On a brisk evening in September, hundreds of 色色啦 music fans crowded into a tiny, nondescript studio for an exclusive preview of the highly anticipated new album from Mustafa, the storied singer and poet from Regent Park.
Beneath the makeshift stage, its short staircase draped in a crimson Persian carpet, the audience sat cross-legged on the floor, sipping from paper cups of tea, the album鈥檚 title projected above their heads in crisp white Arabic.
Wearing his signature bulletproof vest, Mustafa waded through the crowd, trailed by his close friend and collaborator, Daniel Caesar. 鈥淎s-salamu alaykum,鈥 he said by way of greeting, a nod to the sizable Muslim and Arab contingent among the diverse, mostly young crowd.
鈥淒unya,鈥 arriving this Friday, is a triumphant articulation of Mustafa鈥檚 vision, which he once described as 鈥渋nner-city folk music.鈥 Written and recorded in locales around the world, the album seamlessly fuses North American folk music with sweeping Sudanese strings, Egyptian oud, and pulsing flamenco rhythms. Anchored by Mustafa鈥檚 aching baritone, each song is delicately adorned with flashes of hip hop production and subtle electronic flourishes.
In the broad-ranging discussion that followed, Caesar gently poked fun at his friend: 鈥淵ou鈥檙e always singing about love, but never romantic 濒辞惫别.鈥
鈥淢y greatest love right now is my faith,鈥 Mustafa responded, with quiet conviction. 鈥淪o much of my life has been my tussle with grief and with loss and with burial. These are the things I became fixated on 鈥 it鈥檚 what drew me to becoming an artist.鈥
Stretching well past midnight, the event felt, in many ways, like an overdue homecoming for one of 色色啦鈥檚 favourite sons 鈥 an artist who in recent years has distanced himself from the city he once called home. But it also contained the air of an elegy, a lament for a place that Mustafa says failed him during his darkest hour.
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In Islam, 诲耻苍测腻 refers to the temporal or secular world聽鈥 a world聽filled with earthly desires and material trappings distract the faithful, and pull them away from 补濒-膧办丑颈谤补丑, or the hereafter.
For Mustafa, detaching himself from the temporal world has been both a mercy and a struggle. At just 28, his life has been beset by an unimaginable series of deaths, including聽his older brother Mohamed, who was killed last summer.
鈥淚 know probably 25 people from聽Regent Park that have been murdered, and all of them at the hands of someone from Regent Park,鈥 he told me over the phone from London. 鈥淚 want to focus on the afterlife. But it’s like the 诲耻苍测腻 keeps pulling me back.鈥
Releasing a new album as he grieves for his brother, Mustafa admits, has been a painful experience, 鈥渓ike picking cotton out of a thorn bush.鈥
Born to Sudanese immigrants, Mustafa Ahmed was raised in Regent Park, a densely populated, largely immigrant downtown neighbourhood that 鈥 prior to recent revitalization efforts 鈥 was dominated by large public housing blocks. A precocious child, his early poetry 鈥 which explored themes of poverty and violence 鈥 quickly caught the media鈥檚 attention. In 2009, an effusive 色色啦 Star profile referred to Mustafa as 鈥溕测檚 little poet man,鈥 and described the seventh-grader as a 鈥減rodigy at empathy.鈥
As a young adult and a member of the Halal Gang 鈥 a hip hop collective made up of Muslim and East African artists 鈥 Mustafa was named the poet laureate for the 2015 色色啦 Pan Am Games. In 2016, he was .
“My music videos have always been about preserving the truth of my life story,” Mustafa says, citing hip hop artists like Chief Keef as an inspiration for his own visuals. 鈥淐hief Keef鈥檚 videos were like a mirror to what was happening in his community,鈥 he says.
Jack McKainThat same year, Mustafa began collaborating with Canadian record producer Frank Dukes, working behind the scenes as a songwriter for major pop singers like The Weeknd, Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber.
