
There will be a brighter day"
In the video for Erykah Badu’s song Didn’t Cha Know (2000), Badu is no longer the human being that audiences know her as, rather she embraces her alien origins. In the video, Badu walks across a landscape that seems to belong on either an alien planet or to a future Earth. She dons a silver outfit with moonboots that can be likened to what we’d imagine future beings to wear. Though the video only shows the audience of Badu walking around on this barren land, it is clear that Badu is walking with purpose. She’s on a mission to save the world.
"Take your broken wings and fly
When your head is hanging low, low, low
And the tears, they keep falling
Take your broken feet and run
With the world up on your shoulders
Nowhere left to hide
Keep your head up, carry on
It ain't no time to die, die
Even though we suffer
Come together, be brave
Come together
All God's children, come
'Round the mountain, all God's children run (All God's children run 'round the mountain, run)"
The Afrofuturism of Laura Mvula’s 2013 song Overcome is most prominently featured in the music video that accompanied it. It is a song of liberation and freedom, two elements of Afrofuturism that are key to the aesthetic. The song itself harkens back to the Civil Rights anthem We Shall Overcome. In the video, Mvula is caged bird that sings and, by the end of the video, is free to fly. The dances in the video were, too, very clearly inspired by traditional African dance. The British singer, who is of both Jamaican and West Indian descent, said in a 2016 interview with The Telegraph that: “Black identity is really important for me. That’s what’s on my heart and has been in my subconscious for most of my life.”
"The secrets I hide, I do nothing
You'll always deny we're going in circles
But I'll override
Could be winter but I burn inside
In the back of my mind, I hear nothing
Keep this feeling alive, I feel nothing now
Then I'm in my ride
Anything I left behind don't mean nothing now""
Though British singer Kelela’s video for her song Frontline (2018) is speaks heavily to the nostalgia of the early 2000s, its Afrofuturism is still a perfect embodiment of what the Afrofuturistic aesthetic is today. The video is animated as though it were some kind of Sims game. The songs tells a story about Kelela breaking free from the grasp of her ex-boyfriend and the video is a simulation of Kelela’s actions. Being a virtual reality, this video is aligned perfectly with Afrofuturism as it is a reimagining of a world and time where Black people are living closely to and thriving from futuristic technology.
"Laying in the grass in the afternoon
Something kind of magical in sunlight
Flowers uncurl in the garden
Ships are coming up again; it's springtime
It's new like the day I saw your eyes
Green like the leaves, I'm falling in love again
It's a blue sky
Blossom leaf falls in a slow dance
Swaying got me in a trance; so high
Yes, I'll wait on you and I want to spend it with you
Lost in your wonderland"
British songstress Corinne Bailey Rae embraces a subtle form of Afrofuturism in her 2016 song Green Aphrodisiac. Afrofuturism is nuanced and incorporates much more than just scientific technology. Afrofuturism is about finding new ways to reflect the Black experience in a manner that is hopeful for a better future. In her video for Green Aphrodisiac, Bailey Rae imagines that Black body as the universe itself. She and her lover embody nature as her lyrics are laced with idyllic language. Her lover is her universe as she is his.