A myriad of diverse faces made up the crowd that had been fortunate enough to get tickets to the venue. I couldn’t remember seeing such a varied array of cultures and styles at any other show I had ever been to, and it was then that I truly began to realize the significance of the following that the man performing possessed. The intensity projected into the microphone forced the audience to absorb his words, and it appeared that every person could somehow relate to what was being said. When you take away the mic, lights, and crowd though, it’s even more intriguing. Yet when tranquility is substituted for the rage exhibited on stage, the man known as Immortal Technique maintains a passion behind his words. It’s quickly apparent that this is about more than just music. “For some people that’s all it is. Entertainment. Even if those skeptical critics of hip hop are correct, and it is just entertainment, they need to realize that entertainment serves various purposes. Entertainment can educate, enlighten, inspire, and pacify. It can mask problems and distract people from what’s really going on in life. For me it’s always been more than just distracting people. More than just doing what most music nowadays does.”

In opposition to distracting, he brings attention to real issues and takes action. He recently started a project entitled “Police State Chronicles” [click to read], and when asked about how the response has been, Technique explains with satisfaction that, “It’s been absolutely amazing. The amount of stories we’ve gotten is incredible. Some people have really been through some terrible instances. And, for a country that’s sheltered - and I don’t mean to say this disrespectfully because I know there are a lot of people in America that have been through it, we’re kept sheltered. None of us really know what a dead Iraqi baby looks like with its skin peeled off, being burnt by Napalm or white phosphorus. They won’t show us. We have to dig for it ourselves. We don’t even know what a dead American soldier looks like, staring at us with his eyes open, as if he was still looking for the democracy that we promised to bring a place that we haven’t done anything but bring more death and chaos to… My music is a reflection of all the work I do. So when people talk about ‘Police State Chronicles’ or ‘Project Green Light’, I think the response is based on the people that not only gravitate towards the music, but the message as well.”

It doesn’t stop there. The list of the revolutionary emcee’s projects is lengthy. “I had a whole gang of ideas to work. Some of them were mine; some of them were from people in my camp. Some wanted a shirt contest, for example. At first people were confused. They were like, ‘Why are you giving people $200 to design a shirt?’, and since people are naturally cynical, I guess it makes them feel better to doubt me than to believe that I am what I’m really about. It’s easier to believe that everything’s fake. The t-shirts? Yeah, we’re giving someone a couple hundred dollars, but we ain’t pressing up thousands of shirts. We’ll press up around 200, and we’ll give a decent percentage (30-40% of the money) to Omeid International [click here]. Of course, since it’s not a lot of shirts, the rest of the money will probably just cover expenses. That’s one tiny project. Others require more logistical planning, like the essay contest [click to read]. I decided to put that into effect because I want people to understand that I make money off of writing. I wanted to let them know that the press, the people working at HipHopDX.com and AllHipHop, makes a living off of their writing skills; off of being able to entrap the reader’s mind.

When informed that a “living” isn’t necessarily the case for this particular writer, he jokingly retorts, “Wow, I’m sure you’re not going to put that in the interview, or the editor will probably take that the fuck out!”, then immediately gets serious again. “I’m giving away over $3,000 in cash to the winners. I’ll get my last submissions this month, and I’ll have to read them myself. I’ll probably read them on the road. It speaks volumes that I’m taking this money out of my personal account. Sure, Oprah opened a school. But I’m not Oprah. I don’t have Hollywood celebrity money. This is being done with underground Hip Hop money. And the project in Afghanistan [click to read] is a whole other can of worms. It’ll be in Kabul. I’d been ‘briefed’ about what the concept was in the beginning. As I got more involved, I got deeper into the intricate politics of Central Afghanistan. It starts getting very personal and you realize that it’s not as simple as throwing something out there and saying you want to do something for charity. It’s a complicated matter. On one side there are people that’ll say, ‘You’re western. You’re trying to westernize people and take away from our culture’, since this is originating from here. On the other side, if we open a madrasah out there, for example, then we’ll get a lot of heat from here because they’ll say ‘What are you really teaching people? Whose children are being orphaned? Were you taking in children from the Taliban?’ It’s not simple. I can’t sit here and just be a rapper. People always ask, ‘Are you a revolutionary or a rapper?’ I gave up ‘just being able to be a rapper’ a long time ago. From that perspective, you can see the weight that a revolutionary must carry, which is why I kind of understand why people don’t want to be that. They just want the glory of what it represents, kind of in the same way rappers act like gangsters because they like respect. But few of them are truly committed to having to kill a friend, or torture someone. Revolutionaries are usually hated by their own people - especially those that want to be, and consider themselves, revolutionaries. After the logistical stuff is done for ‘Project Green Light’, the next ‘Project Green Light’ we’ll do will probably involve Africa or undocumented people in the States. That’s something that needs to be addressed. The Republicans wanted to make it an issue. Badly. Until the economy got in the way of their bullshit and people said, ‘Shut the fuck up about immigrants already. The economy’s a mess.’ Gas prices? When Bush got in office they were around two dollars. Now they’re pushing five! That’s disgusting.” Continued on page 2 »