Over the past few years, knife crime in the UK has reached crisis point. According to police figures, knife crime rose by more than a fifth in the UK last year, with a third of the recorded 37,443 offences taking place in London. By March of this year, 26 people in total had been stabbed to death in the capital, with six of them being teenagers, and most of them being black men. In other words, the system is continuing to fail swathes of young people (rather than seeking to understand and cure the root causes of violence using a public health approach).Yesterday, UK singer RAY BLK released a video for her track “Run Run” that tackles these very subjects. In the clip – which was directed by Tom Green – a young boy can be seen running through an estate, constantly dodging the violence that surrounds him, or else being confronted with those who have died. The track itself is a steady, R&B anthem, with RAY's emotive vocal making it twice as visceral. The whole thing only clocks up to 3:33, but it hits hard nonetheless.Speaking about the visual in a press release, Ray said: “It was such an emotional experience making this. The scenarios became so real and at some points hard to watch and listen to, there were tears on set. Tom Green was the best director for my vision, he really understood the direction and made something so powerful. I’m so proud of what we’ve made.”Watch the video above and read our profile with RAY BLK from earlier this year here.You can follow Noisey on Twitter.
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