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Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. Million Youth March. A Che Guevara of an emcee laces the crowd with politically astute, precision-crafted punch lines delivered with a veteran performer’s polish and timing. Along the way, he tears a new anus in the mindscapes of the assembled mass, ending his set by telling the crowd to put a middle finger to the sky in order to send a proper greeting to the C.I.A. spy satellites. The emcee is Immortal Technique.

Harlem USA. Five Percenter National Headquarters. In the next room some “older gods” are engaged in a lively debate on Osama Bin Laden as a direct result of the cover art on Immortal Technique’s “Revolutionary: Vol. 2.” Immortal is in his glory. The heated conversation is precisely what Immortal sees as one of his primary objectives. “In terms of my political stance and where I want to stand and the way I’d like to be remembered; I am the spirit of argument and discussion. The album was created itself to create a discussion since all discussions were being knocked off the board; since people didn’t want to discuss anything,” says Immortal. “Making music is one thing but when you’re involved in direct action that’s a whole ‘nother story. If your music can influence direct action then that speaks to great lengths about what type of music you make.”

Indeed, while the album’s cover art alone is enough to raise eyebrows, raise questions and get people to raise their voices in debates that may raise the level of consciousness, Immortal Technique’s “Revolutionary: Vol. 2” embodies a work of artistic innovation in direct opposition to the current course of commercialized Hiphop cultural product.

“The bling-bling era was cute but it's about to be done I leave ya’ full of clips, like the moon blocking the sun” Industrial Revolution –Immortal Technique

From the album’s introduction by Mumia Abu-Jamal and the opening cut “The Point of Return” you know that you’ve left Kansas far behind and this is a Hiphop world akin to something George Orwell would have penned. “Peruvian Cocaine” shoots the concept of the posse cut to a next level with each of the seven emcees adding a thread to the narrative of the path cocaine travels to reach the city streets. The story starts with the rural field worker and moves from druglord to C.I.A. operatives and crooked cops all playing their position in the pipeline. Songs like “Obnoxious” show that even Immortal’s most outrageous concepts and battle rhymes take a stance and make a political statement. The jewel of the album “Industrial Revolution” is a treatise on changing the game featuring scratches courtesy of Dj RocRaida that makes that Roc La Familia track off “The Dynasty” album lackluster in comparison.

“Revolutionary: Vol. 2” is a dizzying array of aggressively, yet accurately articulated adjectives and mind melting metaphors that elicit ecstasy from the ear and epiphanies from the mind. Track after track of critical compositions pry into our apathy and awaken the side of Hiphop within us that was implanted by Public Enemy and recently only fed by a handful of artists like dead prez. Immortal Technique’s undying method quenches the parched throat of the consumer in ways that your average neo-soul, wheat-grass wielding wordsmith can never attain. “Immortal Technique is the warlord of raw dog,” he says of himself. “ I put it out there. Facts. I put out street knowledge. Immortal Technique is the truth.”

Immortal’s hardcore righteous with emphasis on the streets and brolic beats is a welcome departure from the incense and oils that dominate the so-called progressive wing of rap music. His battle aesthetic puts him in a league above all other extraordinary gentlemen. “Revolutionary: Vol. 2” epitomizes what KRS-ONE meant when he coined the term “edutainment.” It’s hilarious and a history lesson. Lyrics that make you press rewind on the tape deck but also echo in your mind. As you listen you are intellectually injected with a wealth of information and the rhyme animal within gets to feel the rush of well-crafted wordplay.

“My metaphors are dirty like herpes but harder to catch Like an escape tunnel in prison I started from scratch” Industrial Revolution –Immortal Technique

Immortal’s journey began when he was nine years old, spitting his early rhymes to break beats on the radio and as time progressed his abilities grew from there. “Little by little I realized I could do this,” says Immortal. “At first I didn’t take it seriously at all. It was more of a recreational thing. Having fun.” Back then Immortal says that he was more involved in “reprehensible behavior” and whylin’ out but he was already moving in a determined direction. “There was this one time rhyming with my peoples and the freestlyle just took over and it was just like it was someone else I felt like, but it was really me. It was like I was opening up my eyes and being like wow I can really do this a whole lot better than I thought I could, and then I sat down and started writing rhymes and the rhymes that I wrote were concise and they followed a certain point and I was like cool, this is real. This is more real than I expected it to be.

“As I started putting the words together it was more of a hardcore sense ‘cause I was still going through that youthful phase where you want to fight the world and where everything just seems to be against you and when you walk through the hood, not only the police but your own people. So its like a lot of people develop that warrior mentality but without no direction. That’s really the issue I see out there in the street.”

