Mustafa’s Folk Album ‘Dunya’ is a Tale of Hope & Grief

Sudanese-Canadian artist Mustafa, known as Mustafa the Poet, has recently released his highly-anticipated debut album, ‘Dunya’, a textured folk tale of faith and grief.

“Some of these songs are skies, some of these songs are ground and no escape,” Mustafa wrote on his Instagram account. “I considered burying it with everything I lost but what’s the use of all of this digging? We’ll take it to the sun, make use. For the love of God, for the love of the hood, for the love of graveyards with enough friends to host a ceremony, a pickup game. There are no words for how this album held me, there are less words for how the world let me go as I wrote it. Dunya in all its illusion.”

While Mustafa has initially established a name for himself in the global music scene, penning pop tunes for renowned artists like Camila Cabello, The Weeknd and Shawn Mendes. Now, his brand-new record, ‘Dunya’, sees him heavily leaning towards folk music.

The record is rich with soulful melodies and understated hooks inspired by the singer-songwriter’s Arab cultural heritage, blending genres and moods, and weaving novelistic details into instantly memorable folk songs with remaining hints of his signature pop sensibility. His hauntingly soothing vocals weather smoothly between an amalgamation of acoustic guitar and oud arrangements, flutes, dulcimers and piano notes, as he goes from radically exploring the world in all its flaws and the brutal violence and genocide unravelling in Sudan and Gaza, on tracks, to the gentrification of his hometown, and his childhood trauma.

While, across the 12 tracks, Mustafa approaches each of these universal themes through a personal lens on tracks like ‘Gaza is Calling’, ‘Hope is a Knife’ and ‘Beauty, end’, the album’s opener, ‘Name of God’, as well as ‘Imaan’, see him expanding the boundaries of his autobiographical storytelling, presenting a loving interrogation of his lifelong practice of Islam.

In ‘SNL’, - a track he released ahead of the album release as a preview, co-produced by his frequent collaborators Simon Hessman and Rodaidh McDonald - Mustafa sings in heart-wrenching verse over what sounds like a campfire sing along, exposing the singular voice of a writer who cities Future and Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker among his biggest influences.

In ‘I’ll Go Anywhere’, featuring vocal accompaniment from Rosalia, Mustafa weaves a melody his parents sang to him as a child, with rhythmic elements from flamenco, East African, and Nubian music. Meanwhile, in ‘What Happened, Mohamed?’, Mustafa delves deeper into his personal life, meditating on his mental health in dealing with full-out friendships, and how aging creates distance between old friends. Besides Rosalia, ‘Dunya’ features a slew of A-list collaborators, including, The National’s Aaron Dessner, JID, Nicolas Jaar and Clairo.

In short, ‘Dunya’ further cements Mustafa’s rapidly growing reputation as a poet laureate and folk artist, showcasing his wholly distinct and unique sound that is so far away from being pop.