DJ Spooky and Chuck D just collaborated on a free download song “By the Time I Get to Arizona,” riffing, of course, on the old standard “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” and, uh, you know, commenting on some pressing news items and stuff.
In the wake of Republican Governor Jan Brewer’s 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.