First off we would like to thank you at Immortal-Technique.com for taking time out of your schedule to conduct this interview where all of the questions except the follow ups are straight from the fans. We selected at random almost 40 questions to ask you that were sent to us by the fans, from all over the world that post on Immortal-Technique.com
I-T.COM: How many units did Revolutionary Vol.2 move to date?
About 65,000. 30,000 plus sound scanned.
I-T.COM:
When is The Middle Passage going to drop?
Due to sample clearances and other issues I think either Nov. 2005 or early 2006. This album is called “The Middle Passage”, if you understand the history of what that means it was an arduous, heart wrenching journey. Why would you expect the process of making an album with that sort of title and that calling of the spirits of our ancestors to be anything but that in conception? There are still some things to finish in terms of it’s writing and recording but overall it’s the extra work being put into planning because I want to show people how much this project means to me.
I-T.COM:
Who is featured on the album so far?
Not yet…I’ll release that info officially when the time comes.
I-T.COM:
No artist features yet?
Like I said nigga, I’ll release that info when it’s locked down. Feel me?
I-T.COM:
Some people have stated that you’re rhyming from the perspective of both a Latino and Black man, which means that you are trying to be black. How do you respond to that?
I have never tried to be black to be real, that's just something racist that white people come up with. They equate being black with being tough or with being scary or hardcore. So if a Latino or a white person speaks like they're from the hood or like they are ready for whatever they think you acting black? You think there isn’t a Latino hood? Latinos were a part of Rap from day 1, Before Day 1. So how are you gonna tell us we tryna be hard. We still don't have civil rights in our own countries. Black America now has a million times better than any black or indigenous person who grows up in the 3rd world. It’s never really black people who say someone is trying to be black though, it’s usually a white kid. These are the same confused white kids who made up the word backpacker (yeah the word was invented by whites), cuz they weren’t comfortable with just being white and liking Hip Hop, they felt they were looked down upon by Blacks and Latinos. So they wanted to differentiate themselves from the “others” not cool whites or rather those that believed in positive Hip Hop. As if Black people and Latino people talking about each others destruction makes them real. I’m not saying people didn’t wear backpacks and rhyme during the 90’s. It was gangsta back then, all the hood rappers had that but it never was really used in that fashion or had the negative connotation until that was done with it. Maybe it was their way of dealing with the “reverse racism”. (By the way being made fun of in a club or getting called a cracker, isn’t reverse racism, if that black person enslaves your family, writes your historical achievements out of history, denies your loan, gentrifies your community, rapes your women, and then expects you NOT to complain and “get over it” holla muthafucka.)
I-T.COM:
So hold on, who is “real” and “hardcore?”
The most hardcore, unforgiving and historically cruel people in the world are Europeans. Blacks and Latinos, are not innocent in all their doings, no one is. But, right now we are reacting to living in a post colonial state of ignorance, that doesn’t excuse their actions, nor is it a cop out for the development they need to undergo. Africans and Indigenous people have not known freedom on this side of the world since the late 1400’s. But it’s deeper than race to me, you take the average black “thug” from any part of America, they don’t want it with a 3rd world country Latino. You don’t want it with El Salvador, Colombia or Peru muthafucka. Cuz we don’t kill for shoes or to buy rims (insert whatever stereotype there) we kill for food because we have nothing. You take the average Latino “thug” from anywhere in America, he don’t want it with no African or Haitian. They kill for the same reasons. Now apply the same thing to Eastern Europe. We don’t slap box in the 3rd world nigga, there ain’t no chicken spot on the corner for you to hang out in front of. People don’t give a fuck about selling weed, they sell people, cocaine and heroin, and kill children over things like that. This is why I always told people classism was deeper than racism. It transcends all of society’s imbalances because in all truth, it’s responsible for all of them. A capitalist system functions by keeping people ignorant, cuz if they were aware of something deeper than their immediate reality they would address long standing issues. And that takes me back to your other question. I claim my African roots because many Latinos don’t, they live in shame of the smallest amount of blackness that runs in their veins. They say they have (pelo malo) bad hair just because it’s nappy. Or they want to (mejorar la raza) better the race, which means to marry a lighter skinned person. Racism is more prevalent in the Latino community than it is a white community because it has never been dealt with. Latin American nations are so busy starving they don’t give a fuck about peoples feelings or depicting our brothers as monkeys. You pick up the average newspaper even now they probably have lil sambo characters all over that muthafucka. Look at Univision or Telemundo, if you judged Latin America by that standard you’d think everyone was some white skinned blonde haired Spaniard! Fuck outta here! I am Peruvian, Latino Indigenous original man, and I have African blood in me, my grandfather was blacker than pepper. I’m proud of all that, I grew up in Harlem around black people so I have always grown up identifying with both struggles. I need no one else’s blessing to do so, that’s my life. I don’t need anyone’s permission to be who I am, I never claimed another race cuz I thought that made me more real. I’m just sick of muthafuckaz that are ashamed of their blood cuz they have been historically poisoned with white European propaganda. I mean isn’t there a white Jesus hanging in almost every Latino household?
