Mustafa, the Toronto musician formerly known as Mustafa the Poet, has signed to Jagjaguwar, marking the news with the single ‘Imaan’. Featuring guest vocals from Snoh Aalegra, the track comes with a music video co-directed by Mustafa and Nabil Elderkin, with creative direction from Ramy Youssef. Check it out below.
“‘Imaan’ is a love song between two people in search of God and purpose,” Mustafa explained in a statement. “It’s about longing for all that we don’t have evidence of. Two Muslims journeying through their love of borderless Western ideology and how it contradicts with the modesty & devotion in which they were raised.”
He continued: “‘Imaan’ sonically represents this tussle too – the Sudanese strings and Egyptian oud woven into the bed American folk chords and drums. This tapestry, this collision is the song, is the romance, is the person Mustafa is. How it’s never enough, or too much. The song sits in the grey that people of faith are afraid to live in, but identify with. It’s about the way faith swings beneath Mustafa and Imaan like a rope. How cultural tension and bias and racism can inform and dismember romance.”
‘Imaan’ will feature on Mustafa’s as-yet-unannounced debut album, alongside the previously shared ‘Name of God’.