A turning point occurred when police arrested a friend and Immortal was also detained when he foolishly acted against the cops in a youthful attempt to defend his companion. “Just down in the tombs. Me and my boy back to back and yo’ right there it reminded me so much of a slave ship. Everybody packed in to their shoulders, being fed the most disgusting food in the world and having guards act like the overseer. It started me thinking about different types of government rather than the type of government that they say we live in now. I started really researching what it is to be an oligarchy; what it is to be a plutocracy; what it is to be an economic aristocracy rather than it is to be a democracy, a capitalist democracy, instead of a socialist democracy ‘cause there’s all types of government however people want to define it is one thing, but what it is in practice is another thing.

“I started going to the library. I started reading books that I bought off the street. I just had a thirst for knowledge ‘cause I saw how ignorant our people were and how ignorant I was it was almost as if I glanced at myself and I said you could be so much more than this. As I started to travel, I went back to South America. I started realizing what was really going on in the world. I started walking through the hood and really looking at it. ‘Cause I think a lot of people live in the hood and never really understand the place they live. So I started understanding the hood. I started to see it for what it was, ‘cause anybody can rhyme about selling crack, anybody can sell crack, anybody can hold a gun, but to understand why they sell, how the guns get to you, how the drugs get to the community, why in certain instances they’re placed inside the community, the fact that they’re allowed to be in certain places and the fact that they’re depicted as almost the culture of a people and in other places they are depicted as being something people suffer from… Anybody can live life, but to discover the meaning of life is another dimension of living.”

Immortal’s evolution was far from complete. After High School, Immortal was off to college, but he says he was a wild kid with a stupid attitude and he took that negative energy away with him. In the end, he went from attending class at Penn State to doing time in the state pen. His reckless behavior led to year in a Pennsylvania prison. “It wasn’t like I became intelligent in prison. I was already there. I was already reading before I went. I knew that I was going to do a bullet a year before I went up. At that point, I started reading a lot more. Before it was a book a month, then it was three books a month and then it was like when I was locked up I read “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life” John Anderson biography [an 800-plus page book] in like two days; speed reading. That’s what I trained myself to be. You can train yourself to be anything.”

Immortal slips from topic to topic in his convo as easily as he does on his songs, changing lanes on the discussion highway mid-sentence. “When I got out, I was trying to go back to college and all that, but I had been writing so much in jail and I had been battling kids in there and in there it was so much more of a respect thing then about winning $500 dollars at Braggin’ Rites or winning a jacket at Rock Steady or Blaze Battle. It spoke about who you were for somebody to be like ‘yo that Nigga’s nice.’ So when I came back I entered the battle scene immediately. I was probably about a week and a half out when I said: You know what. Not only is this a good thing in order to get my name known but in the long run people will look at me and say that kid paid his dues. He wasn’t just some gimmick that labels said ‘Eh, Yo let’s sign this kid.’ To me, the label is the gimmick not the artist. You the gimmick. You the motherfucker that got to hire the PR people and do the retail marketing. You do the gimmicks for me, all right, White man. Or get your little Black lackey House Nigga that work at the label to do it for you because I don’t have time for that. I have to present who I really am.”

End of Part 1 of 3


die nächsten Parts werden folgen............


to be continued

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IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE: UNDYING METHOD Pt. 2 of 3




Technique chemically unstable, set to explode
Foretold by the Dead Sea scrolls written in codes
So if your message ain't sh*t, f*ck the records you sold
'Cuz if you go platinum, it's got nothing to do with luck
It just means that a million people are stupid as f*ck!
Industrial Revolution -Immortal Technique

At this time Immortal began to see the next stage in his development was moving from the battle to the recording studio. "After I got out and I won all these battles, I dedicated myself to not just being a battle MC because I got bracketed. Put it that little hole where people are like 'Oh he's a battle rapper.' People would say that. 'Immortal Technique is an ill battle rapper.' I found it in the streets. I found it at shows. And even stupid little message boards people were writing 'oh he's a good battle rapper.' I'm like oh, now I really got to write some songs. I said to myself I don't want to be bracketed as a battle MC because I think I got a lot more potential. So I took a lot of the songs that I had written in jail and I hooked up with DJ Reach and this brother told me he's like 'My peeps make beats. They could hook you up with some tracks.' So I went over there and I ain't have no money. I was telling people I couldn't do nothing and I basically got them to give me some tracks and I put out "Volume 1" and I worked with them and they did like most of the beats but they did all the recording. It was like off like an 1880 and a Shure mic, but they mixed it down real well. So after I put our "Vol. 1" people were like this guy is not just on some hardcore stuff, he's on some revolutionary stuff. I did that at the end of '99 the beginning of 2000, but we put it out in 2001 and really there's songs on "Vol. 1" from like 1997."