I-T.COM
Do you think that racism is a part of a religious upbringing in the Latino Community?
I think it’s ingrained into our society on a whole, not just religion, I think Latino people are more racist than white people sometimes. They are taught to look down on Blacks and the black in their blood and they are they don’t want to be considered white even though our media and our upbringing teaches nothing but contempt for our indigenous heritage. But without those two racial components there would be no such thing as Latin America. Just remember, they couldn’t conquer us without religion. Without our acceptance of their system and its ability to control us and build that nation, white people would rule over an empty paradise. I think discrimination is sometimes harder to realize for Americans than in other places because we are used to a striking difference between people black and white. In Africa, tribes don’t all get along. In Latin America we have Mestizos that think their white and we have blacks who hate other blacks who aren’t much darker at all. And at the center of it all, our religion that gives us an innocent Christ crying tears of blood for us while his church turns a blind eye to us. I’m not saying Christianity is a bad religion. I think it can be used for the good of mankind but we have no control over that religion. How is it that more Latinos believe in Christ more than whites and yet we control NOTHING about the religious base? Instead we let the far right wing control, those that permeate racism and voted for the destruction of our independence of our Revolutions all over Latin America. If Chirst is my God, let him speak to me. Not the conquerors of my people who hold his picture up with a hole in the mouth like Conan O’Brien and tell me what to think and what my political allegiance should be. Without us controlling our faith we have not only become the physical but also the spiritual prisoners of another people. We will be servants of others forever if we continue to ignore our responsibility in recognizing who we are.
I-T.COM:
People on the message board have alluded to you having an Islamic faith based upon your subject matter, other claim you don’t believe in God. What religion are you?
I’m a believer in God, but not in the way that organized religion is interpreted. They are all corrupted in some fashion. They say God made man in his own image, but truthfully speaking its man who constantly remakes God in HIS own image to suit some political, economic or moral standard/goal to project on others. I have read most of the bible and the Koran. There is wisdom in those books but it is useless, and quote me on this, “the word of God is useless to one that can only read it and not live it”. Islam to me is a powerful religion that is based on a mental strength and submission to God. In that submission it clears the psychological path to the other side of your self. For if there is a hope in you, the dream to do good, to succeed and to prosper, and then it is only logical to assume there is another side. If life struggles to prolong itself and to maintain its existence, then something within you must work towards self annihilation. For all the good in you there must be a part of you that lives in the complacency of failure and works toward negativity. Islam addresses that struggle, it gives people inner strength that have nothing. That’s why the government needs to destroy it. As a religion it is one of the most powerful weapons poor people have. Being one with God makes those parts of you clearer to see. I respect all people who really live by their convictions. I don’t respect those who manipulate that for some self righteous agenda and their quest to make the world more like them.
I-T.COM:
Even though you have a Revolutionary style, your words are still very braggadocio at times and people have state this as a contradiction to your “Revolution”, is it?
I hit the bricks in 1999, parolee of the state and immediately jumped onto the battle scene. It was the best way back then to get noticed, now it’s a sham. Anyone who is getting signed off battling gets fucked over and left on the shelf, it’s really sad. But back then battling is most of all that I did, ask anyone who knew me around that time. From 1999, 2000 and all the way up to after Revolutionary Vol.1, I just had sick disgusting punchlines, and I hit below the belt (no homo). I was gonna disrespect your mother, your dead parents, your girl, I did not give a fuck. Most of that stuff isn’t on camera but anyone who has been in the game for a while will tell you it happened that way. That’s how I met everyone I know. I was never really a nice guy to begin with though. I have always had a battle style element incorporated within my Revolutionary style, I don’t see it as a contradiction. I just look at it me being more than one dimensional person shoved into some rap category. I took that negative energy that I built up from all my battling experience and learned about stage presence. I began to develop, to write songs with concepts. Dance with the Devil, The Poverty of Philosophy. I learned to write hooks on my own. All of this happened slowly cuz I had no guidance musically, no A&R, no rappers in the game schoolin’ me. I learned this shit without a handbook nigga, just work. That aggressive nature is part of my Revolutionary candor. I can’t imagine Revolution being quiet, unassuming, or bashful. The American Revolution, the Civil War, the French Revolution, Haiti’s Independence to name a few, these ran the streets crimson with blood. I simply mention the bloody truth and that makes people uncomfortable??? So now I don’t give a fuck about their feelings.
