Safe (musician)


Saif Musaad, professionally known as Safe, is a Eritrean-Canadian singer, rapper, and songwriter.

Early life and career

Saif Musaad was born on 30 January 1997 in Abu Dhabi and is of Eritrean descent. 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.
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, and 176 – he continued to record, and to collaborate with artists including Bibi Bourelly, Ramriddlz, Eric Dingus, and Smoke Dawg. In 2015 he began uploading songs to SoundCloud, and "Feel" became a hit, 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, 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, and "New Regime," whose accompanying video depicted the seamy side of his hometown and his reasons for leaving. In 2018 he was deeply affected by the 2018 murder of his close friend Smoke Dawg.
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 and the track "Don't Pretend" from Khalid's 2019 album Free Spirit, and YG's track "Play Too Much" on album 4REAL 4REAL.
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.

Discography

Mixtapes