“All of these tribes and all of these street signs, / None of them will be yours or mine. “Just put down that bottle, tell me your sorrows,” Mustafa sings. The song acknowledges daunting social challenges while offering solidarity and moral support. He occasionally uses a rapid vibrato and slips into a falsetto. Mustafa announces himself in a gentle, sometimes androgynous voice. The EP begins with “Stay Alive,” one of its more affecting songs. Slight shifts in dynamics, the entrance or muting of given instruments and the interplay between the musicians and the samples deepen the songs’ impact. Occasional samples of Sudanese and Egyptian music, taken from Smithsonian Folkways anthologies, provide additional texture and anchor Mustafa’s music in the social and international context from which it arises. Many also feature samples of Mustafa’s friends speaking, including those who have died. Most of the songs include guitar arpeggios, keyboard or piano and a single tom-tom for percussion. When Smoke Rises is unified by its quiet performances and by the similarity of the songs’ arrangements. “I couldn’t write anything else,” he told the New York Times.
But soon he felt the need to write about his own experiences. Searching for his own voice, Mustafa first collaborated with other artists such as Usher, Camila Cabello and the Weeknd. Mustafa dropped the “Poet” epithet to distinguish the songs that he had begun writing from his verse. Mustafa also took inspiration from Sufjan Stevens’s tribute to his mother on his 2015 album Carrie & Lowell. Among his influences are Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen. Unlike his friends, Mustafa gravitated not to rap but to singer–songwriters with a background in folk music. His Instagram posts in support of the Palestinians during Israel’s recent attack on Gaza show that his concerns extend beyond his immediate surroundings. He was dubbed Mustafa the Poet and, with time, he became an unofficial mentor, confidant and spokesman for his community. Before he became a teenager, his verse about his neighborhood’s social problems earned him the attention of the Toronto Star. At the encouragement of his older sister, Mustafa began writing poems as a child. He grew up in a Toronto housing project called Regent Park, known for high rates of crime, drug abuse and violence. Mustafa Ahmed was born to Sudanese parents who emigrated to Canada in 1995.