I-T.COM:
What motivates you to succeed and what is success to you?
To be truthful, I’ve sold the most records in the hood. Hand to hand 25,000 myself and now over 35,000 in the stores. I always wanted to own hectares of land, as far as the eye can see so I had to get the money somewhere. It’s because people can’t just put me in the conscious rapper category, to be real, some of the activist community don’t like me. I’m not someone they can control and put requirements on. I don’t need their approval to be Revolutionary. I work with the first Hip Hop Union, (
www.kickgame.com) I recently started finalizing my scholarship program. I constantly do benefit shows for lots of real causes. But you try to talk stupid to me, ask around I will lay you the fuck out... Yeah I have been violent with promoters and a few other rappers. You think all other immigrants didn’t have to when they first came to America and people tried to them like dirt? You think someone said “Here take the unions, here take Hollywood, here take Vegas”? No muthafucka THEY took that. We built America so now a piece of it belongs to us, let’s stop crawling around this government, it’s ours let’s take it. Any industry you own has to be built from the ground up and that’s what we did. In taking it, we don’t have to run it the same way. We can create a new system, a better system. I’m not an idle dreamer, I’m a worker, I don’t think I’m the best rapper in the world but I hustle harder and sleep less than 99.999% of the muthafuckaz out there. All that said, one of my best friends once told me that if you’re not happy, you’re not successful. I’m working on the last part.
I-T.COM:
You mention promoters on Vol.2, what was the beef with that?
The NYC market was and is completely oversaturated and promoters didn’t wanna pay us shit when I was coming up. Muthafuckaz made money and we got nothing. I made them pay, I make them pay now. I do a show in NYC or anywhere for that matter I can pay my mothers mortgage for at least a month or two. Nothing is realer than that as an underground artist, to be an ex-con who can’t get a real job and now can make his mom and his grandma smile. Someone who can buy back the land that his great grandfather and his brothers gambled and drank away. Shit is real man and I won’t be short changed. I don’t hate promoters, some of them are fair and they do their job very efficiently. Some fucks are lazy and just take out one add, have no flyers or none of that shit and expect people to come from nowhere.
I-T.COM:
How much do you make on average a show?
Book me for a show and find out.
I-T.COM:
Do you think that will make people see you as a Capitalist or a hypocrite?
I make Capital, but I am not a capitalist. That would require me using someone for all the labor and not giving them their due. Everyone who rolls with me gets paid well. Every worker I have is compensated. I never screw people out of money. Who in America would look at me and claim I’m some greedy Capitalist? Hahahaha. You niggaz pay taxes? You ever bought something in a store? You ever flown somewhere? Drove somewhere and stopped for gas? You ever drank the water in America? If you’re reading this on a computer you’re supporting capitalism. Everyone that lives in America supports this capitalist system whether they like it or not. Doesn’t mean you should burn your fucking house down and live in the woods to protest that. I love when armchair activists are so quick to judge or criticize me or anyone else for having generated wealth off this game. They are dying to be more Revolutionary than “Immortal Technique”, nigga please, heres a newsflash fucker... You and anyone else can be more Revolutionary than me if you really want to.
I-T.COM:
Explain that last statement.
I tell kids this all the time when they come to shows or when I speak at schools and detention centers. I let them know that while I would like to take this far beyond music, I as a rapper and as one man can do only so much. I can rhyme all I want about truth and about the hood and streets but I cannot make the dead rise. I cannot save a life that stumbles into my path bleeding. If a young boy or girl grows up to be a doctor they can actually save someone’s life. Give life, cure diseases, these are things that powerful words can only speak of. I can rhyme for my niggaz locked up but if that same boy or girl becomes a lawyer they can help our political prisoners and they can affect change directly. My words cannot bend the bars or break down the walls. I desire so much more than to just be a rapper. If I died just doing that, I would be disappointed, but at least I would have inspired people to be more revolutionary than I ever could be. I’m still a young man, but I feel like my life is moving very fast. I was not the first of my kind and I will not be the last. There will always be those who question and who refuse to just accept spoon fed answers and doctored history. I want my people to know themselves.
I-T.COM:
Playing further on your people and on the question of diversity, I saw a show you did out here in LA and the audience was overwhelmingly Latino, from college kids, to high school kids to thugs and gang members, what exactly is the make up of your fan base?
