More and more artists are speaking up to stand with the Black Lives Matter movement through their music. Michael Kiwanuka, who was supposed to perform at the Green Man Festival earlier this year, just recently released a video for his song “Light” that was originally released on his album Kiwanuka last year. This video follows his last music video release from last September in 2019 for his song, “You Ain’t the Problem.”

“Light,” is about finding a light to look for in the darkness. The song is bright sounding and hopeful. Kiwanuka says in his lyrics, “Shine your light over me/(All of my fears are gone)/All of my fears are gone, baby, gone, gone/(And it don’t bother me)/It don’t bother me, don’t bother me, no/(If it’s not meant to be),” expressing that this light can take away his fears. Kiwanuka is lyrically focused in the song going further to say, “I had to lose to understand/Strung out from all this/Pour out a thousand tears/I never knew a kinder man,” insinuating that until one goes through the loss they will not understand the real impact of the emotions that come behind being a Black person in America. The last lyric also expressed his exhaustion from these trying times and how emotional and saddening this can be for the black community.

Within the animated music video includes images of Black men and women protesting. A particular image stands out of a young Black man holding a sign that says, “Am I next?” The message from this video is trying to get across the message of the fear within the Black community for their mothers lives, fathers lives, sisters, brothers lives because of the unjust system in America. With the combination of the hopeful lyrics and music video, there is a feeling of hope surrounded by the message of the story in the song.