Afrofuturist Essentials

The core tenet of Afrofuturist philosophy is that life in the future will be advanced by the innovations of black people—on Earth, or elsewhere. The concept was introduced to music through the cosmic jazz of Sun Ra, who often performed in space suits in the ’50s. As the ideas around Afrofuturism evolved, it seeped into other genres, like funk, techno, hip-hop, and IDM. Beyond encouraging artists to embrace an outlandish visual aesthetic—like George Clinton’s rainbow-haired, spaceship-riding funkateer—Afrofuturist music exhibits a fascination with technology, through experimenting with electronic elements and manipulating the human voice to make it sound computerized. It’s an ideology that can manifest itself in a variety of ways—Kool Keith rapped about robots, while Janelle Monáe adopted an androgynous alien persona to complement her sci-fi soul—but whatever form it takes, Afrofuturist music yields a sound that challenges boundaries and assumptions.