It’s different everywhere I go. If I do a show in Minneapolis there will be a few Latinos and Blacks but obviously a lot more white people. I used to just spit verses or freestyle on blocks throughout lower Manhattan or in Washington Heights battling niggaz on the street, my audience was nothing but Blacks and Latinos. I rocked some shows in the BX and BK with nothing but Brown people, but after that I started going to open mics like The Nuyorican, and End of the Weak, shows at The Knitting Factory, battles at Wetlands, Spiral, that crowd was much more mixed. I’ve done shows at the Warped Tour with nothing but white people. I have definitely advanced in the aspect of diversifying the crowds I get. But on the West Coast I would say my fan base is largely Latino, because I rep my people to the fullest. But overall I would have to say I have about 1/3 of Latino fans, 1/3 white and 1/3 Black Middle Eastern and Asian. I mean you look at someone like Tupac who had ½ of his fans be white, it doesn’t take anything away from you to have diverse fans. That’s what makes you a successful artist. I want my message to reach everyone. I know that more white people are on crack and selling drugs than Black and Latino people. They are just as affected by some of the issues Hip Hop brings up, why can’t they feel that shit? Why can’t they want Revolution too? They are being lied to by the government and being given a false sense of superiority by those that make money keeping the working and middle class divided.
I-T.COM:
What about women? You seem to have more women at your shows than a lot of underground artist, yet you don’t make pop love songs for radio or club R&B tracks. How is that?
I know that a lot of it is because of songs like You Never Know and Leaving the Past, but to honest I know mad girls that like Dance with the Devil. Not cuz they have rape fantasies and shit like that but they like to hear real shit. With so much fake imagery in the game they just like it when a nigga says who he is. You know not just The 4th Branch but Obnoxious, Bin Laden, You Never Know, & Peruvian Cocaine. I appreciate them to the fullest and I always tell niggaz to respect them at the shows so they keep coming back. I think that people forget that females are supporters too. I don’t have the attitude that some other rappers have that every girl that likes some little piece of music I made in my life wants to blow me. If she has her mind right, I’ll talk to her but girls that I meet through rap are usually just talk & bullshit. In fact every girlfriend that I’ve ever had I met through just talking to her on some regular shit she didn’t even know I rhymed. I make powerful music, for all sorts of people, if women feel it it’s cuz they had a real life probably realer than a whole lotta niggaz out there.
I-T.COM:
Over the course of your albums, your voice has aged, gotten more mature but it seems that some people are still critical of the flow on your albums thus far. How important is flow to you?
I used to only write rhymes that hit on the 1 and the 3, now I do much more than hit 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 I like to mix it up much more. Bar structure is what I’m speaking about. With the albums it wasn’t off beat all of the time but it just was unorthodox. Off beat means you miss the beat completely or you put way to many syllables in a bar. I never had anyone teach me this. I never had a rhyming coach or even a vocal coach like Puff got Biggie. Whatever I got now, I learned on my own. I never used to write rhymes to beats when I was locked up, I just wrote rhymes. But to answer the question completely flow is very important and as I mature as an artist so does the flow. But really if people have a personal issue with me or disagree with my politics cuz they harbor some racist tendencies then no flow of mine is gonna win them over. Those people’s lives don’t matter to me, and my flow doesn’t matter to them. You can see who these people are immediately (laughs) Fuck em!!
I-T.COM:
Canibus mentioned you in an interview and it started a frenzy over the fact that you two would connect and do a track, is that gonna happen? And what is your honest opinion of him?
I have a lot of respect for that dude, he’s someone who survived a lot of bullshit in the industry. I always though 2nd round knockout killed LL. But, Canibus’s perceived loss in the eyes of the media showed me something about the industry and how skills were irrelevant to them and the strength of what a publicist and a franchise player means to a label. That said, I can be honest with you cuz I never hold nothing back and say I still never got to talk to him about that whole “Draft Me” bullshit that he made, and I’m sure there have been miscommunications in the past tryna get in touch with each other. The last time when he did that interview I had a bunch of people who said they worked for him emailing my staff and ask them to FWD me messages to email different addresses. I don’t really deal with that sort of confusion I stay in the street and I stay on the move so I figured I would politick with him and meet up with that nigga at some point. I know people who know him so if he reads this just holla at Questchon from Foulplay.
I-T.COM: What is FoulPlay I heard you shouting it out on “Obnoxious” ?
There is a little known DVD that only had about 3,000 copies pressed up, it featured interviews from Saigon, Poison Pen, Stimuli, Me, & my young homie Questchon. Plus it had show footage from a young JazyZ & 50 Cent ( 18 yr old 50 cent), Mos Def and more… It has this notorious cult favorite scene where I smash a roach with a gat that I’m holding after he runs over a Che shirt I put up. It came with a mixtape with stuff from Vol.2 and some other shit but it was cool. It wasn’t something that R&B niggaz or corny industry muthafuckaz would really like. Probably cuz it was called “Fuck the Industry Vol.1” if you have it, keep it they don’t make that shit anymore.
I-T.COM:
What tour plans do you have for “The Middle Passage”?
