Calculating Risk

J.Period is a DJ, mix-tape creator, and hip-hop producer based in Brooklyn. J.Period’s introduction to the piece broadcasts a news-style commentary:

You know, and it gets into this whole issue of border security, you know,

who’s gonna say that the borders are secure?

We’ve got the House and the Senate debating this issue and it’s...

it’s really astonishing that in a country founded by immigrants,

“immigrant” has somehow become a bad word.

So the debate rages on and we continue....

K’naan, born as Keinan Abdi Warsame, is a Somali immigrant who learned English via rap and hip hop. K’naan reflects on the mismatch between immigrants’ dreams of America and the reality they often face, saying:

I got 1 job, 2 jobs, 3 when I need them

I got 5 roommates in this one studio, but I never really see them

And we all came to America trying to get a lap dance from Lady Freedom

But now Lady Liberty is acting like Hilary Banks with a pre-nup

Man, I was brave, sailing on graves

Don’t think I didn’t notice those tombstones disguised as waves

I’m no dummy, here is something funny:

You can be an immigrant without risking your lives

Or crossing these borders with thrifty supplies

All you got to do is see the world with new eyes

Snow Tha Product (born Claudia Alexandra Madriz Meza) is a Mexican American rapper. Her verses call out unjust labour patterns:

It’s a hard line when you’re an import

Baby boy, it’s hard times when you ain’t sent for

Racists feed the belly of the beast

With they pitchforks, rich chores

Done by the people that get ignored

Ya se armó (And it started)

Ya se despertaron (And they awoke)

It’s a whole awakening

La alarma ya sonó hace rato (The alarm went off a while ago)

Los que quieren buscan pero nos apodan como vagos (Those who want, search, but they label us hoodlums)

We are the same ones hustling on every level, ten los datos (Here’s the details:)

Walk a mile in our shoes; abróchense los zapatos (better buckle your shoes)

I been scoping ya dudes, y’all ain’t been working like I do

I’ll outwork you, it hurts you; you claim I’m stealing jobs though

Peter Piper claimed he picked them? He just underpaid Pablo!

But there ain’t a paper trail when you living in the shadows

We’re America’s ghost writers, the credit’s only borrowed

It’s a matter of time before the checks all come

But…

Immigrants, we get the job done

Rizwan Ahmed, or Riz MC, is a British Pakistani Muslim actor, rapper, and activist who points out how it is Western colonialism and military action that drive so much forced migration:

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

Cool, they flee war zones, but the problem ain’t ours

Even if our bombs landed on them like the Mayflower

Buckingham Palace or Capitol Hill

Blood of my ancestors had that all built

It’s the ink you print on your dollar bill, oil you spill

Thin red lines on the flag you hoist when you kill

But still we just say “look how far I come”

Hindustan, Pakistan, to London

To a galaxy far from their ignorance

‘Cos immigrants, we get the job done

Resīdεntә (René Juan Pérez Joglar) is a Grammy-winning Puerto Rican rapper, writer, and filmmaker who advocates for Indigenous people’s rights and educational access. Resīdεntә speaks of the resilience of undocumented workers in the face of colonial violence:

Por tierra o por agua (By land or water)

Identidad falsa (False identity)

Brincamos muros o flotamos en balsas (We jump over walls or float on rafts)

La peleamos como Sandino en Nicaragua (We fight like Sandino in Nicaragua)

Somos como las plantas que crecen sin agua (We are like plants that grow without water)

Sin pasaporte americano (Without an American passport)

Porque la mitad de gringolandia es terreno mexicano (Because half of Gringolandia is really Mexican terrain)

Hay que ser bien hijo e puta (One has to be a real son-of-a-bitch)

Nosotros Les Sembramos el árbol y ellos se comen la fruta (We planted the tree, and they reap the fruit)

Somos los que cruzaron (We are the ones who cross)

Aquí vinimos a buscar el oro que nos robaron (Here we come to look for the gold that was stolen)

Tenemos mas trucos que la policía secreta (We have more tricks than the secret police)

Metimos la casa completa en una maleta (We packed our entire house in one suitcase)

Con un pico, una pala y un rastrillo (With a pick, a shovel, and a rake)

Te construimos un castillo (We built you a castle)

¿Cómo es que dice el coro cabrón? (How’s the chorus go again, asshole?)

Immigrants, we get the job done