Immortal Technique interview

[The Predator]

Abcdr: Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your background, where you're from, the influence that it played in you becoming an emcee and wanted to talk about the things you denounce?

Immortal Technique: Immortal Technique, Harlem New York, Peruvian Black, born in South America, now living in the USA muthafucka. I just rhyme about shit that's real to me.

A: Why did you choose this name, Immortal Technique? Can you shed some light for us on its significance?

I: I'm a hard muthafucka to kill, physically and spiritually.

A: How deep have you been influenced by rappers like KRS-One and Chuck D, who were surely New-York's pioneers as far as social and political messages in the rap game were involved?

I: I wasn't influenced half as much by rappers as I was by people like Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Che Guevara, Jose Carlos Mariategui, and the ancestors that I read about, the people who influenced life and power struggles throughout the history of humanity. I definitely have the utmost respect for KRS-One & Chuck D, Paris, X-Clan, Brand Nubian, and others who came before them and made a statement about our people. But I try to pay more attention to the business history of rap than what rapper said what, it speaks much more directly to the heart of the issue today.

A: Can you let us know how your stay in prison influenced you as person and as a rapper writing and expressing your opposition in this society and all those shady politics behind the curtains playing people by using mass media and instilling fear in all homes so they can prepare their Military State?

I: Prison is a humiliating experience, they make it look like you live real with respect in their, blacks and Latinos looking all mean in movies but when that white CO, overseer, slavemaster comes by all that tough talk stops unless you want them to kick your teeth out and or electrocute the shit outta you. Seeing being locked up for what it really is, slavery, made me understand the nature of what I was facing in terms of this system. Something that gets fed everyday, with more souls, more poor little kids, people who need psychological treatment. The end result more career criminals being produced to keep the system and corporations like GE paid for housing them. There is nothing glorious about being an indentured servant where racist white people control your life and your are talked to, fed, clothed and housed like an animal.

A: You've first made yourself a name in the underground thanks to the lyrical battles you have participated to. How do you analyze this period when you take a few steps back? Has it been a good push to establish your name and style before releasing your first album?

I: Coming out of lock up to that was not a very difficult step, I wanted to make sure that people knew that I wasn't just one of these little backpacking fucks who rhymed in a circle, I came through with mad *****z to shows and I always put it down or laid someone down who had a fuckin problem...But battles, that was different, I used to come alone. Not even a friend. I would just lace up my timbs, dress in all black and just go to war, even if the judges or crowd picked the other person (which happened maybe 3 or 4 times out of the 80 or so contests) everyone still respected me and recognized that I took a piece of that muthafucka with me. I never got destroyed or roasted by anyone, period. Anyone who says different is getting their father slapped up and their mother thrown down a flight of fuckin stairs jus for lying. I put it down brutally, and I'm sure some lil bastard is reading this, like "oh he's feelin himself too much, or he's overconfident"...No faggot. I'm just being who I am, that's why I'm the battle champ and your the sideline buddy hustler cheerleader promo shirt for your boy wearing homo. You go into a battle feeling half ass, then you'll be half ass. I went into that ready to win or die, that was it, when people saw that and saw that my style was just brutal I guess it generated interest in what I was gonna make songs about. Then I fucked their heads up cuz it wasn't just about random violence or fake crack stories, I put my life on the track, and I talked about the streets and the Revolutionary truth we all are a witness too.

A: Has being in the unsigned hype of The Source November 2003 also helped you to make yourself a name? Did you still see this as some kind of recognition?

I: It's not a regional Unsigned Hype and while it doesn't have the same industrial significance as it may have had from maybe 1994 2000, I'm proud of that. I got it and I showed it to a few people and I posted it up and I went right back to work, some fucks get that thing and then sit back and wait for phonecalls that never come or they act like ghetto celebrities. Pee Wee Kirkland he's a ghetto celeb, your a street rapper, a mixtape rapper, an underground *****, I'm still livin that hustle, I can't ever think I made it or that people should come to me. I'm out there everyday cataloguing achievements and makin sure progress is being made. Mad people got some shit to say about The Source and how it fell off but it's still the #1 Hip Hop magazine in the nation. I still have my old Source issues, that's Rap history right there.

A: "You never know" is the most tear-dropping track I've heard for a while, and arguably one of you most personal song. Have you seen this song as a way to cure your pain?

I: It don't cure shit my *****. it just puts life in perspective. I've heard people complain when their addicted to drugs about how they have to quit smoking weed and drinking liquor cuz it can maybe lead them back to harder drugs...I heard people complain about having a baby mama drama, or about them only going Gold, or them being a lil too fat, or too skinny. Muthafucka be lucky you can walk or that your not blind, or that you don't have terminal cancer, or AIDS, or that your parents didn't molest you since you were old enough to stand. I've met people like al my life for some reason and that's why I feel blessed, to have a family that came together instead of abandoning me in prison. I lost some people in life, we all lose people, but I refuse to use that as some sort of excuse to throw my life away or to be a bitter ass ***** about shit. I'm ready to fight. Anytime anywhere.

A: When recording this song, in what kind of mood were you before entering the booth?

I: This was towards the end of the process of making Vol.2 but I wrote that song a long time ago so I just wanted to make sure that the sequencing was right. I didn't even have a hook at the time. I owe a lot to Jean Grae for coming through and blessing that.
A: When I heard "Revolutionary Volume 2", I honestly thought you were about to carry the whole "conscious rap" on your shoulders and change the game. Do you think that "revolution" is reasonably possible in an entertainment-driven hip-hop industry like it became among the years?

