WAR Announce The World Is a Ghetto 50th Anniversary Tour, Celebrating The #1 Billboard Top-Selling Album of 1973

The World Is a Ghetto: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition Named One of The Best Box Sets of The Year by The New York Times, Variety & More

"The new reissue of a landmark album of 1970s funk restores the Los Angeles group’s reputation as multi-cultural pop savants and unstoppable improvisers...a personal and musical realization of the social harmony they spent their career fighting for" - Pitchfork, Best New Reissue

Today, WAR officially announce The World Is a Ghetto 50th Anniversary Tour, further expanding the rightful celebration behind the #1 Billboard top-selling album of 1973. From coast to coast this spring and summer, the legendary SoCal street band will perform songs from the record that cemented their legacy as “one of the most seminal bands in music” (Billboard), “one of the greatest American bands” (Paste), and “both a heavyweight live band and a sophisticated pop machine, slicker than Sly and the Family Stone and more down to earth than Funkadelic” (Pitchfork). In addition to classic cuts such as “The Cisco Kid” and “The World Is a Ghetto,” WAR will also fill their sets with eternal hits like “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” “Low Rider” and more that have become ingrained in America’s collective conscious, impacting generations and genres for nearly six decades. Upcoming dates include several stops across the Los Angeles area and the band’s native California, plus festivals and numerous other shows to be added soon. Find the initial run below and tickets HERE.

The World Is a Ghetto 50th Anniversary Tour comes on the heels of The World Is a Ghetto: 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition. Released via Avenue/Rhino Records, the 5-LP compendium was named one of the Best Box Sets of 2023 by The New York Times and Variety, earning rave reviews and re-evaluations from Pitchfork, Billboard, Associated Press, SPIN and more. Curated by WAR's producer, Jerry Goldstein, founding member and lead vocalist Lonnie Jordan, and Jeremy Levine, the Collector’s Edition features a newly remastered version of the album, six previously unheard bonus tracks from the original studio sessions, and unheard “making of” recordings that trace the entire evolution of the songs, from first note to master take. Following its limited edition vinyl run, both a CD and digital release of The World Is a Ghetto: 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition will be arriving this year.

In recent appearances on MSNBC, ABC News, Fox & Friends, NPR, KCRW and beyond, Lonnie Jordan has reflected on both The World Is a Ghetto and WAR’s continued mission to spread its message of harmony and inclusion, through songs that have soundtracked everything from the anti-Vietnam movement to the first Congressional Black Caucus, the first US-Soviet space mission, Barack Obama’s summer playlists and more.

Having racked up more than 20 gold, platinum and multi-platinum records, earning three Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominations, four #1 albums, nine Top 10s and twenty Top 40 songs, the way they sing out against racism, hunger, crime and other universal conflicts has made WAR as relevant today as they have ever been. The World Is a Ghetto served as the launching point for the band’s creative and commercial success, while also igniting WAR’s inexhaustible influence on R&B and hip-hop. The LP's songs have since been sampled, covered and referenced by Janet Jackson, Tupac, A$AP Mob, Geto Boys, Method Man, Rage Against The Machine, Sublime and more. The Muppets, De La Soul, Beastie Boys, Shaggy, George Clinton, The Isley Brothers and so many others have also honored WAR's music over the years, with fans ranging from Dave Matthews to George Lopez, Korn, Phish and beyond.

Praise For The World Is a Ghetto: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition

"The long-running Los Angeles band War came up with hybrid grooves — funk-Latin-blues-rock-gospel-reggae-soul — that sounded as casual as block-party jam sessions. But they weren’t...The songs take shape as the band chooses sounds, toys with riffs and rhythms, reworks lyrics and tightens up every syncopation; they’re jovial, but they’re doing the work"

The New York Times

"When it comes to low rider Cali-cool multiculturalism, War wrote the biggest, loudest book as the Latin-tinged, fusion-funk ensemble most responsible for creating that jazzy vibe, and winding up with the top-selling pop record in the US for the year of its release”

Variety

"Not only restores War’s reputation as some of the savviest and most omnivorous pop composers of the 1970s; its bonus disc of in-studio jams suggests they might have rivaled Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters as one of funk’s greatest groups of improvisers…a personal and musical realization of the social harmony they spent their career fighting for"

Pitchfork, Best New Reissue

“War’s pan-Latin percussion, swaggering guitar solos and soulful rhythms catapulted them to the zenith of musical popularity. While their impact extended beyond the airwaves, it also deeply resonated with Southern California’s POC families…Now, half a century later, the California jam band stands just as fabulous"

Billboard

"50th anniversary of The World Is a Ghetto shines in premium box set...recaptures that slice of time when multicultural rock reached its first peak"

Associated Press

"The World Is a Ghetto changed everything...For a concept album to achieve such heights was a monumental moment in rock ‘n’ roll”

Paste

“This funk fusion masterpiece was the bestselling LP in the United States in 1973, with a message of hope and equality that still resonates 50 years later”

SPIN

“A reminder of just how talented and groundbreaking this combo was, especially at the creative peak exemplified by this hefty and comprehensive box”

American Songwriter

"The World Is a Ghetto is widely considered a masterpiece that helped bring progressive Black music to the mainstream with its mix of soul, funk, blues, a bit of psychedelia and songs about inner city life”

Los Angeles Daily News