YUZIMA dances on the graves of slave masters in new video “Atheist”

YUZIMA dances on the graves of slave masters in new video “Atheist”

watch Atheist 
Myspace premiere

Yuzima casts himself as the trickster and dances on the graves of slave masters in his new music video ‘Atheist’–filmed in New Orleans–out now. The NYC media anointed ‘prince of noize’ absorbs the mysterious history of New Orleans and reimagines it, celebrating the melting pot of voodoo, jazz, and oppression. The video embraces this gumbo of history with a radical visual, using images of Christian missionaries, voodoo practitioners, the legendary Marie Laveau and breathes life into a long-running struggle between believers, questioners, the powerful and the oppressed. Yuzima forms this story at a time where historic struggles have been re-ignited in the wake of Black Lives Matter, police brutality, and economic inequality. The video closes with a quote from black writer Zora Neale Hurston, “Gods always behave like the people who make them.” A present-day warning Yuzima echoes in the lyrics of the song.

YUZIMA and artistic director Jim Fairfax filmed ‘Atheist’ in the legendary St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 and the streets of New Orleans. Mixing Christian imagery with subversive truth-to-power, snake-in-the-grass lyrics, and guitars, joining the second line of rock and roll, he channels the celebration of death emblematic of the city known for rebirth. This complexity is represented through the upbeat nature of the song and the Bob Dylan-esque build up of the lyrics. Yuzima wants to tell different stories with his art. He says, “Many people today in music have similar messages. I want to show that it can be different, yet powerful and relevant.”

YUZIMA has been described as if Prince collaborated with Ty Segall and Bad Brains in a chamber of lo-fi genius. His latest release “Living Off The Land” has been called a “masterpiece” and a “politically charged soundtrack to surviving [a] new age”. The release is available now on Bandcamp and can be streamed on Soundcloud.