I’m doing a national tour here in the US and then I’m going to hit the UK (Ireland & Scotland too), Europe (including Scandinavia), parts of Africa, & South America, New Zealand, and Australia. Oh yeah I am also making arrangements for 3 shows in the Middle East but those are a lot harder to schedule so I have no time set on that right now. But all this will be after I release the record and have time for it to really have the impact that I want it to. Trust me though I am planning to go just about everywhere, to the smallest cities in America to the biggest, from the most popular countries in the world to the ones that may not even be known for Hip Hop.
I-T.COM:
You’ve done some work with Green Lantern from Shady, who was Eminem’s DJ until some drama went down. How did this relationship come about and after the fall out did you remain in contact with him?
Look, GreenLantern is my nigga. I don’t give a fuck what power moves were made over at Shady by 50 or whoever and whatever circumstances had him removed. That dude showed me love on the mixtape circuit and never asked me for a penny, he just let me do me, he dropped off the “Bin Laden” instrumental and I burned it out in one night. We actually met at some High Times Hip Hop summit and we had a brief conversation about Islam and the medias perception of it. I think then dude heard the 4th Branch and some of my old shit and he asked me to do something hardcore but politically charged. It worked out and ever since then he and I been cool. Whatever label he’s at and whatever drama he in that’s my homie, fuck the bullshit he can always count on my support.
I-T.COM:
Would you ever sign to Shady? Or any other major label?
I wouldn’t rule anything out, but honestly they could never meet my terms and I don’t think they give a fuck about trying to. People think I hate every label out there. I got a lot of peoples who work at Shady and other labels. They are good people who give a fuck about the artist and the projects. But for the most part I have never met a high level executive who gave a fuck about anybody but himself. These house niggaz are some of the most self absorbed niggaz I ever seen in my life. I couldn’t see me placing my faith and my livelihood in a muthafuckaz hands like that, that’s why it would have to be a joint venture with my creative control and final say so. Anything else would take away from my project.
I-T.COM:
What was the first rhyme you ever wrote?
I wrote rhymes when I was about 10 years old I have no idea what the fuck they were about or where they are. Who the fuck knows man.
I-T.COM:
What has been the biggest change in your personal life after dropping Revolutionary Vol.
2? For example, how does your family view the attention you’re getting?
I have 2 apartments, one back in Harlem and another one in Washington Heights that I lounge at. I have seen people desperately try to categorize my style unsuccessfully and it frustrates people that I’m not some conscious backpacker and that I’m not a mindless hoodlum who just spits battle rhymes and gets paid. I think people are starting to understand the fact that I’m on some hardcore shit, I’m in the street for real and yet I don’t use this Revolutionary . This is exactly who I am and what I do. If I didn’t rap I’d do this some other way. As for my family they proud of the work I’m doing but when I’m walking around with my pops or my brother and people stop me in the street then they really begin to understand what is going with all of this. Besides being noticed at last is ill and selling out shows is a blessing but I think the best part is knowing that people are inspired to do some shit in their community and more importantly within their family and themselves. I’ve had people stop me in airports, in other countries, at the grocery store, at the
I-T.COM:
What type of legal actions (besides the Denver incident) has the government done to you in order to try to slow down your artistic views and message?
I mean I hear them tappin the phone. I’m sure my email is bugged. I just got a free password for Boobsquad.com from Dirty Sanchez so I guess they saw me checkin out some internet porn yesterday (laughs). But if I’m guilty of liking naked women more than 90% of all males are. I’m mostly working on my record right now so their actions don’t bother me. How are they gonna discredit me? I don’t fuck with boys or midgets or bestiality, all that extra shit is nasty to me. I don’t steal money from my fans, I don’t use Revolution as a gimmick, and I don’t beat women. I don’t think the government would have an easy time disgracing me unless they just made some shit up, which I think they are capable of doing. I give back to my people and I don’t fuck with drugs and shit but maybe a lil weed once every other month or so. I don’t got no illegitimate kids (knock on wood). Who knows what the fuck they are doing? But realistically I’m sure I’m the last person they are worried about. I think I blew their spot with all the coverage that they got from Denver. I know this much though, from a person on the inside, besides the street they watch the internet closely when it comes to monitoring rap, especially the hip hop websites, allhiphop.com, & sohh.com. Them muthafuckaz hunt for news and for gossip there. That’s what we pay millions of dollars, for a fuckin nerd ass fed surfing the net. That’s our last line of defense against terror??? You think what I just said is a joke but that’s real talk. The feds surf the net looking for rap rumors and clues about possible beef developments
I-T.COM:
As you have become more aware in the public eye and travel all across the country and the world, how has your perspective on Hip Hop changed?
