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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 *****, 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 *******, 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 *****, 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 *****, 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: 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 *****, 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 *******, 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 *****, 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 *****, 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.
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