A new music video takes aim at gang violence in Surrey and the rest of B.C.
The “Targets” clip, launched April 13 on MMM Music & Films’ Youtube channel, is sung in Punjabi by Gogi Bains, with Sam Sidhu credited as music director, Niranjan Singh “Nanji” Dhaliwal as lyricist and R. Paul Dhillon, video director.
It’s part of a campaign “to bring awareness to our youth,” according to a release from Surrey-based Brand D Media.
“The goal of all parties involved in trying to stop this gang-violence monster that is consuming our youth is to create atmosphere for youth take part in change and to identify behaviours attributed to a dangerous lifestyle in youth, and then to curtail these types of behaviours in our community.”
The South Asian community has gone through two decades of youth drugs and gang violence “that has claimed nearly 200 young Indo-Canadian men,” according to the release.
“And just when everyone thought that the nightmare of losing young men had finally ended, it has reared it’s ugly head again with a spate of shootings that claimed more young South Asian-Indo-Canadian men in recent wave of gang violence.”
• OUR VIEW: Ending gang violence requires better parenting, not just more cash.
Dhillon said the “Targets” video team is excited to see its hard work finally premiere, following months of work.
“We hope that our small effort bears fruit,” Dhillon said.
Added Dhaliwal: “This has been a long journey but we hope that it makes an impact with our youth - this is just a start of something that hopefully other artists and filmmakers will do on a continuous basis so that we can keep bringing awareness and education that can stop the flow our youth to gangs and drugs.”
• RELATED STORY: GANGS IN SURREY: The search for solutions.
The Targets team has done its own fundraising to fund this project, according to a release, “and we welcome others who want to make a contribution.”
The video post on Youtube includes a warning to youth “that drugs and gangs equals bullet and a body bag.
“If we can save one youth with our message of the death and destruction that drugs and gangs are causing, we will feel that our months of hard work and dedication to this project was worth the effort. The content is hard-hitting and intended to make you think!”