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Music Campaign
 

Manu Chao posterThe legendary winner of Best World Music (1999) and Billboard's Latin Music Awards (2008), Manu Chao, announced he will perform a free "Alto Arizona" concert in collaboration with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and local immigrant rights organizations. The multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and globe-spanning musician will bring his chart-topping music to Phoenix in a rare free community performance.

Through his music, Manu has originated and elevated global protest pop with a style of music that could be at home anywhere in the world. "We are pleased Manu Chao will join the struggle of humble and persecuted migrants in Arizona. His music is universal and constitutes a direct repudiation of intolerance and the systematic persecution of migrants not just in Arizona but beyond invented borders." explains Pablo Alvarado, Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "We're honored to partner on an Alto Arizona concert to help the tide on hatred. And Manu Chao's music is a valuable reminder that the struggle for human dignity is not just fought for, it's also celebrated."

The Free Concert will take place on Wednesday, September 21, at a downtown Phoenix, AZ at West Grant and S 2nd Ave, Phoenix, AZ. (Across the Street from El Portal Restaurant).

» CLICK HERE TO SEE UPDATED INFORMATION »

Songs in Solidarity with Arizona

Check out songs created in solidarity with AZ.

CORAZON remix (feat. SticMan of DEAD PREZ) by BRWN BFLO
Out of Oakland, California, hip-hop group BRWN BFLO partner up with SticMAN of DEAD PREZ to address the issue of SB 1070 and call for Black & Brown unity against anti-immigrant sentiment. For general information, go to: brwnbflo.com or brwnbflo.bandcamp.com

SHERIFF ARIZONA by Amanditititita
From Mexico, the self-proclaimed 'Queen of AnarCumbia' created this song about the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Maricopa County, Arizona, who has used the 287(g) program to target and deport undocumented migrants for years, paving the way for the "show me your papers" law SB 1070 in 2010. See more about Amanditititita here: myspace.com/amanditititita

Tear Down That Wall by Chuck D
"In 1991 I wrote a song criticizing Arizona officials (including John McCain and Fife Symington) for rejecting the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The same politics I wrote about in "By the Time I Get to Arizona" are alive and well in Arizona today, but this time the target is Brown people."
- Chuck D (from legendary Hip-Hop group Public Enemy)

Papers Please by Talib Kweli
MC Talib Kweil, well known for his collaboration with Mos Def in "Black Star," responds to Arizona SB1070 by creating his version of "Papers Please."

Deportees by Outernational
A remake of Woodie Guthrie's "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)." A Protest song detailing the January 28, 1948 crash of a plane near Los Gatos Canyon, 20 miles west of Coalinga in Fresno County, California. Guthrie was inspired to write the song by what he considered the racist mistreatment of the passengers before and after the accident. The crash resulted in the deaths of 32 people, 4 Americans and 28 migrant farm workers who were being deported from California back to Mexico. Outerational's version of the song is in protest of the Arizona's SB1070, and the band traveled down to Arizona to perform at protests.

Back to Mexico (SB 1070 Diss) by Willy Northpole Featuring MC Magic
From Phoenix, AZ, Willy Northpole's song featured on the compilation: "A Line in the Sand: A Compilation of SB 1070 Protest Songs"

BACK 2 AZ (Anti-1070) by DJ John Blaze, Tajji Sharp, Queen Yonasda, Yung Face, Mr. Miranda, Ocean, D'Aaron Anthony, Atllas, Chino D, Nhytee, Pennywise, Rich Rico and Da Beast
Shortly after SB 1070 passed, a group of Phoenix rappers recorded this eight-minute rebuke of the bill to the sample of Public Enemy's "By The Time I Get to Arizona." Watch the video here.

By the Time I Get to Arizona (Remix) by DJ Spooky and Chuck D
"In the wake of Republican Governor Jan Brewer's appalling anti-immigrant law, me and Chuck D were rappin' and we decided to put together an update of his classic track By The Time I get To Arizona. Anyone who knows about hip hop from the early 90's remembers John McCain's unwillingness to endorse creating a local version of Martin Luther King's birthday. The update here is a 21st century look in the rear view mirror. The cliché that "those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it" still holds sway in our hyper amnesiac culture. I remixed D.W. Griffith's infamous film Birth of a Nation with a bit of Public Enemy in mind, and later on, they named an e.p. with the same name as my project. Me and Chuck D have done several projects in the past around progressive, non knucklehead hip hop." - DJ Spooky

A Call to Musicians: Write a Song Against Hate...

The Alto Arizona Campaign is issuing a call to all musicians and composers to submit their original Corridos against hate (the content should focus on the SB 1070 issue in Arizona).

Winners of the contest will have their song recorded by Los Jornaleros del Norte and all proceeds from sales will go to help for the organizing and litigation costs in Arizona.

Send your lyrics and/or music to Alto Arizona here. We will update this page with submissions as they are received. Feel free to submit lyrics and music in other styles of music, in Spanish or English also. If they are good enough, they will be added to a compilation of the winning selections. Good luck and continue to spread the message about stopping the hate in AZ!

*We will not consider songs that condone or encourage violence.

Watch a sample corrido by Los Cenzontles, "Estado de Verguenza" (State of Arizona), written about SB 1070 here:

The Sound Strike

The Sound Strike Logo

Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine has launched a campaign and website as a call for musicians to boycott the state of Arizona in response to SB 1070. The roster of artist is steadily increasing and they are scheduling benefit concerts to support human rights organizations in Arizona like Puente AZ and the Florence Project Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.

Please visit their website, theSoundStrike.net, for music, news, press releases, videos, petitions and analysis about SB 1070.

 
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