Watch ‘Hamilton’s’ Powerful New ‘Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)’ Music Video
In this new music video from ‘The Hamilton Mixtape,’ four rappers lay out just how vital immigrants are to American society.
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It’s the line that gets knowing laughs during every performance of Hamilton—not only when Vice President Mike Pence is in the audience. Lin-Manuel Miranda decided to build an entire song around it for The Hamilton Mixtape, which was released last December.
And on Wednesday, “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” got a music video.
The song, by rapper K’naan, also features Residente and Snow Tha Product, but the stand-out star is Riz MC, also known as actor Riz Ahmed of The Night Of and Rogue One fame.
The video opens on a group of immigrants nervously listening to a radio report about the U.S. Congress debating border security and immigration reform. “It’s really astonishing that in a country founded by immigrants, ‘immigrant’ has somehow become a bad word,’” the anchor says.
As each rapper delivers his or her verse, we see those immigrants doing the jobs that keep this country running: picking fruit, working in hospitals, and even sewing American flags. The refrain of “look how far I’ve come” is punctuated by George Washington’s line from the musical: “Not yet.”
The video is just part of Miranda’s largest promotion for what he’s calling the #Ham4All campaign in which he is asking fans, including some very famous faces, to post videos of themselves singing Hamilton songs online for a chance to win tickets to the show in Los Angeles.
Entrants must donate a minimum of $10 to the Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition, which aims to provide services to immigrants and refugees living in the U.S.