Asian-American Hip Hop Artist Star2 is Back with ‘Run Away’

Run Away, Star2’s staggering new “conscious rap” release, documents the crushing social and environmental catastrophes that plague our world and consume us with alarm and despair, including the horrific invasion of Ukraine. Woven in his sobering retrospective is his personal sorrow and anguish growing up without a mother and father in a refugee camp in South East Asia – fleeing genocide and ethnic cleansing of his Ka-ren people by the brutal Burmese Army and Myanmar Military Regime.

The video was filmed in an LED panel warehouse in Compton, California.  A wet floor reflects the panoramic and mesmerizing images, as well as a series of vintage tv, sets Star2 views in a 1970s style living room watching in a peace symbol sweatshirt. Included are the Black Lives Matter protests, the desperate exodus from the Afghanistan airport, border patrol agents whipping Haitian refugees, tornado carnage in Kentucky, apocalyptic fires in California, homeless encampments, Burmese soldier atrocities, the Russian invasion in Ukraine, and the juxtaposition of the last views of stunning nature – birds, ocean, forests, mountains, what once was…

The visuals are instantly recognizable and bring sadness and even temporary numbness. Star2 reveals, “I wanted to write a song about the state of the world.  I was in the studio recording during most of COVID and in LA during the Black Lives Matter protests.  My family fled genocide, has experienced starvation and atrocities.  My neighborhood in San Diego is a crossroads for refugees and the problems of poverty, homelessness, mental illness, and addiction.” “The chorus poured out of me – at my lowest point, I literally want to run away – to a place of safety. Most of the suffering in the world is heartbreaking and so unfair!” The end of the video asks everyone to “Pray for peace in our world.” Star2 implores: “pray for my Ka-ren people who continue to experience genocide, for the Ukrainian people, and for everyone suffering injustice – pray for peace.”