With the call for protest songs to Senate Bill 1070 in full effect, it seemed like only a matter of time before someone – if it wasn’t Chuck D. himself – updated Public Enemy’s blistering 1991 MLK statement, By the Time I Get to Arizona.
Rhymesayers rapper Toki Wright did just that, writing new verses over the original track. Wright wrote a letter detailing how his version came about, paying due to the cadence and composition of the original while making an entirely new statement for our time.