I have seen some interesting things, the biggest growing divide in rap right now is not between underground and commercial, white and black, it’s between people who like lyrics and substance and muthafuckaz who just sweat whatever is in the clubs, popular on the radio and has a video. I can rock for Canibus fans, for Nas fans. for Wu Tang fans, Dead Prez fans, for people who like hearing about what is really going on in the world and don’t want some simple minded rap. I have a variety of fans from the shows I done, to the albums, mixtapes I been on, to the downloads and the Warped Tour. I’m not surprised to see any sort of support at the shows.
I-T.COM:
Most of your fans have been following your music for what you speak on. A lot of them have been wanting to help change things in their own cities. What are some ways they can help out and spread the message?
Without knowing the socioeconomic conditions in your particular hood I can’t assess something like that specifically. I’m not gonna sit here and pretend I have an answer for everyone’s problem in every hood but ownership of your own business the first step to controlling the economics and subsequently the politics of your area. Revolutionaries have to be some of the most creative people in the world. For example every person in the NBA there are a million dudes that love to play ball but never made it, for every rapper that makes it there are a million that don’t. For every dreamer that makes an idea into action that makes some Revolutionary moves, there are million people who just dream. Dreaming isn’t bad but use your creativity and your thoughts to cover ground that I could never have alone. And if you gonna talk to kids you gotta have patience, it took you 10-15 years of study, research and life experience to know what you know, how do you expect a young buck to digest that in one conversation?
I-T.COM:
Do you believe the "Feed The Children" programs and others like them are doing their best to help families in need?
It really depends, some of these programs are covers for missionary organizations. They just want people to stop believing in their own God and pick up a bible. Some of the organizations I have investigated or gotten reports on only give a piece of what they get to other charities and take a larger cut for themselves as an administration fee. So in other words, people’s good will, are paying for their light bill in America with what could save thousands of lives. I’m not mad at those people for trying to live but it’s disingenuous to say that you are helping kids when you are helping yourself before any money reaches the ones in need. I don’t doubt that some people care and they give everything they have to children from all over the world. To those people who crawl in the mud with the AIDS infected toddlers, who risk life in hostile lands to bring women medicine, to provide clean drinking water for families, those in the dirty and filth ridden clothes with age sloppily painted on their faces humble even the most dedicated among us here in the states. Personal sacrifice aside I wish these programs would do more about actual policy change in the government. The corrupt, often US backed regime often takes the resources given to that nation and redistributes it to the wealthy and the individuals who serve the administration best. It’s sad to think you can throw money or food at a problem and make it go away it requires dedication and planning to solve. It’s a good start to raise awareness though.
I-T.COM:
Speaking of your fans, you recently did a shoot with Playboy. A lot of positive and negative reactions have come up regarding this move. Can you let it be known how this went down and why you decided to go through with this?
I really don’t see why this is so controversial at all. If you know anything about the history of Playboy, it was one of the first magazines to break the color barrier in terms of its writers and the articles that it had in there. When other bastions of “liberal media” couldn’t print black writers or speak about the Latino & black issues, they were dealt with in alternative media sources and Playboy was one of them. Really though, this had nothing to do with why I was in the magazine. I just think people really don’t know that about Playboy. It turns out the photo editor’s nephew was a huge fan and he played the shit for his uncle, who in turn though it was ill. They were doing a spread on up & coming Latino artists and they ask me if I wanted to be featured, so I just went through all this shit there and I picked a nice white linen suit. I don’t wear white linen and I was leaving for Chicago in 2 hours so I left the clothes and jetted to the Airport. I had a good time though. I met a beautiful woman and politicked with her for a minute, asked for a Revolutionary background on the phone, made them get a Simon Bolivar picture and bring me a book called “The Hiram Key”. When the Middle Passage drops you’ll understand. I put all these little signs in the picture and I wore the suit I wanted, the Guerilla Republic shirt I wanted, and my Marine Corps hat for my brother who was in Iraq. I don’t see how this is controversial, anyone who has a problem with this obviously just didn’t like me in the first place or they have a stick up their ass. I find it funny when people think me rhyming about Revolution is a gimmick or that it’s just a way to sell records. No stupid, I had a deal like that on the table I said no. I took the long road to success. I made everything I have myself to feed my family and get a job for all my niggaz that roll with me. If this was just about money I’d be pimping you right now by putting out subpar music instead of taking my time to give you supporters the best that I possibly can for the next project.
I-T.COM:
Why would you promote that shirt company if they weren’t part of the shoot?
