Safe (musician)

Saif Musaad was born on 30 January 1997 in Mogadishu, Somalia and is of Somali - Eritrean descent. His father is Somali and his mother is Eritrean.[1] He immigrated with his family to Toronto when he was two months old, and grew up in the neighborhood of The Esplanade in eastern downtown Toronto.[2]

Around grade 10, Musaad began to focus on writing lyrics and recording. At the age of 18, he met Drake's manager Oliver El-Khatib at a video shoot and then got a job at the Toronto pop-up store for Drake's brand OVO. With encouragement from El-Khatib, and from his fellow members of two local rapper collectives – 878, also called Halal Gang (a group of Muslim rappers), and 176 – he continued to record, and to collaborate with artists including Bibi Bourelly, Ramriddlz, Eric Dingus, and Smoke Dawg.[3] In 2015 he began uploading songs to SoundCloud, and "Feel" became a hit,[1] receiving 4.15 million plays over four years. That same year he released his first EP, Stay Down.

In 2017 he moved to New York,[4] from where he continued to release singles including "No Diamonds," which criticized the ostentatious display of the trappings of wealth, and premiered at Vice on 24 September 2018,[1] and "New Regime," whose accompanying video depicted the seamy side of his hometown and his reasons for leaving.[3] In 2018, he was deeply affected by the murder of his close friend Smoke Dawg.[5]

During the same period, Safe's vocals were featured on a number of other artists' tracks, including the September 2018 single "Listen Closely" from fellow Canadians DVBBS,[6] the track "Don't Pretend" from Khalid's 2019 album Free Spirit, and YG's track "Play Too Much" on his 2019 album 4Real 4Real.[7]

In May 2019, Safe released his debut studio album Stay, on RCA Records. It contains 12 tracks that were characterized by cool R&B with elements of dancehall and afrobeat. QUIN and Playboi Carti were the only featured artists.[8]