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Mar 30, 2021 By Joey Arnone

British jazz quartet Sons of Kemet have announced a new album, Black to the Future, which will be out on May 14 via Impulse! The band has also shared a video for the album’s lead single, “Hustle,” featuring Kojey Radical. Check out the Ashleigh Jadee-directed video, along with the album’s tracklist and cover art, below.

Saxophonist and band leader Shabaka Hutchings speaks about the new album in a press release, stating: “Black to the Future is a sonic poem for the invocation of power, remembrance and healing. It depicts a movement to redefine and reaffirm what it means to strive for Black power. The meaning is not universal and the cultural context of the listener will shape their understanding. Yet in the end, the overarching message remains the same: for humanity to progress we must consider what it means to be Black to the Future.”

He adds, regarding the “Hustle” video: “The dancers represent the duality present within any struggle to transcend internal limitations. As the video progresses, we see that it’s only once the differing elements of the self are reconciled and act in unison that rebirth (symbolized by the immersion in water) can occur.”

The band’s most recent album, Your Queen Is a Reptile, came out in 2018 on Impulse! and was nominated for a Mercury Prize.

Black to the Future Tracklist:

1. Field Negus feat. Joshua Idehen
2. Pick Up Your Burning Cross (feat. Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid)
3. Think Of Home
4. Hustle (feat. Kojey Radical)
5. For The Culture (feat. D Double E)
6. To Never Forget The Source
7. In Remembrance Of Those Fallen
8. Let The Circle Be Unbroken
9. Envision Yourself Levitating
10. Throughout The Madness, Stay Strong
11. Black (feat. Joshua Idehen)

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