Music

premiere: babygotbacktalk get cosmic on “space jam”

June 26, 2020

Though it feels like every day we’re getting into a deeper amalgam of basically every dystopian sci-fi story out there, sometimes you need to take a minute to remember that Space is still The Place. babygotbacktalk’s effervescent pop punk offers a burst of utopian Afrofuturism on their latest single “Space Jam.” Band leader G’Ra turns his preternatural skill with a hook onto one of his most optimistic songs to date, with a video directed by Julia Sharpe-Levine that’s guaranteed to make you glance up to the sky longingly and imagine the possibilities.

 

“When I was a kid I was drawn to a Sun Ra poster advertising the film Space is the Place that hung from my grandmother’s kitchen wall,” says Asim. “The jazz icon and Afrofuturism pioneer caught my eye initially because of the similarity between our names. My legal first name [G’Ra] is the stage name of Chicago performance poet George Hines, and it was given to me in his honor. Sun Ra’s handle was similar enough that as a child I figured we must have been– in some way– kin. babygotbacktalk plays punk and not jazz, of course, but our new single is a contemporary spin on one of my philosophical ancestor’s main themes: outer space as a bastion of the freedom, peace, and safety that continues to elude Black people on Earth.”

 

“Space Jam” comes from the forthcoming Genre Reveal Party out July 17th. You can keep up with babygotbacktalk on Instagram @babygotbacktalk

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