I support any nigga who make dope t-shirts and don’t use slave labor. I mean if we didn’t wear clothes that were made in slave labor conditions 95% of America would be half naked. But I think we as “people of color” owe it to others not to continue the cycle of oppression. For the same reason that we shouldn’t continue the cycle of racism towards Middle Eastern people just cuz white people find Latinos & Blacks mildly acceptable now when we conform and ignore our own. “Guerilla Republic 179”4 represents the first successful African slave Revolution, and if you read the inside of Revolutionary Vol.1 you understand why I support that and why I represent for them. I take the opportunities that people give me not just to promote myself but other things that I think are aligned to my cause.
I-T.COM:
There are those "fans" that pick and point on everything you do and don't do. They say you speak on revolutionary ideas but they don't see what you do for your people. What are some things you do in terms of dealing with organizations and helping out the community?
I’ve learned a lot in these past years about what to take serious and what to take personal, I don’t blame them for not having faith. I think what I do is different than what a lot of other niggaz come up with. If someone rhymes about being a murderer or a gangsta people look at that like it’s not real anyway, they just kinda have accepted that’s the way that Rap is now. But to everyone even if they don’t agree with what I rhyme about, Revolution is sacred, it can’t be led by a hypocrite or some selfish opportunist. It costs them nothing to just let someone slide on some gangsta shit. They know those dudes ain’t murder 500 people or shipped truckloads of cocaine. But to believe in my words or in a cause that I embody costs them, they have to give up their trust. Some people have difficulty doing that so they try to find any little tiny thing about me or another artist that seems like a contradiction and blow it out of proportion. There are people who do this out of the necessity to be convinced. I’m not mad at those people in fact I look forward to putting more proof in their hands and people like them that I’m serious about this. Then there are people who do it cuz they are trying to big up their boy who rhymes about the same thing or trying to hand out mixtapes or link niggaz to their shitty sound click page after talking shit. I just feel sorry for people like that. Most of the time their really not that talented and look like some real obsessed quasi homo niggaz that have nothing to show for their hatred. Make music homie. (Laughs)
I-T.COM:
How much did being Unsigned Hype in The Source really help you out?
I used that shit for everything that it was worth, I rushed stores with copies of it and put it in peoples’ faces all the time to get them to take even 4 or 5 copies of the album. I blasted it all over the block and when I went out of town I would take it with me and do the same. Believe it or not even though this isn’t 1994 that shit opened a lot of doors for me. That was back in 2002 before the meltdown over there really occurred but I still keep lots of contacts there and I thank them for being the first major publication to believe in me and see that I wasn’t just gonna hang this up in the pizza parlor I worked in and be content with that. Much respect to Gotti who used to work there he heard the buzz in the street and made that happen.
I-T.COM:
For some reason you built a huge following in the UK what do you attribute that to?
I was never one of them rappers that just wanted fame on my block. In fact I’m one of the most low profile muthafuckaz you’ll find in Harlem. I keep my business and my street connects very private so that more than image my message and my muscle is there, but concealed. That said, instead of just trying to be a local celebrity I always focused on going to as many places as I could. About 2 years ago a dude named “RalphDog” holla’d at me about doing a show out there, I just decided to go out there like fuck it. I went out to Dj 279’s show and tore it up, I sold a bunch of CD’s to the kids in the street and some shops and I made a good connect at Deal Real who recently brought me out there again. I’m not gonna lie like it was all love, there was some people who slept on me and I didn’t give a fuck I kept it moving and focused on hitting everywhere as hard as possible. Much respect to everyone out there that looked out, 279, MacFarlow and his crippled shorty. Semtex, Myst, Lowkey and his peeps, Deal Real everyone there, Vince, Tony, all them dudes that know…And of course RalphDog the first muthafucka that brought me out there to rock for London & Norwich. If I left anyone out I’ll get you when I come back, and I will come back to crush that shit.
I-T.COM:
Quick rumor control questions, is it true that you slapped a fan in Oxford?
No but I shoved some dude off stage, I didn’t think slappin that nigga was really necessary he was just drunk and actin stupid. If someone violates I will have to defend myself and put them in their place. I think people who think I’m some peace flag waving nigga are in for a horrible surprise if they come at me wrong. You know what, if a fan acts out of place I will fuck that nigga up I don’t care if you traveled 300 miles to see the show, you just traveled 300 miles to get the shit kicked out of you. I’m 22-0 in terms of fights at my shows, pretty much all by KO. So if you really wanna be #23, just say something stupid or act like I’m not gon’ fuck you up. And if you caught feelings about something I just said now then you’re just a male groupie bitch that needs to acknowledge the respect and space a man needs. I don’t go around treating random people like dirt so when niggaz come to the show they know they wrong for tryna grab my hat or grab my shoulder or talk all close to my face. Show some discipline or I’ma make sure you learn. I have respect for the soldiers that come out to the live shit but that’s cuz they show respect in return, they know this is bigger than me, they tryna make moves in their hood. They know my time is short so they wanna make sure that someone is there when I’m gone.
