In 1997, Drexciya released a compilation album, titled The Quest.[5] The duo released three studio albums: Neptune's Lair (1999), Harnessed the Storm (2002), and Grava 4 (2002).[6]
Drexciya, which eschewed media attention and its attendant focus on personality,[7] developed around a nauticalafrofuturist myth.[8] The group revealed in the sleeve notes to their 1997 album The Quest that "Drexciya" was an underwater country populated by the unborn children of pregnant African women who were thrown off of slave ships; the babies had adapted to breathe underwater in their mothers' wombs.[9] The myth was built partly on Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), according to Kodwo Eshun.[10]
Stinson died suddenly on 3 September 2002 of a heart condition.[11] Gerald Donald continues to produce music under other names such as Dopplereffekt with To Nhan Le Thi and Japanese Telecom.[1]
Legacy
In 2019, with support from Gerald Donald and Helen Stinson, the mother of James Stinson, visual artist Abu Qadim Haqq created The Book of Drexciya, Volume I (and later The Book of Drexciya, Volume II in 2021), which was inspired by the mythos of Drexciya’s work.[12] The books chronicle the origins of Drexciya and the rise of their first ruler, Drexaha.[13]
In 2023, "From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya", a multimedia exhibition by American photographer and contemporary artist Ayana V. Jackson opened at the National Museum of African Art. The exhibit took inspiration from the founding myth of Drexciya and directly featured music by the group.[14][15]
