A 12-YEAR-OLD, whose song protesting against the police killings of African Americans has gone viral, is now signed to Warner Records, said his producer on Instagram yesterday.

Keedron Bryant’s I Just Wanna Live, about his fears growing up black in the US, will be released today, which is the Juneteenth holiday marking the end of slavery in the country.

He first posted the a capella gospel song on his Instagram account on May 26, a day after African-American George Floyd was killed by a white policeman in the city of Minneapolis.

Floyd’s death – one in a long line of black people killed by white law enforcement – ignited mass Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and a national reckoning on racism in the US, both in the past and present.

“Every day, I’m being hunted as prey. My people don’t want no trouble,” sings Bryant.

The original post has been “liked” more than three million times and drawn praise from former president Barack Obama to pop sensation Katy Perry. It also caught the attention of producer Dem Jointz, who reportedly added music to the track.

Dem Jointz, in an Instagram post yesterday, said he is “thankful” to share the song alongside the Bryant family and Warner Records.

The US music giant will reportedly donate proceeds from the song to the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. – AFP, June 19, 2020.