I: I can't carry that on my shoulders, I don't consider myself a conscious rapper, I'm not some perfect all knowing oracle that can tell you how to redeem your life. I put the struggle into perspective with historical facts that people can then perceive however they want. I rhyme about the hood not only in America, but in the "3rd world" where I was born. Changing the game is impossible, just crippling it and making it lean on us for it's vices is a lifetime goal, people like don't last very long so I'm just trying to push as many obstacles out of the way for the person who will come after me. I make hardcore Revolutionary music from the streets, I strive to be more Revolutionary but that's a process it doesn't happen by reading a book you bought on the corner and changing the next day. At least that's the way I see it for myself and what I have to endure in order to make my point to people who have doubts.

A: Contrary to what is happening in some countries like in Southern America (Colombia) or Africa (Togo, Ivory Coast) where having a role disputing the power in place can send you straight to prison, there is a "relative" freedom of speech in the US. Despite this, it seems most of the people still behave like sheep, eating what they're spoon-fed (by media and entertainment industry in general.) What do associate this behaviour with? The great power of media? Ignorance and the fact people do not want to learn by themselves anymore?

I: People are just lazy, they are spoiled by the comfort of ignorance and the ideas that have been psychologically woven into their way of thinking. Rap is not commercial, rap IS a commercial, for everything, drugs, prisons, money and economic status, clothes, for sex, for brand names, for juice, liquor, for labels, for cars and for neighborhoods. The media facilitates it but our own ignorance breeds that, the Pharaoh kept the Hebrews slaves, but he did not make them believe in and worship a Golden Calf once they had their freedom.

A: It seems that a lot of rappers think they have to satisfy every audience to sell records. You have the ladies' song, the clubs' song, the thugged out hymn for the ghettos song, etc. Did you feel the need to diversify your subject matters for your debut album?

I: Life is not one dimensional I know my life isn't I make songs about a lot of different things because to make songs about one thing would make an album boring and incomplete. Don't ever get me confused with a purist or one of these backpacking fucks, I love that shit that bumps in the club, that crazy rhythmic shit, who doesn't want to see ladies dance, we had that at the birth of Hip Hop. We had materialism, we had misogyny, and Rap ain't never gave a fuck about someone's faggot ass feelings or about the US government...The Cultural diversity of the Hip Hop audience didn't change the face of Rap, a corporate controlled agenda of content made that happen, and that's what makes Hip Hop as a music, a one dimensional album with nothing but one type of song. This age is ending though, I just hope they don't try to commercialize Revolution, making conscious albums about shit these people don't live, a fake gangsta I can deal with, but a fake Revolutionary...Fuck outta here.

A: I know you have turned down recording deals with major labels. Do you intend to signing one day with a major record label or do you plan to stay on the low, independent's way ? Listening to "The message and the money" it seems you have already chosen your path.

I: I couldn't see myself major as an artist that's like being in prison all over again. I would like to have a distribution deal through a major label and that would a be a beautiful thing. I sold about 55,000 of "Revolutionary Vol.2" I'm going to try and double that this time around and maybe if I succeed in doing that they'll actually listen to me.

A: When I'm listening to records like Dead Prez's "Let's get free" I feel conscious hardcore Hip-Hop can still be sold and promoted by major labels. What's your two cents on that?

I: They can if they are marketed correctly by someone who is culturally in tune with not only the times but the music and the flow of the industry. But making a success on the radio, and TV is more about payola, bribes and personal relationships, anyone telling you different is actually one of the people engaged in these practices or has someone that they make money off of doing this shit.

A: How much are you involved in the musical production process?

I: I'm there for it all, production, mixdown, mastering, beats, tracking, EQ...All of it. That's why I put Executive Producer...Immortal Technique. I executive produce.

A: Did you receive any feedback after being the main character of the "Live from New-York" show, which was quite a big thing in France?

I: I saw it and I thought it was hot. I remember when my peeps came out here to film that I took them on a tour of my hood in Harlem and Washington Heights and muthafuckaz was smoking haze in the whip throwing chickbones at Cop cars. It was a wild time. That was right after I dropped "Revolutionary Vol.1" and I was hustlin' tryna get Vol.2 started, I was still battlin and just on some crazy shit, I hope the people in France understood how hard it was for me not to take that money for a deal, and to not water down my message. There is a lot of pressure to just make money since NYC is so expensive but I am always gonna do me.

A: Can you tell us more about the content of your new album? When will it hit the stores?

I: "The Middle Passage" Late 2005, or early 2006. it's a very difficult process making this one, the beats are different the concepts are just as powerful but the flow is completely different.
Very Raw, Street Hip-Hop, but it has a very deep side that only a few people will really get.
They know who the fuck they are.

A: When will we have a chance to see you in France for some concerts?

I: Hopefully soon, I have never done a real Hip Hop show out there, and one day I will show them why people are trying put a bullet in me. I hope someone is reading this and doubting me, it makes me stronger it makes me work harder. I'm coming through that Country like the Moors did 800 years ago *****.

A: Any last comments? Last words to conclude?

I: www.ViperRecords.com Cop the album... and if you don't have the money, burn it off line. And watch out for the new Akir Album entitled "Legacy"...

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He tells it like it is, anticipating that next record of his it will be fresh no doubt.

[wcsoldier]

props , tell me now French don't know shit about hip hop