Immortal Technique's name already rang bells around the battle scene but after several performances his reputation a showman also began to increase. "In terms of my seasoning, I learned the stage presence from being in the battle," said Immortal. "I can handle a heckler in the crowd. It ain't nothing to me whether you want to handle it physically or you want to handle it lyrically; that's up to you. But the point is that you learn a lot more than you think you do about stage presence because in the battle, even with the judges because usually the judges go along with the crowd. You don't win by beating your opponent, you win by winning the crowd.

"There were a lot of times I had to perform for free and I ain't mind all at that because I was getting my name out there. But as I started getting my name out there more and more that's when I was like alright you know what. I don't mind doing a benefit show but just like "The Message and the Money." I better not be the only person that's not getting paid because that seems to be the deal nowadays, people want to pay their mans and them; kinda' like a political kickback. Whether you like politics or not politics is a part of everything. 'Oh, I'm not into politics.' Well then you must not be into life you dumb-ass n*gga 'cause that's what life is. Life is politics.

"So in that respect I grew very angry with the scene because as the battle scene deteriorated and I had won so many battles I got this thing called the "Unsigned Hype." After I got the "Unsigned Hype" in The Source some labels hollered at me. But their whole image of success was me changing the persona of who I was. They wanted me to make the type of records that I would just feel embarrassed spitting. I'm like this isn't me. This isn't who I am. This has nothing to do with hip-hop. This is party music and why are you dictating it? You don't know hip-hop. You're just using it to market a product in the future to them.

"That's the problem in hip-hop. That's the situation in hip-hop. That people are using hip-hop today to market their product to a different audience that they normally wouldn't have access to and when I said that at Rock Steady, the sponsors cut my mic off. And then Crazy Legs came back and was like; nah you got to let him rhyme, you got to let him say whatever he wants to say."

"I think hip-hop is standing on a cliff right now and there are certain people are trying to pull it back and say: 'No, no, no! You're too close to creativity. We might lose control of where it's going to go.' And there are people who have decided to just fly around in the air and tell hip-hop 'Nah, come on. Just walk with us. You could walk in the sky. You can live without boundaries.' There's good and bad things that come with that. There's abstract hip-hop that I think is not hot. People just rambling with big words on the microphone that really don't say anything.

"I take a piss on a development deal from Sony, or Def Jam
cuz your like all of the rest man"
-Obnoxious - Immortal Technique

Immortal's excursions into the music industry led to him putting himself out on his own imprint Viper Records. On the album, along with the music industry in general, Immortal calls out independent label Landspeed by name. "My beef with Landspeed, it's not like I want to kill those cats. They're just geeky white people. They're no threat to me." says Immortal . "I don't have no serious issue with Landspeed and I say that because I don't want them to be the focus of the beef. There's a lot of labels that are just like that. There's a lot of distributors who are just like that."

Indeed on the album he guns for the entire underground music business. "I said it on Vol. 2: 'Underground labels, I don't trust you. You're only underground until you're major; so f*ck you.' All these so-called undergrounds want to be major labels and there's nothing wrong with that in terms of wanting to be a bigger business and make more money and to have more impact. But now they're assuming the practices of these larger labels that they claim to hate. They claim oh this is why we started our label because we didn't want these big labels to be in control, but then you're acting like them. You didn't change nothing. You just replaced the head. You didn't change none of the practices. It's like saying you had a revolution because you picked a new president. In terms of my issue with them [independent labels] I think a lot of them have that general practice of jerking people out of money"

"This is the business, and ya'll ain't getting nothing for free
and if you devils play broke, then I'm taking your company
you can call it reparations or restitution
lock and load n*gga, industrial revolution"
Industrial Revolution - Immortal Technique

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Der Typ wird immer bekannter... Allhiphop featured ihn ...

wenn es einer verdient, dann er. ich glaube kaum dass er seinen sound jemals aufgeben wird.

Auf Rap-Source.de gibt's auch ein exklusives Interview

ziemlich behindertes interview wie ich finde

IT fasst sich irgendwie sehr kurz...

IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE: UNDYING METHOD Pt. 3 of 3
By DX 21 KRAZO



"This is the business, and ya'll ain't getting nothing for free
and if you devils play broke, then I'm taking your company
you can call it reparations or restitution
lock and load n*gga, industrial revolution"
Industrial Revolution - Immortal Technique

According to Immortal he and a fellow artist, Poison Pen were in Boston to do a show when they dropped by Landspeed and as the relationship progressed things got flaky. "I've seen other artists get paid off Landspeed. Some people make money off of it, but you know what, me and a whole lot of other people have witnessed firsthand the way that they just jerk people out of money. I took myself out of that situation before it happened. They were like 'Oh maybe you should give us some of "Vol. 1" and we'll put it out for you a little something.' And then I said 'Alright, well when do I see a return and don't I have to sign some consignment stuff' and they're like 'Nah, nah, nah. Just send it.' And I was like whoa, whoa, whoa! What, Dog? I was like "Hold on, I heard a lot of stories about ya'll not paying people. Now what's really going on.' And then they got real hesitant.

"Make sure that he's a thug and intelligent too"
Made You Look - Nas

Whether in composition or conversation, Immortal easily shifts between the monumental and mundane, seamlessly weaving together the practical and the political from discussing the power of popping sh*t to proclamations of high philosophy. In talking with Immortal one sees his songs come alive through his lively yet well-thought exchanges. His mind is one with his art, living and breathing, and from the abundance of the heart, as the saying goes, the mouth speaks. "I felt like there wasn't enough stuff being said and people were talking too much about taking it back to the streets in they rhymes and they wasn't talking about the streets. They was talking about fake crack deals that never went down. They wasn't talking about the systematic destruction of the Black Panthers under the COINTELPRO. They was talking about Allah and Islam, but they wasn't talking about the demonization of it. They was talking oh yeah all praise to Allah but they wasn't talking about how the media was demonizing Islam. That's what bothered me."

"And you can't fathom the truth, so you don't hear me
You think illuminati's just a f*ckin' conspiracy theory?"
The Cause of Death - Immortal Technique

"I don't believe in conspiracy theories there are certain facts that we can take from world history and that we can talk about. The whole idea of an illuminati means a people that sit behind the public figures and dictate not only foreign and domestic policy but world issues world economy and I think that people who don't understand that are kind of naive because to think that George Bush is the only man calling shots in America is a little bit foolish. I mean he has not just a conglomerate of corporate interests involved but it almost seems as if his vice president has more to so with the decision making capability of the White House than he does. You can find examples in Halliburton's no contest bids for contracts for the reconstruction of Nations. People have a negative view of people who believe in conspiracy theories but I like seeing the reaction on people faces when you can back some of these conspiracy theories up with facts."

"Word to Ground Zero. The Devil crept into Heaven
God overslept on the 7th
The New World Order was born on September 11"
The Cause of Death - Immortal Technique


"In America we like to think of our country and our nation as being more advanced than other people's. Politically, economically, whatever. But we have fixed elections. We have political assassinations in this country too. Kennedy was killed because he was going to end the Vietnam War. He was killed by people who had an interest in continuing the Vietnam War. People who were making money off the Vietnam War. Vietnam was a black eye. America got the black eye, but the hand took the money and put it in its pocket. There were certain people who benefited from the war. Just the same way September 11 is a tragedy but there are people benefiting from that day now. People who say: 'We need more security. Give us more money, more money, more money.' There are weapons companies that are benefiting and this is so close to the hood and so close to the voting population that I feel like we need to speak on it because that's the poverty of our philosophy. People are in the ghetto struggling just to pay rent; just to put food on the table for their children that's why when you talk about sh*t like this they're like 'What does that matter? I don't care about what Bin-Laden does or Hussein or whoever Tariq whatever the f*ck, n*gga, I don't care about that, Dog. What that got to do with me?' Actually it has everything to do with you, you stupid motherf*cker. It has a direct effect on how you live your life whether you realize or not because some people can't rationalize politically, and I'm not saying all of them because there are some people who are broke as a motherf*cking joke that can sit down and break down the history of the world and the political spectrum a lot better than me. But, I put it like this, that the majority that are ignorant are kept ignorant. That they are put in the situation where they don't have the time to learn. I mean, it takes dedication to do things like that and when you have three or four kids and you holding down two jobs just trying to maintain their lives. It's a whole another thing to say and now I want to expand my mind now; I want to talk about what's going on. That's why a lot of people don't care. That's why I relate issues in my music issues in the hood to issues that are global and issues that are national so that we get a perspective of them. That's why I made a song like "Harlem Streets." That's why we make a song like "Industrial Revolution" things that have to do with the streets because that's where I am and that's where you'll find me."

