Mustafa the Poet Releases Music Video of New Song “Name of God”

Sudanese-Canadian singer and poet Mustafa Ahmed, better known as Mustafa the Poet, has released his new song “Name of God” with a music video on 17 October 2023. It is the first new song since his album When Smoke Rises in 2021.

My song NAME OF GOD is out everywhere, all this loss all this loss, let us carry it well- in His name, in whatever way we must, video directed by me with spiritual assistance https://t.co/RMlNP5I7WM pic.twitter.com/WkdzExIanB

— Mustafa (@MustafaThePoet) October 17, 2023

The song, which is about gun violence and grief, pays tribute to his older brother, Mohamed Ahmed, who died at the age of 36 after he was shot inside a car in downtown Toronto in July 2023.

The self-directed music video shows Mustafa dressed in a traditional Sudanese jalabiya, partaking in Sudanese cultural dances along with other young men. He teased this aspect of the music video on his social media accounts 24 hours before he released the song and music video.

NAME OF GOD IN 24HOURS 🇸🇩🇸🇩 pic.twitter.com/6SeRd9NwCk

— Mustafa (@MustafaThePoet) October 16, 2023

Other visuals include hands of women decorated with black henna cleaning his face, and even guns pointed at his face. He also rides on the back of a motorcycle wearing a Sudanese jalabiya with the Sudanese flag as a cape.

The music video ends with an a family tape of his cousin Mohamed, who says ‘I’m nothing. I’m just a human and Muslim’, and later a picture appears on screen of a young Mustafa with his late brother Mohamed, paying tribute to him with the words ‘Mohamed, my only big brother, the decade I practiced grieving was no match for your leaving. May Allah grant you a mercy person that is moved by how you moved me and moved me and moved me until I was no longer there. I have not returned since you left.’

Mustafa has lost many loved ones to gun violence, which he refers to when he said, ‘the decade I practiced grieving was no match for your leaving’. His friend and community organiser Yusuf Ali was shot dead in 2014. Four years later, another friend, Smoke Dawg, was also fatally shot. His debut album “When Smoke Rises” and documentary “Remember Me, Toronto” confront gun violence and the resulting pain he endured when his friends were murdered.