After finding inspiration by our class’ recent discussions on Afrofuturism and techno-orientalism to sharpen my critical eye on these topics, I watched the video In “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” (1997) by African American DFAB (designated female at birth) rapper/producer Missy Elliot. In the video, she frequently appears in an oversized shiny jumpsuit. Her size is exaggerated by the visual examination of the fisheye lens coupled with highly-patterned stop-time editing. “The Rain” sutures imagery of Elliot in a variety of futuristic and size-altered spaces, yet the startling images resist assemblage into a time-sequence or narrative of place or event. One second Elliot is trapped between huge mechanistic pendulums swinging ominously in the background, and the next second she is uncomfortable and gigantic, seated atop a patently fake, green grassy hill. Then she’s suddenly dancing spontaneously with friends wearing a bright yellow ensemble. Then the scene cuts to her leading a choreographed dance combination on a grey, rain-spattered industrial stage. These random images convey no sense of sequence. Instead, their radical shifts of point of view are linked by the sporadic rhythm of the beat. Here, Afrofuturism is seen connecting rhythm and story through music. DEEP.
-Lexi
-Lexi