IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE: UNDYING METHOD Pt. 3 of 3

"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 […]

"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."