Spokenwordartiest Mustafa debuteert met een intieme folkplaat over de stadsjungle - CD van de week focus.knack.be - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from focus.knack.be Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The poet, a songwriter for artists including the Weeknd, explains how music helped him explore the loss of friends to inner-city violence: ‘Sorrow is meant to be experienced and felt’
Sun 30 May 2021 04.00 EDT
Growing up on Torontoâs Regent Park estate, Mustafa Ahmed first turned to poetry to bear witness to his neighbourhoodâs difficult stories. After a spell as a songwriter for hire (credits include the Weeknd and Camila Cabello), his eight-track debut album harks back to his own experience and channels the trauma of loved ones lost to gun violence. On the song Ali, he mourns the friend he lost in 2017, and the limitations of his art: âThere were no words to stop the bullets.â On Separate, he sings about a cohort âtoo young to feel this painâ.