Listening to some of his songs, particularly "Obnoxious" one may think of the old adage that there is a thin line between genius and insanity. "That's really who I am. Immortal Technique is an extreme version of my personality," he says. "People say; 'Are you really that violent or crazy.' Well not necessarily but if you push me that's what you're going to get. I can be as an intelligent as I want to and speak eloquently on whatever subject but if somebody going to try to play me then you get what you get, Dog."

"I gave you prophecy on my first joint, and y'all lamed out
Didn't really appreciate it, til the second one came out"
Hard Knock Life - Jay-Z

Immortal thinks that Jay-Z's lines in "Hard Knock Life" aptly sum up the direction of his career at this time. "Vol. 2" has sold thousands of units hand to hand by word-of-mouth without distribution. This year, armed with a publicist and a distributor, Immortal plans to take "Vol. 2" to the next level and re-release "Vol. 1."

"I don't even know if I am a revolutionary yet. A revolutionary is somebody who passes the point of no return. Like the first song on the album. It goes 'Like Malcolm Little when he knelt before he knelt before Elijah Muhammad.' There's a point in people's lives when they can't go back to who they were before. There's a point where Malcolm X cannot go back to being Detroit Red." While Immortal is not sure whether or not he has reached that stage of his game yet, his work clearly shows that he is rapidly marching towards a part of the struggle from which there is no retreat.

"My path is still young I don't claim to be the all-knowing and all-seeing," says Immortal. "I am still very ignorant about a lot of things and I have a long way to go."

_________________
Get me a banana cognac bijatch

die fragen wurden alle zusammen per Mail an ihn geschickt und dann hat er sie alle der Reihe nach beantwortet. Hätte auch einiges mehr draus gemacht, wenn ich schon ein exklusiv Interview kriege. Die Frage is von mir:



Meine anderen hat er nicht mit reingenommen, was der Qualität des Interviews allerdings gut getan hätte

gibts seine sachen auch in saturn zu kaufen?

Harlem-bred emcee Immortal Technique has begun to record his third independent album through his Viper Records, but he said that the album would be a departure from his politically charged albums Revolutionary Vol. 1 & 2.

“Right now it’s in its early stages. I have like two tracks done. I don’t even have any guest appearances planned,” Technique told AllHipHop.com. “Its not going to be less consciousness, [but] its back to the root of what made me Immortal Technique – the brutal lyrics. At the same time, there is going to be a lot of conceptual strength to the album.”

In recent years, Technique has gained accolades for his ability to craft witty, wicked punch lines bound by barbed commentary on the government, both past and present.

He revealed that his upcoming, still-untitled album would reflect his present existence, but will save his more political concepts for Revolutionary Volume 3 as the current events unfold.

“If art imitates life, on [Revolutionary] Volume 2, I was talking about what was going on in the world at that time. Now, it’s changed,” he continued. “On a whole, when I hit them with Volume 3, I need to let a little bit of time progress. I want to see what’s going to happen at the end of the year, with all this drama. And then, at the end of the year – I’m going to hit them and lead them right into 2005.”

The latest album doesn’t have a release date, but he did say it would be dedicated to his flourishing fan base, which is composed of many nationalities.

“I’m going to have something for the streets. They have been the biggest supporters that I have. I have a huge Latino fan base. Brothers have always been there. Now it’s starting to diversify. I’m having more white people [as fans], more Middle Eastern and that’s hip-hop,” he concluded.

While he records his new CD, Technique said he will continue to perform at various spot dates and will even appear on the acclaimed Latin television network Tele Mundos in the upcoming month.

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Thaformula.com

ThaFormula.com - How do you feel about the lack of hardcore Hip-Hop nowadays?
Immortal Technique - I think that's based upon what executives feel that they can market. Nowadays the formula for music is based on like happy-slappy type Hip-Hop. There is nothing that is real deep. I mean if people wanna call it emotional it's real serious. It's more like people are talking about the hood. Its like white people get emotional when we start talking about 9/11. Black people get emotional when we start talking about slavery. You go to Miami and start talking about Castro, your gonna find a whole lot of emotional Cuban people. Whether people call it being emotional or serious or crazy, there are different types of markets out there for music. With Hip-Hop it's no different. There's all types of Hip-Hop music but the corporations job is not to take risks. Their job is to recycle marketing schemes. Their job is to make a package that people will buy without even thinking so if you can have like a 10 year old reciting your hook over and over that's the bottom line. They don't wanna teach people nothing, they don't wanna break no standards. If they can make the artist wear a dress and go triple platinum there would be a lot of faggot ass rappers walking around looking like women.

