Tufawon, No One Is Illegal, Exclusive Music Video Release and Artist Spotlight on Minneapolis Rapper
Minneapolis, MN — Making music and caring for community has always been a symbiotic relationship for Rafael Gonzalez, aka Tufawon (two for one), a Minneapolis-based rapper, singer and producer. He says that he’s had a knack for turning lived experiences into sound, and his latest song, No One Is Illegal, is no different. The song was shaped from what he saw on the streets during Operation Metro Surge and the heightened ICE activity, which he felt was his “responsibility” as an artist to create it.
Unicorn Riot produced the official music video for No One Is Illegal in collaboration with Tufawon, a Mdewakanton Dakota and Boricua artist. The production features original performance style footage combined with Unicorn Riot on the ground video of immigration enforcement activity, with community resistance and protests that inspired the song.
With the accompanying behind-the-artist interview, Tufawon explains the inspiration behind the song and music video. He reflects on the community response towards Operation Metro Surge and the role that artists and “artivism” can play within the movement, and how music can “galvanize” people and help move things forward.
While filming the music video for No One Is Illegal, Tufawon featured cameos from various community members who were involved in organizing against Operation Metro Surge.
Using his social media platform, Tufawon has documented what happened in Minneapolis at the peak of the federal occupation, observing federal agents, doing neighborhood patrols, and making mutual-aid and supply runs, before writing the song.
“As things started to calm down, I’m like, okay, I’m an artist, and I feel like I have a responsibility,” he said. “I felt in my spirit a protest anthem.”
Having roots as a Dakota and Boricua artist from the southside of Minneapolis, his relationship with music started as a child. From a young age, Tufawon recorded sounds on small tape machines, played in a band and sang in a choir. By the time he reached high school, he started experimenting with a sampler.
Tufawon started to understand the process behind hip-hop when older artists from the Twin Cities started teaching him how to build beats from samples, sampling often being a core element of hip-hop music. He joined the hip-hop group Illuminous 3, started releasing mixtapes, and entered various freestyle competitions while also performing at open mics before eventually moving on to solo work.
“The day I quit music is the day that it doesn’t move me,” he said. “When I make music, it moves me.”
Not being limited to one genre, Tufawon also plays Bomba and Puerto Rican music, in addition to knowing traditional Dakota and Lakota songs and practicing his traditional ways like the sacred Sun Dance. He also continues to emcee, while leaving open the possibility of joining a salsa band one day.
“I can see myself still doing it” in old age, he said, “because I have that much love for the art and for the craft.”
Tufawon also teaches the youth as a way to give back with his music program called “.WAVWARRIOR,” a play on the .WAV audio file format, which he founded in December 2024. He travels to various Indigenous communities and reservations and teaches audio production, songwriting and recording, mainly using the digital audio workstation software Ableton Live. He brings the youth through all the steps it takes to produce a full song, and he says albums’ worth of music have been created so far through his workshops.
Mentorship has played a huge role in why he wants to give back, he says, “Mentorship is super important,” he said. “I feel like I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t give that back to my community.”
Tufawon believes that the movement needs more art to help spur people into action, and he saw No One Is Illegal as an opportunity to do that. He says he didn’t want to “rush out a song” during the height of Operation Metro Surge while he was conducting neighborhood defense and mutual aid. The aim of the song is to “carry its message beyond Minneapolis,” Tufawon says.
“We need more art to galvanize the people,” he said. “We need more art to be a soundtrack to the movement, to be a soundtrack to the protests.”
As he watched federal immigration agents weave through neighborhoods familiar to him during the deadly Operation Metro Surge, he saw residents respond with whistles and coordinated patrols. He described the events as “frightening,” but they also showed a silver lining in the Indigenous community being able to rise up and protect their own through the adversity.
“As Indigenous people, we’re taught to protect,” Tufawon said. “We were loud enough and successful enough in these attempts to run them out of the community, and that right there is power.”
“I’m so proud of my city,” he said. “Regular, ordinary community members [were] saying, ‘No, I’m going to take a stand against fascism.’”
Unicorn Riot coverage of Ice in Minnesota
While the community honored Renée Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, he urged people to also say the name of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican immigrant and longtime Houston resident who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in July.
The Department of Homeland Security accused Salgado of attempting to ram his van into ICE agents while he was driving to work, and he was shot by an ICE agent. Three workers associated with Salgado who were in the van at the time have disputed the agency’s account of the incident.
“They’re lying in the same way they lied about Alex Pretti and Renée Good,” Tufawon said. “He was a beloved community member, we can’t allow [that] — we would be doing such an injustice if we went on without saying his name,” he said.
Tufawon released a seven-song EP called Gradient earlier in the year, but says pushing No One Is Illegal is now his priority. The intentions behind the song and music video are “intended as something people can carry into organizing spaces and marches,” also with the ongoing fight against ICE, Tufawon says.
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