Aloe Blacc is an artist with something to say.

His latest video features an acoustic version of the song “Wake Me”.  His vocals are at the heart of Avicii’s electronic version which has been wildly and internationally successful this year.

While the original video features a pair of outcast sisters living in a rural town who ultimately relocate to New York City where they find like-minded companions at a concert– Blacc’s version has a more political bent.

In the build up for the video Blacc tweeted:

Sure enough- the video depicts an immigrant family’s failed attempt to cross the border complete with a police officer confiscating a baby only to find himself face to face with the Dream Activist she grew up to be years later.  The song is hauntingly beautiful. The video’s focused on revealing the humanity behind the “immigration debate” as well as the crass terms that often get tossed around as a substitute for political discourse.  There are no “illegals” or stereotypes in this video.  Just people.

As they go through their struggles the 34 year old artists croons “All this time I was finding myself and I didn’t know that I was lost” and it just make sense. I’m not sure what I even mean by that but it does.  We’re all just people getting lost and found and lost again in a search for some sense of belonging. If you can relate to the words of this wildly successful song that’s on the radio all the time- then it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine relating to that family trying to cross the border.

The video, directed by Alex Rivera, ends by noting that several of the actors in the video are themselves actually causalities of our broken immigration policy.

Head over to Wendy Carillo’s- the host of KPRW Los Angeles, Power 106 – blog for more background on their stories.

Blacc’s seen previous success with songs like “I Need a Dollar” which was featured in the opening credits of the HBO show How to Make it in America. Prior to that he was a member of hip hop group Emanon in the late 90s.

He’s super talented and well worth watching for what he says next.