Acclaimed poet and singer/songwriter Mustafa takes listeners on an intimate journey through the many faces of pain, passion, and time itself on “SNL,” the fourth single off his forthcoming debut album, ‘Dunya.’
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Stream: “SNL” – Mustafa
Can music be an extension of our deepest, most held truths?
Can our emotions hold the key to the many realities of life? Can infatuation be disguised by melancholy and melancholy therein disguised by mere memory? A plethora of questions that ebb and flow within our existence, like a river, soft and slow, in and out, leaving us subject to actualizations that leave impressions so honest, it almost feels surreal.
For 28-year-old Toronto-born musician Mustafa, these questions are but the foundations of all introspection. There is truth within the music we listen to, ingrained in the lyrics we sing and left at our whim for our exploration, and his latest single “SNL” off his upcoming album Dunya dives into its intricacies.
Construction outside
Woke us up ’bout fifteen times
You took the gun and shot it at the sky
To trade this bullet for a new life
Bullet like a new cry
Let’s go inside
It begins with a memory, something distinct and personal– so much so it’s delved with an untouchable passion for what once was. With every sung lyric, listeners are taken on a journey into the deepest parts of Mustafa’s mind. He sings of life and loss, dynamically exploring grief through the eyes of a beloved memory; and here, the bereavement of love within the contexts of a bullet are crafted to be the beginnings of a life anew as the gun is fired. He continues:
I wanna see you in a dim light
I think I wanna be a good guy
But good guys die first
Side bag like a purse
We’re still here where we know it hurts, oh
Where we know it hurts
And the day that I had you
Yelling gang-gang-gang in my room
You sprayed me with perfume
Then we took the night, took a drive
And you were singing a street lullaby
Within the melancholy of his past comes the wants of his present, but he walks on a fine line here that drudges on the burdens of anguish, remorse, and the simple yearning of being human. He is hurting for more time with this person, hurting with their death, hurting that the outline of their face is no longer distinct, and that good and bad, life and death are not as black and white as we make them out to be.
He expands on his inner struggles with morality and mortality, saying, “I think I wanna be a good guy, but good guys die first,” and while it seems like pure introspection at this point, he still metaphorically highlights his loved one’s presence on his continued actions and thoughts.
“SNL” comes as the fourth single off Mustafa’s debut studio album, Dunya, set to release September 27 via Jagjaguwar.
“This record encapsulates so much of my life,” Mustafa shared upon his album’s announcement, adding, “I’m trying to preserve and celebrate the ordinary life in the hood.”
Translated, dunya is the Arabic term for “the world in all its flaws,” and “SNL” follows suit, carrying the same theme through the lens of grief beyond realism – a world on its own flawed by the pains of mourning. While it has not been confirmed, the song is thought to be in honor of the poet’s older brother, Mohamed Ahmed, who was shot and killed in Toronto in 2023. Lyrically, poetically, and with such intensely illustrative ardor, the song feels like his means of connection with not only a lost sibling, but his own sense of being a little brother– captured in memory, painted in descriptive color, and sung in a lullaby.
Tryna remember the pain
When I wasn’t afraid
When we ran to the store with everything we made
Three dollars, one bike to last us through the day
And the time I never seen you
There’s the mellow strums of guitar, the echoing voices of conversation embedded in the background, the subtle hints of piano weaving through, and the crescendoing vocals of repeating la la las in the chorus that make “SNL” wholly and truly what it is– a song of memoriam cradling the many lost moments of past and present. He brings into light the many realities of preserved emotions, illuminating it as the gates to things left unsaid. Even in his next lines, words that ring “Easy come, easy go / If it was love you would’ve known / I really feel like it’s only us in this city,” do we feel the urgency of pain, grief, and the sense of pure untouched love that wax and wane with every softly sung lyric.
I’m trying to preserve and celebrate the ordinary life in the hood.
And the day that I had you
Yelling gang-gang-gang in my room
You sprayed me with perfume
Then we took the night, took a drive
And you were singing a street lullaby
As that final chorus rings through, an outro in Arabic fills the audio with a touch of cultural character – something intimate and real, refined and gentle, melodious as it overflows until its end – and it’s in this that the lullaby finds its somber goodbye.
The past is no longer left untouched here, but embraced in its entirety.
Those memories Mustafa sings of have penetrated the mind with new meanings of love and sadness, and it’s perfumed with scents and feelings that will continue to last for the poet.
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Stream: “SNL” – Mustafa
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© Jack McKain
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