Riz Ahmed and others use ‘Hamilton’ video to critique Trump immigration policy
If there were any doubts about how the “Hamilton” universe feels about Trump, they’re gone now.
A new music video for “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done),” released Wednesday, takes the mixtape track and places it directly in the context of today’s immigration policy. Depictions of immigrants picking fruit and stitching American flags are interspersed with “America’s ghostwriters” being hunted down by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The video, directed by Tomas Whitmore, runs just over six minutes and is the first to accompany a “Hamilton Mixtape” song.
Released late last year, “The Hamilton Mixtape” is a collection of covers and re-interpretations of songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway musical. Contributing artists include Alicia Keys, Wiz Khalifa and Kelly Clarkson, and a number of the recordings are collaborative efforts.
The new video was released just days after a Supreme Court ruling Monday that allowed a curtailed version of the president’s travel ban to take effect (although the court will take up the case more fully in its October term).The administration can now turn away visa applications from residents of six majority-Muslim nations if the applicants “ lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”
Ahmed, also known as Riz MC, seems to comment directly on the travel ban at one point in the “Immigrants” video, standing in a dimly lit subway car.
“Who these ‘fugees, what did they do for me,” he raps, “but contribute new dreams / taxes and tools, swagger and food to eat?”
In another visually striking portion of the video, Snow Tha Product raps while standing in front of a tattered American flag.
“You claim I’m stealing jobs though,” she raps. “Peter Piper claimed he picked them, he just underpaid Pablo / But there ain’t a paper trail when you living in the shadows.”
The diverse cast members of “Hamilton” have engaged with politics since the musical’s Broadway debut in 2015. Miranda, who has expressed his criticism of the Trump administration on Twitter, stopped by the White House last year and freestyle rapped alongside former president Barack Obama. (The Obamas have apparently seen “Hamilton” multiple times.)
After Vice President Mike Pence was booed at a November 18 “Hamilton” performance and cast member Brandon Victor Dixon critiqued the administration in a post-show speech, Trump demanded an apology . When asked about it at a screening of his film “Moana,” Miranda told U.K. publication “The Stage” that he didn’t think there was anything to apologize for.
“I think we tried to be as respectful as we could, and basically asked him to lead on behalf of all of us,” Miranda told The Stage. “And Mike Pence took it in that spirit.”
Ahmed commented on the Trump administration’s immigration policy in a February interview with Entertainment Weekly, calling the travel ban “very un-American.”
“So far be it for me to judge what an American president or government does,” he said, “but I would just hold up the very values America itself is supposed to be founded on and say, why don’t we just check those measures against those values we all signed up for, you know?”
The video’s release also comes at at time when Miranda is actively fundraising for the Immigrants: We Get the Job Coalition, a project of the Hispanic Federation, which works with partner agencies across the country to provide services to immigrants, refugees, and asylees, including legal representation and advocacy.