Sage, Kesha, And Chika Unite To Break The Gun-Violence Cycle In Powerful New Video

Soon after this year's horrific mass shooting in Parkland, Florida left 17 dead, young new artist Sage started work on a song. Sage, then a high-school senior, brought an early version of the tune to his sister, Kesha. On the final track — released on Friday (October 12) by means of the a gripping video made in partnership with March For Our Lives — the two team up on a powerful, memorable chorus: "I don't wanna be brave / I just wanna be safe."


The song's three minutes are also highlighted by verses from rising Nigerian-American rapper Chika, whose words paint a painfully visual of gun-violence epidemic In the
U.S.. And in the accompanying video, that epidemic, and its frustrating cyclicality, is on full display.


Sage appears briefly on a television alongside talking heads discussing that very cycle, yet the rest of the runtime is committed to portraying what's called "the most vicious cycle" — in other words, what occurs right after a mass shooting, as soon as we ultimately just be exactly where we started. To illustrate this, the YouTube upload contains three runs of the same video, caught in a seemingly endless loop, as a gunman's bullet (and the gun lobby's deep pockets) sets off a twisted Rube Goldberg-like labyrinth of damage during a school.


Kesha paired her contributions on this song with a stirring op-ed in Teen Vogue, also published on October 12. "It's sad to me that several politicians, pundits, and everyday Residents of the
U.S. Dismiss gun violence, not just mass shootings in schools, as just another segment of the culture in our nation she wrote. "I wish it wasn't. It doesn't have to be."


She references her brother Sage, and also their collaborator Chika, as fellow supporters of "candidates who support normal sense gun laws in this November's midterm elections, so that we can finally end senseless gun violence."


"United, our voices are more powerful, and right now we aspire to ask you to be piece of this movement with us," she ends the op-ed, calling for each person to come with each other to "break the vicious cycle." Read her full, compelling letter here, and watch the "Safe" music video above.


For more from March For Our Lives, visualize MTV News's coverage from the historic rally in March 2018 below.