R&B maestro Leon Bridges opens up about his painful experience with racism on a somber new track titled “Sweeter.”
With multitalented musician Terrace Martin accompanying on saxophone, Bridges offers a therapeutic conversation about racism in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“Growing up in Texas I have personally experienced racism, my friends have experienced racism. From adolescence we are taught how to conduct ourselves when we encounter police to avoid the consequences of being racially profiled,” Bridges says.
He continues, “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.”
Martin added, “It is always an honor to share a platform with my dear brother Leon Bridges. 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.”
Bridges’ collaboration with Martin follows his quarantine-themed track “Inside Friends” with John Mayer and a 2019 interview with Rated R&B.
Listen to Leon Bridges and Terrace Martin’s “Sweeter” below.