ThaFormula.com - What do you feel Hip-Hop is all about now?

Immortal Technique - Hip-Hop is all about marketing right now, its not really about no skills and that's my biggest issue with Hip-Hop right now. It's not whatever niggaz people think is wack 'cause I mean there is always gonna be people that people think are hot that other people think are wack. People think Illmatic is a classic but I know niggaz that don't like that album saying its good but its not what its cracked up to be.

ThaFormula.com - Why do you feel most artist don't call out wack rappers even though they know it and speak off the record that they're wack?

Immortal Technique - Well if I have an issue with somebody…uh it depends. If it's something that I think is comical, I'll talk about it on a record, but if its something serious then why would I beef about it on a record in the first place. To me beefing on a record is a stupid idea. Like if somebody said my name on a record and was like "fuck this so and so," I wouldn't think about going into the studio. I'd be thinking about finding out where you live. That's just what it is. Also I would have to think about why this person is coming at me. Did I do something to him? Did I fuck his girl? Did I ruin his life somehow? Like maybe it's somebody, an old bitter rapper whose time came and went and they looking for some fresh start and some way to get they name back or maybe its a new rapper who doesn't know shit. Me personally I'm a grown man and I don't have time to play little games like that with people. The way I discuss and deal with things I don't like is I work consciously towards doing what I can do to make it better.

ThaFormula.com - When did you start rhymin' seriously?

Immortal Technique - First when I was young I just played around with it. When I got to be like 15 or 16 I really started writing rhymes and then when I got out of prison in like '9 that's when I decided to say "Fuck this," and started battling cats. So I won all these battles in New York and after I won all those battles I said "this is a waste of time and this ain't getting me nowhere." I learned a lot but I decided to make music after that.

ThaFormula.com - Did you get your life straight before or after you went to prison?

Immortal Technique - Nah it wasn't like I was one of these niggaz that just went to jail and came out and was like "oh yeah now I'm gonna get my life together." I had my life together before that. The prison actually kind of fucked up my life because I was doing good on my own. I had got myself a job, I was hustling, I was going to school, I was doing my best to get better grades and then all of a sudden I got hit with time and I was like…man it really threw me off of my game. You're essentially a slave and you belong to the government. So I didn't take life seriously and I didn't appreciate it as much as I did when I came out. The little things like when niggaz get up and go to the bathroom at night. It was just emptiness for me. When I came back I was like "yo I got to get serious, I gotta get on my grind and support my family to make up for all the time that I was away."

ThaFormula.com - How hard was it trying to get a job when you got out man?

Immortal Technique - It took me months going different places and getting the door slammed in my face. I ended up getting a job on my own by lying to people and telling them I had no rap sheet. So I got a job answering emails for some web company or some shit so it was cool. It paid pretty good so after I got that it was just work, go to school, and I wrote rhymes on the side and started doing the battles.

ThaFormula.com - The struggle you went though is the struggle a lot of brothers and sisters go through on a day to today basis that a lot of people do not understand…

Immortal Technique - I'll give you a clear and present example. There's been times when people who involve themselves in a cause finally start to understand. It's not that they finally start but they are amazed. Like I know people from every spectrum of this Hip-Hop. I was just hanging out with my man Sean Price and the Lo-Lifes the other night at Club Envy. It was Harlem, Brownsville and Bed- Stuy in the house and it was all love in there 'cause everybody knew each other. Then on the other side of it one time these cats from Minneapolis called Atmosphere, they invited me out to do a anti-war show. They invited me and this cat called Boots from The Coup, and they invited us out there and it was ill 'cause after the show one of the guys that owns the club called up some cat from that label they have, Rhymesayers, and he was like "yo what the fuck are you doing? You're gonna have these fucking terrorists in my club? You wanna bring whoever you wanna bring but don't bring fucking terrorists and communists to my fucking club." Really what he was probably trying to say was "stop bringing niggaz and spicks to my club and that doesn't reflect badly on Atmosphere or Rhymesayers." That reflects badly on the club owner and to me that doesn't reflect the people 'cause the people showed me mad love when I was there and they bought every fucking CD I had. From one end of it to the other, I think its just the question of them understanding where we're coming from.

ThaFormula.com - So you got your life back in order and your were writing, working and going to school…what did you do next?

