Millennial Witch Music

“If you get sleep or if you get none
The cock's gonna call in the morning, baby
Check the cupboard for your daddy's gun
Red sun rises like an early warning
The Lord's gonna come for your first born son
His hair's on fire and his heart is burning
So go to the river where the water runs
Wash him deep where the tides are turning…”

Bottom of the River by: Delta Rae

Someone close to me recommended me this song. It made my skin prickle, the beat and the words resonated something I found familiar. Primarily, it enchanted me with bayou hoodoo vibes. The lyrics themselves sounded like a curse, brought to the practitioner through the reliable Book of Psalms. (And if so, condolences to someone’s enemy.) Anyways, we live in a generation that thrives off the energy of music. Its magic is ancient, attracting humankind since the beginning of the first song brought to us by the birds. Music have evolved throughout countless centuries and fast forwarding to today’s music, a good majority of us have struggled upon finding music that hypes up the “witchy” vibe. These are the songs we like hearing before we start our day, raise our vibrations and enlightens us. These are the songs that we hear on our way to work, that makes us proud and blushing to have a crystal or potion tincture in our pockets. Some of the songs we find comes from our favorite witch-related shows, or have you noticed? With that said, different music artists are revealing their involvement with the occult or ancestral practices, adding the magic and healing they have learned into their music. Among those artists would be Jhené Aiko and Erykah Badu. Then we have a new witch artist rising who goes by the name Kali-ma, whose rapping style heavily anchored on her practice of magic and the Yoruba Religion. Finally, to ramp up the playlist, refer to different songs and the energies that they attract. Of course, this is up to interpretation, for all of us bare different experiences with a song. Overall, this is just more awareness to the other options out there that can amplify the craft or the vibes of a witch’s day to day. The new ways are meshing with the old traditions, giving a new look and a new approval to this generation of incarnated old souls.

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Worldwide Underground studio album by Erykah Badu cover

Sail Out extended play by Jhené Aiko cover

The first two artist that became popular among millennial witches would be Jhené Aiko and Erykah Badu. Their music is slow and poetic, and their albums are novels dedicated to their emotions. They make most of us feel valid, understood—Jhené Aiko with her siren voice and Erykah’s songs sends some of us back to our introverted corners, smudged with incense, almost expecting a New York City backdrop at our windows. Overall, there is a lot to say about these two queens. I came across Jhené Aiko on last year’s Venus retrograde. Her album Sail Out echoed with how much of her own truth she was vulnerable to and made me realize all I was hiding within myself. Shadow work—the healing of emotional traumas, cycles, and confronting the darker aspects of ourselves—was powerful at the time for me. The album was a vibe of truth and human emotions and since meditating actively to this album, it resulted in getting amplified success on truth spells, attracting blessings was effortless, and her silver voice intensifies any Full Moon ritual. Meanwhile, Erykah’s music inspires the expansion of the creative mind. Her album, World Wide Underground, became a perfect medium for me when I sit down and prewrite my spells and rituals. Continuing to hear this album compels me to hotbox my room with incense, light my chimney candles, and work on a manifestation list of sorts. In addition, sun salutations and sun rituals vibes very well with Erykah’s voice. Moreover, botany, herbalism, teas and potions also adds to Erykah’s voice, as well as, past life work, breaking cycles, and trauma work. Especially the song Back in the Day softly playing in the background, incense eddying, carnelian stone in hand (great stone for past life work.). Songs like these encourages visions of growth, the journey of the human experience through terrestrial and soulful perspectives.  Like the sirens of ancient myth or the Fae of Ireland, these Queens spiked their albums with golden and silver magic. Did they do this on purpose? Was it an accident? Their music is an expression of their true self and struggles. Their vulnerability towards the truth allows the God in us recognizing the God in them.

The next artist that comes to the list is a rapper who goes by the name Kali-Ma. I came across her music through someone I follow on Instagram. The search directed me to her YouTube and then eventually, her Soundcloud account. Her music raises energy like the fires of Mars. Her raps are dark, volatile, and emanates a warning label to those who tries to cross a witch like her. Her raps are an anthem to witches but it targets specifically to the urban brujas with their affinities with Yoruba beliefs and other afro-central system of magic. The first song that caught my eye was The Conjuring of Kali-Ma and I was more than open to hear it since finding Princess Nokia’s song Brujas. If there were other raps dedicated to witches, I wanted it. The song introduced the rapper Khali-Ma and her pride for her practice that seem to involve the spirits of Ifa, the Ancestors, and other spirits she have accumulated in her Court of Magic. The young Queen announces herself as a Trap Witch with a Coven of Night that channels the darker, more chaotic elements of life. Darkness does not equate to evil, according to the witch’s dictionary and Khali-Ma challenges those society views. She reveals truth that we are too afraid to indulge in and encourages free thought. In the end of the day, her music makes us proud of who we are: witches. Moreover, her song My Love creates perfect vibes for sensual magic and spells for healing heartbreak, reflection, and passion. Songs like Dem Brujas and The Conjuring of Kali-Ma are anthem songs. Finally, her song Money: Bruja Version is a variation rap to Cardi B’s Money, which works both as an anthem song and for dressing prosperity candles and abundance rituals. Khali-Ma is on the rise and she is ascending still. Soon enough, she will end up having an album that would end up on a lot of urban witch’s playlist. Therefore, she stated on one of her songs, “…my Queendom is coming, it’s near."

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Lastly, there is a bunch of other songs in albums across the board that people manage to catch that portrays a witch or ritual vibe. These songs found in today’s pop music and urban melodies. I have already mentioned Princess Nokia’s song Bruja, another witch anthem song that gives us a window to the singers’ beliefs. I have also mentioned Bottom of the River by Delta Rae, the song bringing out hoodoo everglade vibes. I play this song all the time when serving my Ancestors, a cigar in my mouth and rum in my hands.  In addition, YouTube have brought me to B Steadwell as well, and a music-loving friend of mine recommended the song to me. B Steadwell’s Witch speaks to us in hushed tones about being in love with a witch, a priestess with astrology in her eyes. Moreover, most of us can relate of getting songs from friends who comes across tunes that reminds them of our witchy-nature. In addition to that, great songs to find are usually in witch/supernatural themed shows such as Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. There are the songs Black Magic Woman by VCTRY or A Little Wicked by Valerie Broussard, and Full Moon Tonight featuring Bellesaint. Generally, the hunt for new songs is exciting. When some of us finds a new song, we play it on repeat for days on end. For sure, that was what I did after developing my own ritual playlist.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina American web television series

Finally, back in the days of oral traditions Wise Women, Tribe Men, grandmothers, and aunties have sung songs laced with magic. Their songs told personal stories, ancestral myths, and cultural folklore. The Fae in the European side of the countries from Wales, Ireland, and even Scotland rumored to sing their spells. Perhaps that is why the witchcraft in those regions rhymes and flows like poetry, as a song would. Even the sirens were deadly with their magic but a song too beautiful for words still got humanity curious. When it comes to the artists, I have mentioned Jhené Aiko and Ms. Badu and Kali-Ma and the songs cited from earlier, their music seen as unconventional ritual music. The magical community is a collective of ancient of souls. We love our crystal sounding bowls, Tibetan chants, flute music, drumbeats. These symphonies creates the vibes we are seeking. However, it is still nice to fall into the revitalization of magical music, listening to music artist of a different flavor and admire them the way we admire and repost magical art on our Instagram and Facebook.  Overall, this is to open ourselves to new art that are being made by people about our community and within it. We are here. We are in shows, music, and we here in real life.
- Artemis St-Moonchild of Silfren Circle