Immortal Technique and the Political Economy of Latinos in the u$
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Immortal Technique Immortal Technique is a brilliant lyricist, incorporating political economy, hip hop, pop culture, religion and personal stories into seamless rhymes. He'll make you angry with a revolutionary criticism of imperialism and make you smile with an obscure cultural reference in the next line. His politics take the perspective of the oppressed putting forth a revolutionary program for a better world. Being from Peru and moving to Harlem at a young age he ends up dealing with the politics of the internal semi-colonies within u$ borders as well as the internationally oppressed. This album jumps off with the incredibly deep beats and hardening lyrics of "The Point of No Return." Lyrically and musically this album is strong throughout. And putting the lyrics on the internet left room in the liner notes for IT to explain his songs and put them into context. Immortal Technique's internationalism is great. Focusing on current events in the Middle East as well as recent history throughout Latin America he takes on the interests of the oppressed. In "The 4th Branch" he rhymes, "inbedded correspondence don't tell the source of the tension/and they refuse to even mention european intervention/ or the massacres in Jenin/ the innocent screams/u$ manufactured missiles and m-16's/weapon contracts and corrupted amerikan dreams." He goes on to talk about the current situation in the u$ mass media, "the 4th branch of the government aka the media seems to now have a retirement plan for ex-military officials as if their opinion was at all unbiased. A machine shouldn't speak for men, so shut the fuck up you mindless drones." The question of the labor aristocracy and the internal semi-colonies in the united $tates is hit the strongest in the track Homeland and Hip Hop by Mumia abu Jamal who does a couple guest spots on the album. While we have not known Mumia to agree with MIM on these economic questions in the past (1), in his summary of the facts he can't help but reveal the truth, "there are, at the very least, 2 worlds in amerika... [compared to the hip hop community,] in the broader society, the opposite is true, for here more than any other place on Earth wealth is so widespread and so bountiful that what passes for the middle class in amerika could pass for the upper class in most of the rest of the world... [this] makes them insecure." However, on his last album (Revolutionary Vol. 1), IT takes the opposite stance by saying, "my enemy is not the average white man... in fact I have more in common with most working and middle class white people than I do with most rich Black and Latino people. As much as racism bleeds amerika we have to understand that classism is the real issue." He also outright denies that working people in the u$ profit from Third World exploitation. However, he goes on to say, "I don't want to escape the plantation. I wanna come back, free all my people, hang the motherfucker that kept me there, and burn the house to the goddamn ground." So he isn't looking for any special deal, he recognizes the need to overthrow the system. His ideology is of the oppressed but he fails to see the alliances that the oppressor has built. As good as IT's history is, he is ignoring the settler mentality of white people outside of Europe and the class alliances of workers in the imperialist countries to the imperialists themselves who are willing to share their spoils stolen from the Third World in return for support at home. The quotes above come from the song "The Poverty of Philosophy" where IT struggles with the large presence of Latino conservatism within u$ borders. He comments on the support he gets from Blacks and from people in the Third World, but can only explain the lack of support by Latinos in the u$ through cultural miseducation and self-hatred. Responding to the mentality taken toward the Third World of "fuck them, let them fend for themselves" he says, "no fuck you, you are them." This is the correct stance to be taking, because while we do see a large portion of immigrants grasping on to the amerikan dream, it is hard to erase the memories of poverty and violence. And the oppressed nation youth are learning how amerika deals with brown people at home first-hand in schools and thru the injustice system. One other criticism of Immortal Technique is his language dealing with gender. Obviously coming from a culture where faggot and bitch are common derogatory terms, we still can't excuse his ignorant gender language amongst the intelligent rhymes that abound in his music. And, "if you can take a fucking dick than you can take a joke" doesn't quite make up for it. We can highly recommend Immortal Technique with the criticisms discussed above. Coming from the perspective of the oppressed nations his politics are inherently progressive and even revolutionary. However, we can't let him slide on his take on amerikan workers. In this sense artists who are only interested in organizing the oppressed (ie. dead prez) or even abhor working with white people (like Askari X) end up taking a better line. Similarly we cannot let the homophobic and misogynist attitudes that pervade our culture lay peacefully in our up and coming revolutionary culture. Immortal Technique has a lot of good stuff to say, and some very impressive music and we look forward to Vol. 3.
