Canadian rapper, Classified, released a new song on Friday in support of people who feel powerless, with a specific focus on Indigenous people in Canada and women and children who’ve suffered abuse.
According to Classified, whose real name is Luke Boyd, the song, titled “Powerless,” is drawn from the experiences of multiple people who’ve reached out to the Nova Scotia musician.
According to Boyd, inspiration and lyrics are drawn from a letter of a young girl in Newfoundland and Labrador who wrote to him about being her hero, after he blasted a judge on Facebook for handing a St. John’s man a five-year sentence for sexually assaulting the then 11-year-old girl.
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“The amount of people who came forward with stories of a similar nature was shocking.”
The song acknowledges the difficulty of coming forward after abuse, and the reluctance to acknowledge that events of abuse do happen.
“We need to speak up for these kids … Don’t let them feel powerless,” Boyd raps in the song.
Some may feel that the song resonates with the ongoing #MeToo movement, and although Boyd can see why some might see it that way, he says the song reflects on struggles that have been going on long before the movement came to the forefront of society.
“I’ve worked on the song for a year and a half. … This isn’t something where I jumped on the bandwagon,” he said.
“I want this to be something we’re talking about for a long time into the future. We need to have these conversations.”
Indigenous injustices
The second verse of the song deals with the struggles and injustices that Indigenous people in Canada deal with — including the ongoing discussion about missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
Boyd says that topic came to him after a fan approached him and told him to talk about the issue in the music.
The rapper, who has Indigenous heritage, says that request hit close to him as he was personally connected to the issue.
“Too many questions and open murder cases, without a voice how are we supposed to encourage changes,” Boyd raps in the song.
He says that at one point he considered breaking the theme into its own song before realizing that the two topics— discussing those who are “powerless” in society — fit well together.
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A music video for the song should be dropping within the next 10 days.
Links to services where you can buy the song can be found on the rapper’s website.