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Jun 08, 2020 By Samantha Small Leon Bridges

Leon Bridges is hoping for a “life more sweeter.” In light of current events, Grammy Award winning R&B songwriter has teamed up with Terrace Martin to release single “Sweeter,” a song about a black man taking his last breath. The track was originally recorded for a future album, but the duo felt that the world needed to hear it now, more than ever. Listen to the track below.

“Growing up in Texas I have personally experienced racism, my friends have experienced racism.” Bridgers says in a press statement. “From adolescence we are taught how to conduct ourselves when we encounter police to avoid the consequences of being racially profiled. I have been numb for too long, calloused when it came to the issues of police brutality. The death of George Floyd was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. It was the first time I wept for a man I never met. I am George Floyd, my brothers are George Floyd, and my sisters are George Floyd. I cannot and will not be silent any longer. Just as Abel’s blood was crying out to God, George Floyd is crying out to me. So, I present to you ‘Sweeter.’”

The track has a slow groove, with a midi-drum track tumbling over resonant keys and Bridges’ gentle timbre. With simple instrumentation, Bridges wants to make the message clear: black lives matter. “Because you stole from me /My chance to be,” he sings.

“It is always an honor to share a platform with my dear brother Leon Bridges,” Martin adds. “This is meditation music; it is not music for the ears but rather music for the heart. I truly believe that eyes have been deceiving us for so long but the heart always tells the truth. The heart needs to be repaired. Black folk have been deceived so many years, the only thing that can turn it around is a heart full of love.”

Leon Bridges’ last album, Good Thing, came out in 2018 via Columbia. Last week Terrace Martin released the new protest song “PIG FEET,” which was one of our Songs of the Week.

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