There’s literally no deep enjoyment of hip-hop without at least an appreciation and respect for jazz. They’re so entwined thanks to its golden age being flush with prominent samples from the long-lasting genre, fundamentally Black just as rock, soul, and many others are. Just like producers continue to lace their beats with sounds of the past to make music for the future, so too do bands fully commit to the jazz inflections of hip-hop by making it the entire point.
Enter Afrofuturistics, Chitown’s premier, award-winning (Best Hip-Hop Group, Chicago Reader‘s Best of Chicago 2025) jazz-hop band with instrumental flair and a fundamental appreciation for all aspects of the music they play with. We’re here today to assist in premiering their latest video for their track “Daydream”, which comes from their upcoming EP, The Enigmatic, releasing through Big Bonkey Records on August 14. Let’s take a look!
The video is produced by Scott Free who provides some important context as to its composition:
‘In putting together the video piece for the song “Daydream”, I felt the slow sections would be most powerful with extreme close-ups of the band members, recording very slowly to try to catch the space between the conscious and dream states. To contrast that with the loud, hip-hop, orchestral sections, I used Jasmine Cross’s blue recordings of the band, moving them thru psychedelic montages. The entire piece was tied together with Abdoulaye Conde’s incredibly vibrant, West Africa-motif paintings – but again moving through them as if in a dream.‘
I must say, Conde’s work provides the most striking aspect of the “Daydream” video. The liveliness of poses for the people, the beautifully gemmed skin that gives them form, it all provides an immense texture and vibrancy to the video, and the track too. It complements the snappy drum rhythms – love how the hi-hat is ridden throughout the center of the track, and the bass and snare drums sound damn cool. Flanking that groovy center are saxophone and piano-led lilts that bookend “Daydream” as if entering and exiting said dream with a cloudy wistfulness. It contextualizes the middle’s action and movement as the sauce of your day. I mean, who doesn’t like to let their thoughts drift when faced with the whelm of daily life at work, school, or elsewhere? Sometimes those are the most memorable moments of your day, kept to yourself like a secret that makes you smile.
Though only active since 2024, Afrofuturistics are refreshingly coherent and bold, even as they skate along the lines of psychedelia. They never lose their way, providing a beacon of direction and adventure for listeners to indulge in. And if all that is a bit too heady for you, then you can just enjoy the melting bass line in the track’s core, or the transcendental atmosphere that “Daydream” is coated in.
Afrofuturistics are busy dudes as of late. Not only is their EP out soon, but they have a release show for it on August 29 at Le Piano in Chicago, IL. Be there or be… not very cool. The Enigmatic releases shortly before that show on August 14 digitally and on limited edition CD. You can preorder it through Bandcamp both ways, and presave it on Spotify and iTunes through this link. Follow Afrofuturistics on Facebook and Instagram too!
Band photo by Katia Sentry, live shot by Annmarie Vecchione
