Mustafa shares the powerful “Stay Alive”

Mustafa, the Toronto-based poet, filmmaker, activist, and songwriter, shared his debut single earlier this week, “Stay Alive,” along with its powerful visuals.

Back in 2019, he shared Remember Me Toronto, a film focused on Toronto’s gun violence featuring artists from across the city including Drake. In “Stay Alive,” Mustafa takes viewers around the city’s Regent Park neighborhood, an area in the midst of intense gentrification and further marginalization of its residents. "All of these tribes and all of these street signs / None of them will be yours or mine," he sings on the track. The visuals almost seem at odds with the brooding, delicate ballad produced by Frank Dukes and James Blake, but lyrics about resilience, community, and the bleak realities of living on the fringes pair perfectly.

“It takes a village, it takes a few lifetimes,” Mustafa said in a tweet sharing the video. “Rest In Peace to the friends I've lost, long life to the ones still living, nothing in vain, Regent Park forever."

Watch the video above.