Listen to Moor Mother and lojii link up and shake off pain on “Shekere”

Philly’s Camae Ayewa brings her long-running experimental project Moor Mother to the roster of Anti- Records this September, and a bunch of her peers are along for the ride. A scan of the track listing to Black Encyclopedia Of The Air lists collaborators like Pink Siifu (who contributes a verse to”Obsidian“), Orion Sun, the Black Quantum Futurism collective, and more. This week, Moor Mother released another track from the record, and it features a kindred Philly spirit: the psychedelic rapper and producer lojii.

“Shekere” takes a more traditional sonic approach than we’ve heard from the other Black Encyclopedia teasers, which leaned hallucinogenic (“Obsidian”) and dissonant (“Zami“). Here, the groove is mellow and the beat is pronounced, as Moor Mother’s lyrics speak of a responsibility to the earth, channeling self-determination, and outlasting oppression to rise up from the past. “Black fist and golden crown, ancient sound / they can’t hold us down,” she raps. lojii’s verse comes in half way through to compliment those ideas with bars about shaking off pain.

Take a listen to “Shekere” below, and grab a pre-order of Black Encyclopedia of the Air here. For more on lojii, check out Melissa Simpson’s interview and photo shoot with him from last fall.