notes: Interview with Immortal TechniqueJune 2005MIM: You've been doing this for awhile, and you've obviously studied a lot. At this point what would you say is the overall political message of your music? Tech: Politics is a means to power, physical power over yourself and your community at first. But as with everything else without security and peace of mind internally, it creates the need for control in every aspect of a persons being or the existence of a state. My music deals a lot with issues of the street, the hood, and what I lived. Not just that of America but what I see first hand when I go home to Latin America. Everyone here is an immigrant save the few thousand Native Americans left, some of us choose to come here, some of us were forced to come here and some of us choose to take a chance here rather than have no chance in the nations where capitalism has never brought us freedom or democracy. You make the changes you want to see in the rest of the world in yourself first and therefore I speak about Revolution, not only of oppressive systems of government but of ways of keeping yourself ignorant to your culture and what it really means to be stuck in the hood. MIM: In your career you seem to have taken a very independent route. Politically, do you see your music as just being you saying what you think or do you see your music as being one aspect of a greater struggle? Tech: Everything is a part of something greater. MIM: In our review of your first two albums, our biggest criticism of your Lyrics was your line on the economics of amerikan imperialism. In "The Poverty of Philosophy" on Volume 1 you say, "We're given the idea that if we didn't have these people to exploit then America wouldn't be rich enough to let us have these little petty material things in our lives and basic standards of living. No, that's wrong. It's the business giants and the government officials who make all the real money. We have whatever they kick down to us. My enemy is not the average white man..." Historically, that kickdown has been pretty significant for whites, and as you address in the same song a fair number of immigrants are coming from Latin America to this day and succeeding in getting their share of the superprofits. Meanwhile, the average white man is organizing groups like the Minutemen [vigilantes on the u$/mexican border] to try to prevent those immigrants from sharing in their spoils. Do you still stand by your statement that we do not benefit from the exploitation of the Third World? and if so, why is it that material conditions in the poorest parts of the u$ are superior to the average life in Africa south of the Sahara? Tech: Middle class, and working class whites are taught to be this way by the society they live in, the same as some brown skinned Hindu in India who is so content to the beast monkey servant of that higher whiter castes. As long as they are not black. The world is old. Older than America, or Europe, older than the empires of the Middle East even, Africa was going through it's 3rd golden age when Greece and Rome began their culture stealing and wars of imperial dominance over the Mediterranean. To think that the average white person doesn't benefit is a stretch, in some way they do, but their idea of superiority is not truth, unless they can make they slave believe it of himself. It is just an idea he places in his head, the only thing his capitalist triumph has bought him is the illusion of his racial superiority and the superiority of capitalism over every other working system of economics. In the end "he has planted the seeds of despotism at his own door." (Abraham Lincoln.) White immigrants share in some spoils, but the thousands of white settlers in South African and the few hundred settlers on the outskirts of Palestine are mere pawns in a game of chess between a global corporate conglomerate and it's destiny with a self fulfilling prophecy ghost written in the bible by itself. The belief of the many equal the consolidated power of the few. While these people may have some physical gain, the true spiritual and economic stronghold has been pieced together block by block and kept by those that set up the system that way. Before Europeans, it was Arabs that trafficked the Africans, Middle Eastern people, white Aryans who lived in a beautiful empire called Persia, until they were defeated in the 8th century by the Zanj. Is it a mystery then that blacks then became the powerhouse of the army, of the physical strength of their Islamic state? Mamluks, and all that my nigga. They say that history repeats itself, the first time as a tragedy and the second time as a comedy because it's funny that you didn't see it coming around the second time. By the way doesn't the Armed Forces look a little darker in America? MIM: Yes, the armed forces are relatively dark, and this indicates two things. Primarily, it shows that there is still a divide between the white nation and oppressed nations in this country, forcing non-whites to join the armed forces for material benefit. And a second thing to consider is that at the same time assimilation is working as more and more Black and Brown people actually identify with the amerikan nation. How much of this is because of material benefit and how much is false consciuosness? All we can say for sure is that the facts show increased material benefit in recent decades. We reject the myth of a handful of all powerful people controlling the world. Instead we study social forces and the material reality behind them, and we come to the conclusion that there are broad sectors, the majority of the imperialist countries, that will support the system cuz it benefits them. But the broad sectors of the Third World that are dying under imperialism are much more numerous, and in the end much more powerful. Based on what you said it sounds like you think power is all in our heads. You don't think that the amerikan nation has real economic