Philadelphia Musician, Poet And Visual Artist Moor Mother AKA Camae Ayewa Signs To Anti- Records
The Philadelphia-based Moor Mother – AKA Camae Ayewa – has signed to ANTI- Records. Moor Mother is a holographic figment of an Afrotopian dream, all at once goddess and warrior, mystic and cyborg, griot and future time traveler, etching noisy pieces of reverie into our consciousness for decades now.
Today she has released the piercing new track “Zami”; produced by her frequent collaborator Madam Data, listen to the track and watch its new video HERE.
“ ‘No more master's clock / we travel spaceways’; "Zami" speaks to a number of different themes,” Ayewa explains. “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.”
Released in 2016, Moor Mother’s debut album Fetish Bones was named the third best album of the year by The Wire, called “one of the most innovative and important records of 2016” by Jazz Right Now, and appeared on numerous end-of-the-year lists from Pitchfork, Noisey, Rolling Stone, and Spin. She was also named one of Rolling Stone’s “10 New Artists You Need To Know” as well as one of Bandcamp’s 2016 artists of the year.
She has released multiple albums every year since Fetish Bones. In 2017, CTM X Vinyl Factory commissioned her album The Motionless Present; this was followed by Crime Waves, a collaboration with fellow Philly producer Mental Jewelry, and Clepsydra, “a collection of sounds for writers.”
A touring musician, poet, visual artist, and workshop facilitator, Ayewa is also a vocalist in three collaborative performance groups: Irreversible Entanglements, MoorJewelry and 700bliss. In 2020, she launched a series of releases with Swedish musician Olof Melander. Titled Anthologia, the projects are designed to raise funds for disability justice. She worked again with Melander and Mental Jewelry on Forever Industries, a 2020 release which features two jazz-tinged experimental hip-hop singles that speak of making space, outer space, and industry. Most recently, Ayewa put out BRASS, a collaboration with the rapper billy woods. She has previously worked with woods on his critically acclaimed 2020 album Shrines and on the song “Furies,” which was featured on the Adult Swim single series.