12-Year-Old Keedron Bryant Releases Studio Version Of Viral Protest Song “I Just Wanna Live”

12-Year-Old Keedron Bryant Releases Studio Version Of Viral Protest Song “I Just Wanna Live”

The day after George Floyd was murdered by police, 12-year-old Keedron Bryant shared a video of himself performing an original song called “I Just Wanna Live,” written by his mother Johnetta Bryant, a cappella. “I’m a young black man/ Doing all that I can/ To stand,” he sang. “Oh, but when I look around/ And I see what’s being done to my kind/ Every day/ I’m being hunted as prey/ My people don’t want no trouble/ We’ve had enough struggle.”

Bryant’s video was seen by millions and shared by Barack Obama, Lupita Nyong’o, Janet Jackson, and LeBron James, and he has been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, CNN, the Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation, Access Hollywood, and BBC News. And now, he’s signed a deal with Warner Records and released a studio version of “I Just Wanna Live,” produced by Dem Jointz, as his official debut single.

Warner Records is donating 100% of the single’s net profits to the NAACP, and Amazon Music will donate $1 to the NAACP for every stream of the song on Amazon Music today up to $50,000. Tonight, Bryant will perform the song on ABC’s primetime special Juneteenth: A Celebration Of Overcoming and the NAACP’s Juneteenth Black Family Reunion: The Music, The Moments, The Movement. Listen to “I Just Wanna Live” below.

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