When you press play on Where is my baby?, you’re not just stepping into a new single—you’re diving into the sonic workshop of Mostafa Al, the Iraqi-born mastermind behind Sheykh Forever. Released on August 15, 2025, the track pulses with paranoia, adrenaline, and an energy that feels equal parts fever dream and protest march. It’s music that doesn’t politely knock at the door of your attention; it barges in, dripping sweat, buzzing on static, demanding to be heard.
Sheykh Forever has never been shy about experimentation. This is the artist who swung from the anti-war urgency of Run for cover to the funk-soaked triumph of Sleeping dogs, each track a completely different beast but carrying that signature blend of grit and groove. Dave Franklin wasn’t exaggerating when he called it “originality, freshness, eclecticism, groove, and a feeling of sonic adventurousness.” But Where is my baby? shifts gears again—it’s harder, faster, more immediate, like a night drive on an empty motorway when you’re not sure if you’re running away from something or toward it.
The song draws from a fascinating lineage of sound. There are echoes of Massive Attack’s dark, storm-laden percussion, the raw confrontational energy of Yves Tumor, and the industrial throb of Andy Stott. But this isn’t pastiche. What Mostafa Al builds in his analog-fueled home studio is something entirely his own, a Frankenstein’s monster stitched together from disco, indie pop, and rock before being jolted to life with the high-voltage current of funk. The result is a track that constantly shifts under your feet—claustrophobic one second, euphoric the next—until you realize that instability is the point.
And then there’s the vocal centerpiece, courtesy of KER, a frequent collaborator whose ethereal delivery cuts straight through the storm. Her voice rises like smoke over the pounding drums and relentless bass, asking with devastating clarity: “Who will listen to those who have nothing left to lose?” It’s not just a hook—it’s a plea, a warning, and a thesis statement. KER’s lament transforms the song from a paranoid thumper into something deeply human, elevating the chaos into catharsis.
At its heart, Where is my baby? is about urgency—emotional, political, and personal. It thrashes forward like a heartbeat under stress, but hidden beneath the pressure is an undeniable groove. This is the trick Sheykh Forever plays so well: you’re dancing before you realize the lyrics are making you reconsider the state of the world. You’re nodding along, hips moving, before the weight of what you’re hearing fully lands. That contradiction—booty-bouncing funk fused with existential paranoia—is what makes this project stand apart.
Part of the magic comes from Mostafa Al’s devotion to analog production. In an age when laptops and presets dominate, he disappears into racks of vintage gear, sculpting and re-sculpting until each sound carries the grit of fingerprints. This commitment doesn’t just give the track its warmth and texture—it makes Where is my baby? feel like an artifact of both past and future, a time machine built out of sound. You hear the echoes of disco’s glitter, the thump of old-school rock, the haze of shoegaze-indie pop, all repurposed into something that feels defiantly modern.
If Run for cover was about protest and Sleeping dogs about triumph, then Where is my baby? feels like a confrontation with the unknown. It’s anxious, yes, but it’s also alive—alive in the way that being on the edge sharpens your senses. The paranoia isn’t paralyzing; it’s electrifying. And as listeners, we’re drawn into that heightened state, compelled to feel every jagged groove and relentless beat as though it were our own pulse.
There’s also the sense that this single is laying the groundwork for something bigger. With a full-length album in the works, Where is my baby? feels less like a standalone and more like a signpost. It’s a statement of intent, a promise that the Sheykh Forever universe is about to expand, with more worlds of sound waiting to be unearthed. If this track is the opening salvo, listeners should prepare themselves for an album that doesn’t just cross genres but explodes them.
And yet, for all its intensity, there’s joy in Where is my baby?—a joy in sound itself, in funk’s refusal to sit still, in pop’s shimmer, in rock’s ferocity. It’s music as survival, as defiance, as proof that even in paranoia and urgency, there can be groove. It’s an earworm not because it’s easy, but because it’s irresistible.
In the end, Sheykh Forever isn’t asking Where is my baby? for an answer. The question is rhetorical, more a howl into the void than a request for directions. What matters is the asking itself, the refusal to stay silent, the demand to be heard even in the face of chaos. With this single, Mostafa Al has once again proven that he’s not just making songs—he’s creating sonic spaces where contradictions collide, where funk and fear coexist, and where the future of pop sounds anything but predictable.