Immortal Technique - Well I went to school majoring in Political Science. I was really, really trying to stay out of trouble 'cause I was on parole, I had to get piss tested all the time. I would just do my thing and then I started doing the battles and it was when I won enough of these things I realized that they don't do nothing for you, then I started with the music, song writing and an album. 'Cause at first I had the idea that everybody else had. I was like "yo I'ma got get signed, somebody will see me, offer me some dough and then I could do my project." I read a book called "All You Need to Know About the Music Business," and it outlined a lot of interesting things that I had never known. I recommend that book to anybody that's out there trying to start. I started hearing stories from other people about what they was involved with in terms of their label and I came to terms with some things that were pro-label and con-label. Like people complained about their label like "oh yeah they taking 18 cents a record, but obviously so 'cause there putting up all the money in the first place." You do nothing but spit on a track. That doesn't mean shit to be honest. I go into the studio and I spit my verse over a track. That's probably the easiest part of making music 'cause after that I gotta mix it down which takes ten times the time to record it, then I need to have it mastered, pressed up, marketed, promoted, and distributed. You know all those things take an incredible amount of energy, time and perseverance to get done. I mean there are always fuck-ups, there is always people that's late. You gotta crack the whip on your own workers as well as muthafuckas that's out there doing their thing. I'll be honest with you though, I'm not a slave driver. I don't try to jerk niggaz. At my label anytime I make money everybody that rolls with me gets paid 'cause I know niggaz got kids to feed. I ain't trying to leave nobody behind that was down with me since day one.

ThaFormula.com - So what did you do from there?

Immortal Technique - I had this thing called "Revolutionary Vol .1." It was a whole bunch of songs that I wrote while I was locked up in jail. At one of the battles I met up with somebody, a cat that I knew in Harlem on Lennox Ave. He was a DJ and he told me his man had beats so I took all the songs that I wrote in jail, I went over to their house and I just heard what they had and I was like cool. So we all started working on a project together to make this happen. So it took us a little while and we banged it out. I took all my jail songs and wrote 2 new ones and then eventually put that shit out. After that people started talking. I won the Rocksteady battle and then I started selling "Volume 1" and it sold real well the first couple of weeks. By then I had no label and it was interesting 'cause right after that 9/11 happened and nothing was moving for like 2 or 3 months. Nobody cared about Hip-Hop, nobody cared about nothing. People just wanted to go to war, people were confused, people were scared, people just crawled in a shell and became ignorant and accepted whatever the government told them. The only time I ever had people complain about that music were probably some rich little nerds on the Internet who don't like anything that uplifts Black and Latino people. They automatically think me talking about our struggle is racist which is stupid 'cause I've always believed that racism is not the issue here in America and that it's really "classism," and that racism is just hiding that. It does a very good job of doing it and believe me, racism is a very real thing.

ThaFormula.com - You seem to have fans of all races...

Immortal Technique - My fan base is so diverse, and it's spread out. Like I got a lot of Latino people obviously because that's primarily what I am and you know my grandfather is Back. His family was originally from the West Indies so I feel compelled to speak about that, and I think that's very important for me to come to terms with the pride in my African heritage that's there on my grandfathers side because I think a lot of Latinos have been raised in a culture of racism where we're defeating ourselves. Where us (both races) together would be probably the most powerful group on the East and the West Coasts.

ThaFormula.com - So nothing was movin' after Sept 11th...what then?

Immortal Technique - I went to the Source 'cause my man hollered at the Music Editor and told him "yo you should hear this kid, he's nice." So rather than send my tape in I walked in there and met the dude. I played him the song called "Dance With the Devil" on "Volume 1." He really liked it and then I brought this VHS tape with me that people had tried to pay me lots of money for but I refused to give it to anybody. It's a compiled tape of most of the battles that I won. It has a whole slew of rappers that just get demolished and destroyed. He called everybody from The Source office in and he sat down and watched this tape and what ended up happening was that everybody just erupted in laughter every time I destroyed a nigga. So they were like "aight cool we could probably put you on the list to get Unsigned Hype." So I just spit a verse for this dude off the dome and started rhyming about everything in the room and then I just kicked like a regular written on some real hardcore shit. The dude was like "aight you don't have to convince me no more, I believe that you definitely gonna be one of the people that works hard." It was ill because when I was in his office everybody kept coming in and I would know certain people. They were like "that's Technique," or "yeah I seen you at this show" or "do this and that," and he was like "damn you're really involved in this underground shit." I was like "well what I'ma do yo? I gotta hustle, I gotta sell my CD's at the shows that's where I'm making money. I go to the show, and I'll rock it." You know I wasn't always getting paid for shows back in the day. It was like a open mic, I would only get like 5 or 10 minutes do 2 songs, murder it and then wait outside and get my aggressive marketing scheme on like "yo nigga this is some real shit."

ThaFormula.com - So where did you go from there?

