Chuck D is Very, Very Angry at Arizona

Joining musicians like Rage Against the Machine, Willie Nelson and Carlos Santana, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D is speaking out against SB 1070, Arizona’s highly controversial immigration law.

And, of course, he’s doing so through music.

Chuck and producer DJ Johnny Juice revisited Public Enemy’s “By The Time I Get To Arizona” on a new track, “Tear Down That Wall,” first released back in April but reaching ears — and the media — en masse this week.

Chuck and Gaye Theresa Johnson released a statement in late April encouraging a boycott of Arizona, calling SB 1070 “racist, deceitful, and reflects some of the most mean-spirited politics against immigrants that the country has ever seen.” In the statement, Chuck also refers to the original “By The Time I Get To Arizona,” written nearly two decades ago in response to Arizona officials who wouldn’t recognize the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Now, he’s directing that same ire at current Arizona administrators, including Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio and governor Jan Brewer, who he called “a Hitler” in an interview with Billboard.com

“Tear Down That Wall” maintains the in-your-face, incendiary spirit of Public Enemy’s heyday, and Chuck has no reservations about addressing Arizonans directly when he spits lyrics like “I beg ya pardon who’s savin’ ya / you callin’ them laborers / walk on by and never say hi or consider them neighbors” or “Fight back without a passport / millennium Gestapo border control the new contact sport / y’all call ’em immigrant and take ’em to court / but look at your own hood and your own lack of support.”

In the Billboard.com interview, Chuck says the track is “something that has its own life. It’s not that you’re doing anything to be opportunistic. I talked about the wall not only just dividing the U.S. and Mexico but the states of California, New Mexico and Texas. But Arizona, it’s like, come on. Now they’re going to enforce a law that talks about basically racial profiling.”

“Tear Down That Wall” is available for download at SlamJamz.com.

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