Shabazz Palaces - Quazarz on 23rd

What this video is

Released in September 2018 as a visual epilogue to 'Quazarz Vs. The Jealous Machines' (Sub Pop, 2017), the video inhabits the Quazarz science-fiction narrative universe constructed by Shabazz Palaces — in which an alien observer ('Quazarz') is dispatched to 'Amurderca' to chronicle contemporary Black American experience from an estranged, cosmic vantage. Director Nep Sidhu, as a fellow Black Constellation member,…

Why it matters

A landmark artifact of 2010s experimental hip-hop visual culture, this short film exemplifies the Black Constellation collective's integration of fine art, Afrofuturism, and music video as a unified ceremonial practice. Its use of VHS as a conceptual — rather than merely stylistic — tool…

The director

Nirbhai (Nep) Singh Sidhu is a London-born, Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans sculpture, textile, painting, video, sound, and fashion design under his Paradise Sportif label. He is a core member of the Black Constellation creative…