Moor Mother

Moor Mother (aka Moor Mother Goddess or MMGz) is the solo outlet for Philadelphia-based artist Camae Ayewa. Moor Mother’s music combines social issues with a visceral blend of hardcore electronics and her intense poetry, taking influence from punk, hip-hop, jazz, soul, and numerous other genres. Also an educator, coach, and social activist, Ayewa is a co-founder of the Black Quantum Futurism artistic and literary collective, a member of the avant-jazz group Irreversible Entanglements, and one half of the experimental club duo 700 Bliss. First making an impact with 2016′s Fetish Bones, her work grew more experimental and politically outspoken with each new chapter, using charged spoken word lyrics and furious free jazz instrumentation on her 2020 album Circuit City. 2021′s Black Encyclopedia of the Air was more atmospheric than her previous work but just as confrontational and thought-provoking. The guest-heavy Jazz Codes followed in 2022.
Born and raised in Maryland, Ayewa grew up rapping and “playing guitar” with broomstick handles, influenced as much by Patti LaBelle, Public Enemy, and the Beastie Boys as Malcolm X and Maya Angelou. As a teenager, Ayewa delved into the punk scene, preferring its hard edge and D.I.Y. spirit as a vehicle for authentic expression. She created her Moor Mother project in 2012, after her politically charged hip-hop punk group the Mighty Paradocs went on hiatus. Blending spoken word, jazz rhythms, harsh dissonance, and an almost industrial rawness, Ayewa shifted her focus to beats and textures, which would bring her socially conscious lyrics to life. Her debut EP, Alpha Serpentis, was released at the end of 2012. In the ensuing years — in addition to co-founding the Rockers! Philadelphia series and, with Rasheedah Phillips, the Black Quantum Futurism collective — she would release dozens more.
Moor Mother’s debut LP Fetish Bones (Don Giovanni Records) was issued in 2016. Focusing on historical trauma and the Black experience, Ayewa utilized Afrocentric tribal beats and abrasive, unsettling textures, resulting in a cathartic expression of pain and bloodletting. The following year, she published a collection of unreleased poetry and soundscapes from her past titled The Motionless Present. Concurrent to working on solo material as Moor Mother, Ayewa served as vocalist and lyricist for Chicago free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements, bringing her charged spoken word style to multiple albums with the group beginning in 2017. Crime Waves, her first collaboration with Mental Jewelry, also appeared during the year. 700 Bliss, Ayewa’s collaboration with DJ Haram, made its debut with the 2018 EP Spa 700. Moor Mother’s second full-length, 2019′s Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes, brought together the disparate threads of Afro-punk, techno, blues, and noise that influence her sound, with Saul Williams and MC Reef the Lost Cause featured on two of the tracks. Additionally, she appeared on the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s We Are on the Edge (A 50th Anniversary Celebration) and Wrecked, the 2019 full-length from Justin Broadrick and Kevin Martin’s Zonal project.
2020 was a particularly productive year for Ayewa. Irreversible Entanglements’ critically lauded album Who Sent You? appeared in March, and Moor Jewelry’s hardcore punk album True Opera was released a month later. Offering, a live collaboration with flautist Nicole Mitchell, was issued in June, and collaborations with Olof Meander and YATTA soon followed, as did a 7” single on Sub Pop, Forever Industries. Circuit City, the musical accompaniment to Ayewa’s theatrical presentation of the same name, was a broiling collision of free jazz, experimental electronics, and poetic spoken word vocals addressing intergenerational trauma and housing insecurity linked to racist infrastructure. She concluded the year with Brass, a bracing collaboration with Billy Woods that also featured Elucid, Mach-Hommy, Navy Blue, and others. Moor Mother appeared on 2021 releases by Sons of Kemet and the Bug, and she signed to Anti- for the release of Black Encyclopedia of the Air, a less noisy but still challenging full-length that featured appearances by Pink Siifu, Nappy Nina, Lojii, and others. Nothing to Declare, 700 Bliss’s debut full-length, appeared on Hyperdub in 2022. Jazz Codes, a companion release to Black Encyclopedia of the Air, was released the same year, with guests including Mary Lattimore, Keri Neuringer, YUNGMORPHEUS, and others. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Paul Simpson