You know Riz Ahmed from “Rogue One” and HBO’s “The Night Of.” But you may not know that the actor moonlights as a rapper. Ahmed appears as Riz MC in the latest music video for “The Hamilton Mixtape,” which premiered Wednesday morning on “The Today Show.”
The music video for “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)” features Ahmed in a subway car mid-way through the video. The eyes of several immigrants are blocked out with black bars, including Ahmed’s, until he pulls the black bar away and begins his verse. (And yeah, we caught that “Star Wars” allusion with the line, “British empire strikes back.“)
“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.”
The rest of the video shows several immigrants from varying areas of the world doing jobs like picking oranges, sewing American flags and butchering meat. They’re described in the song as “America’s ghostwriters” for doing behind-the-scenes, low-wage jobs. Like other songs on “The Hamilton Mixtape,” released December 2016, “Immigrants” is inspired by the Tony-winning musical. It features K’naan, Snow Tha Product and Residente alongside Riz MC.
The video was directed by Tomás Whitmore. Lin Manuel-Miranda and Robert Rodriguez executive produced. Watch the full music video above.