Leon Bridges and Terrace Martin Celebrate Community in "Sweeter" Visual

Leon Bridges and Terrace Martin have dropped off an accompanying music video for their collab, “Sweeter.”

Directed by Bridges’ longtime photographer and collaborator Rambo, the visual was filmed in the Forth Worth, Texas neighborhood where the Grammy winner grew up. The music video features his father and friends, most of whom he’s known since childhood. “I wanted to shine a light on the Black community in Fort Worth, and specifically my childhood community from the Southside of Fort Worth. I had my friends and family with me; this is a celebration of our Blackness,” he said in a statement.

“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. I have been numb for too long, calloused when it came to the issues of police brutality,” Bridges continued. “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.”

Watch Leon Bridges and Terrace Martin’s “Sweeter” music video above.

Elsewhere in music, several music companies have announced their observances of Juneteenth.