Dave Okumu & The 7 Generations announce new album I Came From Love

You Survived So I Might Live is made up of the first four tracks from Okumu and The 7 Generations' new record, featuring "Two Things" with Grace Jones, "7 Generations" with Jones, Wesley Joseph and ESKA, "Blood Ah Go Run" with Joseph and Eska, and "Streets". The EP is also accompanied by a Nicolas Premier-directed video.

Speaking about "Blood Ah Go Run", which is inspired by the New Cross house fire in 1981 that killed 13 Black teenagers, Okumu says, "Living in an area as culturally rich and diverse as southeast London, I feel touched by an atmosphere of transcendence forged through a particular type of adversity. When you walk the streets and so many cultures are represented within a community, it’s difficult not to ask the questions ‘how did these people get here and what have their ancestors passed through so that I can have the life I am experiencing now?’ The story of the New Cross Fire and the subsequent response from different factions of society is one such trial, embodying a process which came to shape a significant element of the discourse around race relations in this country. Living in this part of London, I want to remember and honour those who lost their lives in that fire as their sacrifice, along with many others, feeds directly into my experience of this world."

He adds of the album, "The narrative of this record emerged in tandem with the origin of its musical journey, through a rumination on survival, ancestry and heritage. The account of the young west African girl who was transported to South Carolina in 1756 and sold to the slave owner Elias Ball and the subsequent unearthing and presentation of her story to her descendants became an emblematic framework for these songs, opening doors to many aspects of the diasporic experience. The music stands in loving defiance of any forces that would seek to disconnect us from our collective history. As I consciously stand before my ancestors through the medium of this sound world, I proclaim that ‘You survived so I might live’."

Tracklist:

1. Two Things (Feat. Grace Jones)
2. 7 Generations
3. Blood Ah Go Run
4. Streets
5. My Negritude
6. The Cost
7. Prison
8. Black Firework
9. Scenes
10. Amnesia
11. Get Out
12. Struggle
13. Eyes On Me
14. Abaka
15. Paradise (Feat. Grace Jones)