Crimes against women is the subject of the latest track by popular recording artiste Lila Iké. She dropped the track Batty Rider Shorts on Friday, her first single since the release of her 2020 début EP, The Experience.

The powerful song, produced by Ziah Push, carries an important message of responsibility to protect and nurture our youth. It addresses child sex trafficking and paedophilia — recurring issues worldwide — as well as matters of particular importance to the artiste, among them the increasing rate of missing young girls, murder, rape, and reports of child molestation over the past year alone.

“I have been writing Batty Rider Shorts for a period of four years. This song was inspired by a situation I observed within my community. An innocent child (age 10 or so), who I would often sit and speak with about life and give words of encouragement (even whilst I was a child myself), eventually was taken advantage of by someone who should have been looking out for her. I was moved to tears on my drive back from the country as I thought about how her light became infiltrated by the dark energies that are hovering over children every day, all over the world. We need to be more responsible as a community, as friends, as parents, as extended family, and just as people. Look out for each other; but, most importantly, our children,” she shared on her Instagram account.

The singer, who is known for her genre-fusing blend of reggae, R&B, dancehall, and hip hop, talks about the song’s significance.

“My hope is that a little girl who doesn’t understand why a particular man is being so nice to her might hear a song like this and wonder, ‘Hmm, I wonder if he’s trying to…’ because a lot of young girls are just not socialised into healthy relationships. I think it’s very important to speak about these things. The history of our music was a medium for bringing information to the people, especially reggae music. We can have fun, listen to party and dance music and songs about love, but we still have real issues that need to be addressed too.” she further said.

Lila Iké is expected to continue to release new music throughout the year and is currently recording music for her anticipated début album. In October she is expected to embark on a mini Europe tour which will see her performing in The Netherlands and Switzerland. She also has dates for performances in Germany and France early next year.