"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."
