On April 23, Mr. Chris came through to rock an Afropunk themed edition of the metal show. If you’re not familiar with Afropunk, here’s a summary.
Now a massive music festival, Afropunk emerged as a movement for greater inclusion in punk and other heavy music. The stories of African Americans navigating the scene were captured in the 2003 documentary, directed by James Spooner.
Afropunk has expanded since 2003 from a focus on people of African descent in punk rock to incorporate noise, indie, metal and rock music, as well hip-hop, soul and electronic. The 2017 festival featured, for example, Erykah Badu, Fantastic Negrito and Black Pantera, as well as acts like Miguel and Janelle Monae.
However, Afropunk’s roots are in bands like Bleed the Pigs, which have typified this emergence beyond punk.
Houston’s Oceans of Slumber, which recently toured with Epica and Myrkur, might be considered as part of the Afropunk universe. They’ve been included on BlackPunk! and similar Youtube channels. The band released The Banished Heart earlier this year.
You can check out Mr. Chris’ playlist, if you missed it. He’ll be spinning more soon.