American rapper, spoken word performer and activist Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) was already casting high praise in late 2021 as the frontwoman of the free jazz band
Irreversible Entanglements with the album
Open The Gates. A year later she is a prominent name at the Utrecht boutique festival Le Guess Who? and performs there with, among others, 700 Bliss. She forms this duo with DJ Haram (Zubeyda
… Muzeyyen) and originated in the underground hip hop circuit of Philadelphia. Also on Nothing To Declare, Moor Mother goes deep in evoking the claustrophobic and paranoid feelings full of latent violence that plague the life of the African American. Darkly raw and with many repetitions ('Stay alive bitch') she evokes an oppressive reality sending every would-be gangster rapper back to the ball pit. DJ Haram illustrates this with slow pulsing deep bass and glitchy electronic sounds. The impressive Nothing To Declare is akin to a ritual in which every incantatory stanza sounds heartfelt. (MR)more
