Experimental producer and hip-hop artist Gonjasufi recently released “The Mandela Effect,” a remix album full of interpretations from notable Black artists such as Moor Mother, Shabazz Palaces and King Britt. The reimagined songs are tracks from Gonjasufi’s 2016 full-length album, “Callus.” The afrofuturistic song “Afrikan Spaceship” appeared to be the most preferred by the project’s experimental producers as Ras G, King Britt and Shabazz Palaces used their avant-garde, hip-hop expertise to morph the track into vastly different versions of Gonjasufi’s original composition.
British trip-hop legend Massive Attack’s Daddy G and Grammy-Award winning independent artist Anna Wise, who won the Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in 2015 for her work on Kendrick Lamar’s track, “The Walls,” both contributed remixes of “Your Maker,” the opening track of “Callus.” Philadelphia-based experimental noise music phenomenon Moor Mother’s version of “The Kill” received their signature wash of intense, otherworldly ornamentation.
“The Mandela Effect” takes “Callus,” the album of its origin, on a trip across several musical consciousnesses who have spent much of their lives perfecting their craft of artistically original, intergalactic and imaginative expressions of music and sound. All the guest remixers on “The Mandala Effect” don’t hold back, lending their talents with unabashed surrealism.
The album, available on vinyl, CD and digital formats, was released via Warp Records. Make sure you support unique artistic Black and POC artists. Avant-garde, experimental and psychedelic hip-hop easily gets lost within the inundation of mainstream music, the style and intention of which has very little to do with the limitless possibilities modern hip-hop creates through technology and the ability to mix and meld itself with several different forms of artistry such as afrofuturism, literary existentialism, sound installation and musical interpretation.