But the arrival of his debut album 鈥淲hen Smoke Rises鈥 in 2021 revealed a deeper, more complex artist. Dedicated to his friend Smoke Dawg, a rapper and fellow Halal Gang member , the project was a stirring showcase of Mustafa鈥檚 extraordinary ability to spin beauty out of the recurrent grief and violence that marked his upbringing,
Sonically, the album was deeply influenced by the great Canadian folk artists that he grew up listening to 鈥 Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen 鈥 the latter of whom he calls 鈥渙ne of the greatest writers in the English language.鈥 Though just 23 minutes long, 鈥淲hen Smoke Rises鈥 made an immediate impact 鈥 it won the Juno Award for Best Alternative Album and was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize.
It was also a launching pad for Mustafa鈥檚 striking, hyperrealistic approach to music videos. The video for the song 鈥淎li鈥 鈥 a tribute to Mustafa鈥檚 friend Ali Rizeig, who was killed in 2017 鈥 was filmed in Regent Park and featured appearances from Rizeig鈥檚 family members and friends. It , a $20,000 award recognizing the best Canadian music video.
But by the time Mustafa performed his first聽hometown show in late 2021 at Massey Hall 鈥 the historic venue where so many of his folk heroes had played in the decades before him 鈥 his fraying relationship with 色色啦 had bubbled to the surface.
Though the performance was framed as a tribute to those he had lost 鈥 the audience was filled with folks from Regent Park, including the families of Ali Rizeig and Smoke Dawg 鈥 the mood was tainted by a heavy police presence and conspicuously intense security process, including metal detectors, to enter the building.
鈥溕 Police attempted to cancel the聽show, flagging it as a public safety risk,鈥 a visibly frustrated Mustafa 聽midway through the show.
For Mustafa, the controversy was an illustration of the hostility with which he and his community were treated.
鈥淚 actually feel most inferior when I’m in 色色啦,鈥 he tells聽me. 鈥淟ike, I actually don’t know if the city makes any space for me at all.鈥
On the end of a phone line nearly 6,000 km away,聽I聽can sense the emotion in Mustafa鈥檚 voice when he speaks about 色色啦 鈥 about the curse that seems to loom 鈥渓ike a dark cloud鈥 over Regent Park; about the fear and paranoia he feels each time he returns home; about the institutions that have repeatedly failed his community, and perpetuated a cycle of violence.
When Mohamed was killed, he felt betrayed by the media鈥檚 鈥渕istreatment鈥 of his family and its portrayal of his brother. And he felt a deep resentment against the 鈥渓owly, lowly鈥 rappers in the city who tried to ridicule his passing.
鈥淚 hate this city,鈥 he wrote in an emotional tribute he shared on Instagram. 鈥淚鈥檒l leave now, Alhamdulillah.鈥
鈥淚 grew up advocating for the city, trying to protect the hood,鈥 he tells me. 鈥淎nd in the face of the most devastating loss of my life, I don’t feel like 色色啦 appeared for me in the capacity that I needed.鈥
That anger and pain is captured on the song 鈥淟eaving 色色啦,鈥 a mournful duet with Daniel Caesar, and the only song on 鈥淒unya鈥 that was recorded in the city.
I鈥檓 leaving 色色啦
I would drown this whole city if I could
There鈥檚 nowhere I can go
That has enough room to let me bring my hood
鈥淚 want to love 色色啦 鈥 that’s the funny thing about it,鈥 Mustafa says. 鈥淚 remember making the cover of the 色色啦 Star when I was 12 years old and feeling like I belonged. That belonging was fragmented, but I felt it for once in my life. I think that a lot of my hatred and a lot of my resentment is coming from the fact that I feel like I deserve 色色啦. It is my own. You only get one home in this life.鈥
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Since that Massey Hall show, Mustafa has聽spent much of his time abroad, writing and recording in London, Sweden and New York. 鈥淚 couldn’t write in my home so I was honestly just searching for places that I felt comfortable,鈥 .
In 2022, , where he reconnected with his extended family. Alongside his longtime songwriting partner Simon Hessman, he spent time in Egypt, searching for new sounds and influences. Last spring, , the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
For his longtime fans, that ubiquity on the global stage has become a source of frustration: 鈥淢ustafa the poet be everywhere BUT 色色啦,鈥 one fan quipped on social media earlier this month.
