There is political hiphop, and then there is Immortal Technique.
Born Felipe Coronel in a South American military hospital, Immortal
Technique has been waging war via a mic since the late ’90s. Never one
to mince words (“Fuck your chain/My people’ll kill you for water”), or
images (the cover of 2003’s Revolutionary Vol. 2 is a gory
illustration of Technique gunning down the Bush cabinet, the president
himself, and Bin Laden, all inside the Oval Office), Technique is
gearing up for a slew of upcoming releases, and takes some time to talk
about them, plus some other pressing issues as well.
It’s been years since your last full-length. Will this new record
be a natural evolution of the previous releases or something entirely
different?
Before the release of The Middle Passage and Revolutionary
Vol. 3, I have prepared a machine gun entrance from my four-year
hiatus. It’s called The 3rd World, a project that I did with DJ
Green Lantern scheduled for release early this summer. It’s a violent
but lyrically and conceptually powerful album/mixtape meant to parallel
the issues we face in the Third World [and] the streets.
Recently Neil Young said that he no longer thinks a song can
change anything politically. As a socially aware artist, does it ever
get frustrating to see the direction this country is headed? Does it
ever feel helpless to be fighting a system so powerful and
large?
I can understand being frustrated. I’m sure by the time you reach a
certain age that anger ferments into cynicism and pessimism that people
just see as being realistic. But I don’t consider myself an “activist”
or just the average “conscious rapper.” I think the title “conscious”
is incomplete when it comes to what myself and others are involved in.
That word just implies knowledge; it doesn’t mean you’re actually going
to do anything with it. I busy myself working with incarcerated youth,
funding hospitals, schools and, very soon, orphanages as well. We fight
racism with education and occupation with a fierce countenance. We
train physically, mentally, and spiritually. To me this is more than
music. A message alone cannot change anything, the action behind it has
to be there. After all without God, his prophets, and angels, the Bible
would be just another book.
Do you think any of the current crop of presidential candidates
can change anything? Or do you think it will be more of the
same?
I think the status quo will remain the same on a lot of issues, no
matter what. The president’s power is dwarfed compared to those who run
the economic oligarchy and use the government to legitimize their
actions. I vote every election, but the structure of a democracy is
much more than just voting. The institutions that compose it go beyond
the right to cast a ballot every four years. I focus and rely on what I
can do for me and my people and what we can collectively work on first,
and then I consider the promises of others.
Immortal Technique plays at the Wonder Ballroom on Thursday,
March 13.