Songs: “Third Stone From the Sun” by Jimi Hendrix, “Mothership Connection (Star Child)” by Parliament, “Mastermind” by Deltron 3030, “Need To Know” by Doja Cat
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact start of Afrofuturism in American popular music, but it’s easy to chart its influence across genres as diverse as pop, rock, funk, hip-hop, reggae, and electronica. For the unfamiliar, I’ll defer to the Wikipedia definition: “a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of history that explores the developing intersection of African diaspora culture with technology.” The movement developed in the 1960s and quickly spread across different mediums: art, film, literature. Since then, bestselling mainstream artists such as Outkast, Rihanna, and Missy Elliott have incorporated Afrofuturist themes in their work.
The first definitive Afrofuturist song I could find was Jimi Hendrix’s virtuoso 1967 song “Third Stone From the Sun,” a sci-fi psychedelic number layered with a hazy spoken-word dialogue between alien space explorers. “Star fleet to scout ship, please give your position. Over.” But the real show here, of course, is Hendrix’s guitar. His biographer Keith Shadwick writes, “His is not an orthodox guitar solo. It is more akin to a soundscape,” swirling blues and jazz notes through the cosmos. Another reviewer decribes his performance as a “tour de force.” The melody has been sampled or covered by musicians as diverse as Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Allman Brothers, the Beastie Boys, Gov’t Mule, and Santana, making it a classic staple of American rock.
George Clinton and his Parliament-Funkadelic ensemble followed close on Hendrix’s heels with 1975’s Mothership Connection, a landmark Top 40 record included in the Library of Congress. Critics overwhelmingly gave it rave reviews and this seminal work often finds itself on lists of Greatest Albums. While Hendrix had sparked the idea of Afrofuturism, Clinton and his group devotedly followed through on the concept, creating a joyful and unique universe to express the African-American experience through songs that Rolling Stone dubbed a “masterpiece.”
I figured another place you wouldn’t think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang.
-George Clinton
My own personal exposure to Afrofuturism came in 2005, when my hipster brother gave me a Deltron 3030 CD that was probably the reason I blew the speakers out in my ancient Subaru. I’ll admit to being a dorky, drooling fangirl over Del Tha Funkee Homosapien; I love his wordplay, his delivery, his lyrical and poetic verses that master the art of “show, don’t tell.” Eponymous album Deltron 3030, released in 2000, portrays an epic battle between “righteousness” and “malevolence” 1,030 years in the future. The main character, Deltron-Zero, travels the galaxy with a time-traveling cyborg wizard (producer Dan the Automator of Gorillaz fame) in a quest to defeat megalithic ruling corporations. It’s an hour of blissfully dextrous lyrics as the pair jet across the universe through smooth, spacey hip-hop flows.
Electronic monolith throw a jam upon the disc
The futuristic looper with the quickness
Hyper producing, hydrogen fusion liquids keep your distance. . .-Deltron 3030
Afrofuturism also features prominently in 2021’s “Need To Know” by singer, rapper, and producer Doja Cat. The video shows Doja and her friends (including visionary Canadian star Grimes) in a space-age lounge lit with holograms before they take a rocketship to the club. Doja Cat- real name Amala Dlamini- is firmly within the pop tradition, earning hundreds of millions of views on YouTube and near-constant radio play. Her diverse clique of girls features Black models with natural hair spiked in futuristic ponytails and close-cropped cuts dyed pastel. The lyrics are a pure sexed-up confection, but the visuals position Doja Cat as a stalwart champion of Afrofuturism in the uncertain COVID-19 era.
This is an incredibly brief selection of Afrofuturist influences in pop, rock, funk, hip-hop; themes of the African diaspora intersecting with science fiction have also emerged in reggae and electronica. If you have any suggestions for additional songs, leave them in the comments below- I’m always open to new music!
Hey hey! Thanks for visiting- your presence is warmly welcomed. Please correct me if I accidentally got something wrong. If there are any songs, artists, or genres you’d love to learn more about, I’m always down for recommendations! This blog is free to read (and always will be) due to a fair amount of academic traffic, but you can always buy me a coffee (aka put a tip in my jar) if you enjoyed this article.