On 鈥淒unya,鈥 the ghosts and memories of Regent Park loom large 鈥 but Mustafa鈥檚 horizons have broadened; both the sounds and subjects expanded onto a global scale.
Inspired by his trip to Sudan, the lead single 鈥淣ame Of God鈥 juxtaposes bright acoustic guitars with splashes of oud, over which Mustafa grapples with his relationship to Islam 鈥 a relationship he was forced to re-examine upon his return to his ancestral homeland. 鈥淚 don’t think I ever felt completely Muslim among other Muslims,鈥
Dramatic Sudanese strings sweep across 鈥淚maan,鈥 which Mustafa describes as 鈥渁 tender love song between two people in search of God and purpose,鈥 featuring backing vocals from Swedish R & B singer Snoh Aalegra. With vocals and production from Spanish shape-shifter Rosal铆a, the devotional 鈥淚鈥檒l Go Anywhere鈥 pulses with flamenco hand claps.
On 鈥淣ouri,鈥 the album鈥檚 stunning finale, Mustafa contends with his fear of losing his mother, 鈥淎ny room you鈥檙e in is where God is remembered,鈥 he sings over glistening ouds. In the album’s final moments, he reflects on her journey from Sudan: “Did you leave your dreams there?”
Many of the songs on “Dunya” first took shape during Mustafa鈥檚 time in Egypt, where he immersed himself in the sounds of local folk music, and found himself drawn to traditional Arabic instruments like the oud and muzikkon 鈥 stringed instruments prominent in Middle Eastern music. He spent hours at the Cairo Jazz Club, meeting local musicians, and convincing them with 鈥渋ncomplete Sudanese Arabic鈥 to record with him a studio he had rented nearby.
鈥淪o much of what I believed in, and so much of聽what I thought I knew about music was interrogated by my time in Egypt,鈥 he says.
Back in North America, Mustafa approached Aaron Dessner 鈥 a prolific producer and multi-instrumentalist with The National and Big Red Machine 鈥 to help him develop a sound that felt like a 鈥渢raditional, minimalist folk album.鈥
Dessner had first heard Mustafa鈥檚 work over a decade ago, when the young poet opened for The National at the Ottawa Folk Festival. He invited Mustafa to spend a week at , his famous, isolated recording studio in New York鈥檚 Hudson Valley, the same spot where Dessner worked with Taylor Swift on her 2020 album 鈥淔olklore.鈥
The first night that Mustafa spent at Long Pond, he was overwhelmed by the studio鈥檚 rustic beauty.鈥淗e told me, 鈥業 don鈥檛 think I鈥檝e ever existed in nature like this,鈥欌 Dessner recalls. 鈥淗e said he kind of freaked out listening to the birds at night, and nothing else.鈥
Over the following week, Mustafa and Dessner created a 鈥渇oundational bed鈥 for the songs that would eventually appear on 鈥淒unya.鈥
鈥淚 wanted some of it to feel more eerie, and I wanted to have an electronic element that still felt organic,鈥 explains Dessner. To get there, he enlisted the help of Nicolas Jaar, who was living in Bethlehem at the time, and DJ Dahi 鈥 鈥渙ne of the greatest American rap producers of all-time鈥 鈥 among other producers and musicians who continued to finesse the songs into their final shape.
鈥淭he use of field recordings, the willingness to turn the table over repeatedly is brave,鈥 Dessner says, describing 鈥淣ame Of God鈥 as one of his favourite songs he鈥檚 ever worked on: 鈥(Mustafa) didn鈥檛 settle for the easy path 鈥 there鈥檚 a collage aspect to the record that I think is brilliant.鈥
The results feels like a comprehensive distillation of Mustafa鈥檚 varied influences 鈥 a sui generis recipe that calls for equal measures of Fairuz, Sufjan Stevens and Future.
