Video: Kamasi Washington and Jenn Nkiru Debut 'Get Lit' Short Film

Kamasi Washington and artist and director Jenn Nkiru debut the short film for “Get Lit”, starring legendary musician Saul Williams, longtime bandmember Patrice Quinn and Washington himself, with appearances from funk icon George Clinton, Inglewood rapper D Smoke, Willow Smith, Raphael Saadiq, Robert Glasper and a number of others.

The short film was shot in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Leimert Park where Washington developed his roots as a jazz musician. Washington and Nkiru previously collaborated on As Told To G/D Thyself, a short film companion to Washington’s 2018 album Heaven and Earth that debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival to widespread acclaim and features parts of the Nkiru-directed videos for album tracks “Fists of Fury” and “Hub-Tones.”

“Get Lit,” featuring George Clinton and D Smoke, is taken from Washington’s new album Fearless Movement, out now via Young to critical acclaim—get it here. The album features singles “Prologue” and “Dream State” with André 3000, as well as “The Garden Path,” a song Washington performed for the first time ever for his late-night television debut on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and other collaborations with Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Taj and Ras Austin of Coast Contra, Brandon Coleman, DJ Battlecat, Washington’s daughter Akili and more.

Washington recently completed an extensive North American tour in celebration of the new album that included stops in New York, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles for the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, which he co-curated with Herbie Hancock for the second year in a row. He will also perform at Newport Jazz Festival in August and tour Europe in the fall—see below for full tour routing.

Kamasi Washington is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and bandleader born and raised in Los Angeles. His three bodies of work to date—The Epic; Harmony of Difference, an EP originally commissioned for the 2017 Whitney Biennial; and Heaven and Earth—are among the most acclaimed of this century. In 2020, Washington scored the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming, earning Emmy and Grammy nominations for his work. Also in 2020, Washington co-founded the supergroup Dinner Party with longtime friends and collaborators Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper and 9th Wonder—their EP Dinner Party (Dessert) was subsequently nominated for a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album. In 2021, he contributed a cover of Metallica’s “My Friend of Misery” to the band’s Metallica Blacklist covers project. Washington has toured the world over and collaborated and shared stages with Kendrick Lamar, Florence + the Machine, Herbie Hancock and many more.

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