and social domination over most of the rest of the world? And if that's what you are saying, what form do you think 'the revolution' will take that can overthrow the current oppressive system? Tech: I already answered this question... MIM: OK then, a secondary criticism we had in that review was your misogynist and homophobic language. This is nothing new, especially in male-dominated music scenes. But as revolutionaries we will continue to call this out until the day that we can actually overthrow the whole patriarchy that has injected these ideas into our daily language. What do you see as the role of women and homosexuals in the revolutionary struggle? How do you reconcile that with things you say on stage? Do you struggle with your use of language at all? Tech: That was in one song Obnoxious, which was titled that way because it was meant to poke fun at everyone. But more importantly to weed out the people like you who have the self righteous indignation to be offended by a word by not by the underlying theme of the actions the song was explained in the political undertones of that song. Listen to it again and separate every punchline from every single Revolutionary minded attack. Our society has been trained to soften ourselves, to make us more feminine in the attempt to strip our men of any power base, funny that a successful powerful black or Latino man in the street is unacceptable to Americas propaganda machine(Hollywood), but a gay one isn't ?!? Something is wrong with that picture. And as for misogyny, I find that laughable. I am not perfect I try to better my language to not say bitch, or nigga no more. I was born in the hood, I'm not a kufi wearing, never cursing turn the other cheek bookworm poet nigga. I'm a Harlem muthafucka. I had to keep it gangsta, I went to a good school but I didn't live with those kids, nor did they ever understand me or have to come home to a block with crack, coke, heroin, and idiocy in the streets. I tried to go to college but ended up locked up over some bullshit for a year, couldn't really get a job on the outside...So I started this hustle I don't target people to be disrespect specifically, but if you get in my way I'll crush you, period. I did not start rapping to be the all knowing oracle and disctator of a Revolution, but more to prepare the way for the one that will come after me. To serve my people and die, that is who I am, the spirit of the fight, when I am gone I will truly be Immortal because when your up against the odds I'll be there with you. MIM: Have you ever battled a female or male MC who has broken the macho mold and called you out on the things you say? Tech: Battling women is tricky, if you are too light they will call you a faggot, or a pussy and people will just mock you, I seen it happen. But if you go too rough girls get offended and they boo, and niggaz act like you shouldn't have said that, you lose. I never took it easy on anyone I battled, ever. I destroyed men, women, kids, I didn't give a fuck. I have been so brutal to girls I battled that niggaz lost they minds and went out of control. But remarkably the one time I lost to a girl when I was just so mean that people got mad at me I found the most understanding and self growth in that. There is no macho "mold" in me I was born a man and I don't act like anything but that, I have come to understand that people who are creative are naturally more sensitive, rappers are in fact very sensitive people. The more creative & gifted the more sensitive, in recognizing that I have addressed that to myself and been able to make myself stronger and more accepting of criticism in that it exists and has much of a less effect on me. I have strengthened my mind, body and soul. If someone were to "call me out" on anything, I would find a hole in their argument, exploit it, and retaliate accordingly. People have tried what you say many times, to call me out and all failed...miserably. Battling was a good time in my life, I got a to of anger out doing that, but it was too one dimensional for me, it became predictable. As an MC it is only one aspect, it doesn't complete you and therefore did not become my main focus, this did. MIM: I was referring to the macho mold that even female MC's seem to feel that they must fit into. To claim that you do not have that same influence on you as a man in this society I think ignores the reality of the power structure again. Just as the white nation has power over oppressed people under imperialism, men have power over wimmin under the patriarchy. And this power is reinforced through culture and gender roles that we are taught from a young age. Calling people 'bitch', 'faggot' or 'nigger' is not the source of oppression, that is why I stress the power structure behind humyn relations. But using these terms in a lot of contexts, with negative connotations only reinforces those ideas in the minds of the masses. While I know you're not one to bite your tongue, you said you do struggle over using certain language that's been passed down to us by the oppressors. Do you see a future where talking like that will be something that will get you into a lot of trouble? Tech: Whatever comes will come whether I want it to or not. I am secure in the fact that when I have to go I will be ready, I am not afraid to see God. I have a lot of questions for it. MIM: Speaking of the future, what do you see as the best path forward for oppressed people in the struggle against u$ imperialism? Tech: Knowledge of Self. MIM: When you left Peru as a child, the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) was expanding its control of the country, but I've never heard you address the PCP in your music. Have you studied the struggle there? What do you think about the People's War in Peru as an answer to imperialist domination in the Third World? Tech: I will address that on "The Middle Passage" coming soon on Viper Records / Babygrande. www.ViperRecords.com |