Immigrants (We Get The Job Done): Lin Manuel Miranda unveils powerful video ft. K'naan, Riz MC and K'naan
Video is a 'musical counterweight' to the vilification of immigrants in US politics
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The standout line from hit musical Hamilton became an entire song on Lin Maneul Miranda's The Hamilton Mixtape, and the track now has a powerful music video as well.
Featuring rappers K'naan, Residente, Riz MC (Ahmed) and Snow Tha Product (a Somali Canadian, Puerto Rican, British Pakistani, and Mexican-American), the track's title - 'Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)' - is taken from 'Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)' and is a powerful tribute to the importance of immigration in America and Britain.
K'naan told Entertainment Weekly: "It's become more potent [post-election]. It's more of a fight song."
Snow Tha Product added: "Now more than ever, we need to speak on these issues."
The highly stylised video was launched to help promote fundraising for the Immigrant: We Get The Job Done Coalition, a group of immigrant-rights not-for-profits based in the US.
Ahmed's rap begins: "Ay yo aye, immigrants we don’t like that/Na they don’t play British empire strikes back/They beating us like 808’s and high hats/At our own game of invasion, but this ain't Iraq/Who these fugees what did they do for me/But contribute new dreams/Taxes and tools, swagger and food to eat."
Refugees and migrants arriving in Catania, Sicily
Show all 7As part of the campaign, Miranda is asking fans to post videos of themselves performing tracks off the Hamilton soundtrack, in a similar vein to the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Miranda said of the song on Genius: "This election cycle has brought xenephobia and vilification of immigrants back to the forefront of US politics. This is a musical counterweight.
"On the line-up we have K'naan, Snow Tha Product, Riz MC and Residente: Each MC culturally represents from a different place on the map. These are my favourite MCs from all over the world. They can speak to this theme from their brilliant perspectives."
NPR notes that the mini-film has gone live just two days after the Supreme Court said it would re-hear the case of Alejandro Rodigruez, a young immigrant who was detained for three years without a hearing after he was convicted for joyriding and admitted to misdemeanour possession.
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