Immortal Technique - Well, then I left school to focus my mind completely on this. Then I started building a studio with one of my peoples, this cat Southpaw, and we built a studio and we just started recording "Volume 2."

ThaFormula.com - So when did the hook up with Uncle Howie come about?

Immortal Technique - It actually happened through DJ Eclipse. Eclipse hollered at me like "yo what's up?" 'cause I was having some problems with trying to get distribution for "Volume 2." Originally I was supposed to have it through a certain distributor and they got shook cause of the political content of it. They were scared because I had Mumia on the record, they were scared because I had a song about the war 'cause I was talking about the racism that exists in the Latino community. They were scared 'cause I was talking about 9/11. They were just scared, pussy, and that's the bottom line. After that I went everywhere like "yo what's up?" and some people were like "yeah, yeah, alright that sounds cool I'll see what I can do for you," but at the same time they wasn't doing shit for me so it dawned on me to say fuck this, I gotta do this myself. So even though I put the record out through the label I started, "Viper," I was finding my distribution and I found a way through Caroline that hadn't happened yet and I was still looking for a place to get vinyl or some shit. I came at Fat Beats and they were a little iffy, those dudes are cool, like the people that work at the store, but I have no relationship with the people who work at the main office.

ThaFormula.com - I would think being Fat Beats they would have picked it up in a minute?

Immortal Technique - Yeah but they didn't 'cause I guess they have a lack of vision which they been recently cured of. I came to terms with making peace with them, but I'm an honest dude…at first I really was not feeling them at all. I was like "fuck them niggaz, they ain't shit," but at the end of the day I was like "I guess they didn't believe it." But I'm not trying to shit on them 'cause they are doing a good job now but I mean they get a million submissions and sometimes their picks are on and sometimes, sometimes their picks are off. When I started selling so many units they were like "alright well damn you really do have a fan base," and I was like "well you could have just asked me that and we could have saved ourselves a whole lot of problems," but its good that it worked out this way cause I got to work with Uncle Howie and everybody involved over there.

ThaFormula.com - So you said Eclipse approached you?

Immortal Technique - Well he called me, actually and he was like "yo I know Fat Beats has been bullshitting but we'd be interested in putting out the record," and I was like "word?" Originally like if I dealt with Fat Beats I was gonna get like a 90 percent cut cause you know they take their little distribution fee and I get what I get. Eclipse said we we'll get a little bit more of a cut because we will pay for all the pressing and all the stuff and to be honest vinyl is a promotional tool so I really didn't feel like busting my ass wasting dough. So I was like "yo if y'all ready to hook it up and take a little bit more I could understand and that's fine." Then right after we made the deal for that, I got the Hip-Hop Quotable in The Source and I was like "you know what, fuck that! I'ma put that song on the vinyl even though Fat Beats didn't know if they would take that because I'm rolling with Uncle Howie and y'all muthafuckas will take anything I want you to take," and that's when I was still mad at them. Nowadays I'm cool, they cool. They are doing their job. I feel like Uncle Howie is doing a spectacular job. I have no complaints about them ever. I just think that if Fat Beats had come to me a little sooner on they own or whatever, we would have done everything, but then I wouldn't have all the hook ups that I do through Uncle Howie, so even though like they take a little bit more of a percentage its cool because they are doing a lot more work for me.

ThaFormula.com - So what's your plan now.? Do you plan on just doing singles with them or just singles though Uncle Howie?

Immortal Technique - I'm not sure yet. We will probably do a project after the next single. But whether that's another single, EP or album I really don't know yet. As far as the "Revolutionary" album we gave Caroline 5000 of them in the end of November so I haven't even worked this record really. It's just been floating out because of all the shit that I've done for it. So we're gonna work it for like 3 or 4 months probably real hard and by that time it will be April and it will be time to release the EP and then we will release "Revolutionary Vol. 3 in 2005."

ThaFormula.com - So are you still trying to get on a major or are you through with that?

Immortal Technique - For right now I'm not concerned with that. Not that I'm through with it but I'm not concerned with it. I came to the point where I was like "you know what, fuck y'all, I refuse to conform."

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Tja Qualität zieht halt manchmal auch en kleinen Hype mit sich(siehe Anfangszeit von DefJux). Und IT macht halt einfach geile Rap-Musik!
Hardcore-Lyrics mit straighten consciene-Rap gewürzt und dass auf pumpenden minimalistischen beatz mit melodischen Samples...
Einfach Fett!

Scheiße, Osama links hat nicht mehr draufgepasst, mein Scanner ist dafür zu klein.

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