I-T.COM:
When is the Stronghold album coming out ?
That’s a question you should really direct at Poison Pen or Breez, right now I’m just working on Tech, Akir and Diabolic. But I would be down for that shit in a heartbeat once all this shit is out of the way.
I-T.COM:
After it is all said and done. After the music, after the tours, and at the end of life, how do you want your legacy to be remembered?
Someone who fought as hard as he could and never gave up.
I-T.COM:
Till this day people still ask if Dance With The Devil and You Never Know are true. You have let the reality of these two songs be known at shows. Can you explain the meaning and truth behind them for those who don’t know?
“Dance with the Devil” is a real story, it really happened, it’s that real in the hood, I just changed the part about me being one of the people on the roof. I’m not a rapist, period. “You Never Know” is a story that takes from several parts of my life that I reworked and made into a song. I mean I did go to prison, people forgot about me, and I have lost people I knew to AIDS but the story didn’t happened exactly like that. I wrote a story out of all these things in my life. It’s just that simple. I write about what I have known, personally what I experienced, not just what I read in books. People always ask me what I read to know what I know, I didn’t just read. I suffered through the pages of life and the last chapter hasn’t been written. I can only imagine what people who don’t have the fortune to grow up in the hood of the richest country in the world experience. The weight on their shoulders is immeasurable, dressed in their miserable torn clothes, living with the rape of their nation and surviving genocide & colonization... They are my greatest inspiration to make this shit work.
I-T.COM:
Is there a collection of songs that never made the final cuts of the previous albums that you may consider one day releasing?
Yeah I have some songs, short stories and a book that I wrote a long time ago in the vault. I don’t keep shit like that in my crib. I don’t know if I’ll ever release them but if the time is right and if I do a mixtape, we’ll hear some shit I never put out before. The unreleased songs I recorded are kinda ill, some have strange concepts, things I don’t expect people to get, and some are just too short and too simple to release.
I-T.COM:
There is a strong desire from fans in Canada for you to stop through. They don’t know the situation behind that and why it hasn’t happen yet. What are the reasons for this and what does a promoter need to do in order to get you out there?
Honestly. I don’t know if I’ll ever make it up to Canada. I would love to though I hear that they are fucking crazy up there and they show love like a muthafucka. The government doesn’t see it that way though. They see me as some sort of national security risk or maybe they just don’t like my music but it’s been a bitch to get up there. Promoters up there are cheap like every other promoter so it’s nothing personal but unless someone is gonna make those arrangements and heavily compensate me for having to be sniffed by dogs and harassed at the border, I can’t see myself being up there anytime soon. All my peoples in Canada tell them muthafuckaz to get their shit together, I been waiting to hit that country for years now.
I-T.COM:
At all your shows there is some guy filming shit, who is that and what is that for?
That guys name is Cary. He used to work with Quentin Taratino and a few others. He did film work and pyrotechnics, graduated from NYU film school and all that. He worked on a lot of independent films. After living out on the West Coast for a minute he’s back in NYC. He is presently filming a documentary about me and my travels around the world, it’s tentatively titled “Urban Warfare”. It’ll be a film that comes with a mixtape like soundtrack that will be release not long after “The Middle Passage”. I’m working on about 3 projects right now fam.
I-T.COM:
Is Diabolic gonna release an album ?
If he can stay out of jail for more than a month or two and make his way to the studio, I’m sure he’ll be able to make a disgusting album. I know he’s been writing and recording songs with SouthPaw but we’ll see what’s good when it’s crunch time. That dude is one of the most talented writers I know and his freestyle is nasty but sometimes he gets himself into mad drama, he’s just got realize how much this Rap shit could do for him and his family.
I-T.COM:
I know you have to go. I thank you for answering all of these fan questions. Any last requests shout outs ?
I would like to thank my family, and my muses and my best friends for always showing support. To the children of Afghanistan, Palestine & Iraq I’m still rockin for you. To the people of Latino America Revolution is coming back…soon. I would like to thank my supporters and my critics because all in all I know they just want me to live up the high standard that they hold Revolution in. Much Respect to all those that put their heart and soul into this shit and don’t give up on their dreams. Jesus & Prophet Mohammed too, I’ll see ya’ll soon. Don’t act like you don’t know a nigga. Immortal-Technique.com it might have taken months but your questions were answered, or about 40 of them were. Thanks for being patient.
“The Middle Passage”
“Urban Warfare”
“Revolutionary Vol.3”
Coming soon.
Also look out for Akir’s “Legacy” & Diabolic’s “A Liar & A Thief”.
Peace & Respect,
Immortal
Technique