鈥淚 was trying to dance with all these different elements, and discover a world where they all met,鈥 Mustafa explains. 鈥淚t was almost like I invited Leonard Cohen and Muhammad Wardi 鈥 a famous Nubian singer 鈥 into this open field, and I told them stories about what it was like growing up in the hood, and asking them to give me the tools to write these songs.鈥
Across 12 songs, Mustafa introduces listeners to a host of characters 鈥 childhood friends, overseas cousins 鈥 each a finely drawn portrait of contrasts and multitudes, of the impossible distance between a hometown and a homeland, of the tension between the 诲耻苍测腻 and 补濒-膧办丑颈谤补丑.
鈥淢y responsibility as an artist in many ways is to reflect the good and the bad of what it means to be Muslim, to be Black, to be from the hood,鈥 he says. 鈥淢y dream is to continually explore what that nuance looks and feels like.鈥
Mustafa has emerged as one of the most prominent voices of Palestinian solidarity. Earlier this year, he hosted ,聽raising close to $1.5 million in humanitarian aid.
Renell Medrano鈥
Inevitably, our conversation turns to the conflicts in Sudan and Gaza, and their respective liberation and solidarity movements, which Mustafa sees as deeply linked and interwoven.
Just months after he travelled to Sudan, a brutal civil war broke out in the country, displacing millions and resulting in the deaths of thousands. Dozens of Mustafa鈥檚 family members were forced to flee from the capital of Khartoum to a city deep in the desert. The house his parents had been building in Sudan was destroyed,
鈥淲e are connected to every war, we are connected to every genocide,鈥 Mustafa says, describing his unflinching commitment to these solidarity movements. 鈥淲e are each other’s magnitude and bond, as , there is nothing that we’re disconnected from.鈥
It鈥檚 a sentiment that is echoed on 鈥淕aza Is Calling,鈥 a song he wrote years ago about a troubled childhood friend whose family fled from Palestine, only to be caught up in new cycles of trauma and violence in their adopted home: 鈥We grew up on a street, where every war meets / All our living rooms were aflame.”
鈥淗e was the coldest among us,鈥 he reflects. 鈥淎 lot of us came from war, but he came from a kind of war that we never understood. And it produced the kind of boy that was trying to escape so much of his life.鈥
Since the outbreak of war in Gaza last October, Mustafa has emerged as one of the most prominent and unflinching cultural voices of Palestinian solidarity.
Last October, he : 鈥淚鈥檓 asking you to use the same tongue that defended Israel & condemned Hamas to defy this active genocide and imprisonment that is levelling Gaza, that is burying & disfiguring children & women.鈥
In January, at a time when many artists feared speaking out about the issue, Mustafa organized the聽 benefit concert to raise money for Gaza and Sudan. He brought together 14 artists 鈥 including Charlotte Day Wilson, Daniel Caesar, Clairo and Stormzy 鈥 to perform at the Newark Symphony Hall. (Mustafa had originally planned to host the event in 色色啦, but 鈥渆very single venue I approached denied me,鈥 he says, 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 believe it.鈥)
The event sold out in 30 minutes, and raised $700,000 for the Canadian international relief organization Human Concern International. The second benefit show in London, UK, which included performances from Blood Orange, FKA Twigs and Yasiin Bey, raised close to $750,000 for War Child鈥檚 Gaza and Sudan response.
In June, he shared a heart wrenching video for 鈥淕aza Is Calling鈥 鈥 filmed in the West Bank city of Jenin, the video was directed by Palestinian actor Hiam Abbass, and was produced alongside Bella Hadid and Ramy Youssef. The proceeds were donated to the Palestinian Children鈥檚 Relief Fund.
Months later, as the conflicts in Sudan and Gaza grind on, Mustafa continues to grieve 鈥 for his lost brother, and for his homeland. It鈥檚 a dark time to release a new record, he admits, though he refuses to fall into despair. 鈥淗opelessness is a colonial weapon,鈥 he suggests.
鈥淚n my heart I need to believe that people see my efforts in trying to find a balance despite all the violence and how morbid it all feels,鈥 he says.
鈥淗ope is a critical part of our re-imagination 鈥 of every system and community. And I hope that (listeners) hear that 鈥 that they hear a thread of hope, even on this record and on my way forward beyond it.鈥
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