Despite the positive projects, there are always doubters. “Hip Hop will always come with contradictions. People will say, ‘You don’t want to sit down with me and debate Marxism until four in the morning? You’d rather hang with girls in the club? You’re not a real revolutionary.’ You basket case, nerd ass nigga! You aren’t the litmus test for revolutionaries. I never had that attitude like I was the nicest nigga in the world, but I definitely know that I work harder than 99% of people to make this happen. Running an independent label, a farm, teaching at prison programs, helping with a certain community outreach program to gangs across the country, traveling, and trying to put out music? It’s very hard. That’s why I gauge the revolutionary work I do as part of a struggle. So is the Hip Hop. But if I wasn’t good at it, people wouldn’t buy the record. They supported Revolutionary Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 [click to read]. I sold the most in a week that I’ve ever sold (a worldwide count of almost 10,000 units; 7,500 US SoundScan in the first week), for The 3rd World [click to read]. Obviously the work I do needs explanation, because people enjoy challenging someone they really respect. People come to shows and want to talk with you, based upon what they want to learn from you and feel they need to teach you. Now, some are presumptuous, and feel they need to teach you their version of history. I’ve known people that are like ‘You know, Obama is a Zionist puppet,’ or ‘The only truth sayer is Ron Paul,’ and ‘If you don’t think Bush and a reptilian race living below the Earth’s surface are responsible for 9/11, then you’re not a real revolutionary’…Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but if you’re a random individual that bombs my MySpace with angry words about what I’m doing to Hip Hop? ‘You’re turning Hip Hop into a fuckin’ Islamic jihad, fuck you.’ I get this stuff all the time. To me, it just shows that I’m being hated on by the right people, so why should I ever stop that? Because I’m afraid they’re going to kill me? Fuck those people! Come kill me muthafucka, what you gon’ do? Shut the fuck up!”

That attitude may be part of the reason that Technique won’t be stopping in Canada as part of this year’s Rock the Bells festival. “I think I’ve proved during my life that being smart doesn’t mean you’re soft. As a kid I was really smart, but I had no direction in life. Being that I took Jiu-Jitsu for a few years and grew up fighting, it got out of control at times. Looking back, I regret that because I feel I could’ve handled a lot of those situations differently, and those things piled up. When I got out of prison, I was stuck with these charges. I went to the border once, and they said, ‘Uh…you’re not coming in here’. Sometimes I think that was more of a personal thing with the people working there at the time. Maybe if I went back now and tried, it would be a different story. I’d say that since it’s been a while since I’ve been arrested, pretty soon it’ll clear itself up. Hopefully by next year I’ll be in Canada.” And Canada isn’t the only place being difficult. “England has never turned me away, but they give me a hassle every time. It’s funny because it’s one place where in the airport the dudes are cooler than the women. I think it’s because the women have to try to act tough, and I see that behind their attitudes. She’ll put that ice grill face on and I’m like yo, who are you foolin’ right now?” In a surprisingly decent British accent, Tech continues, “She was like, ‘Look, where are you going to be staying? What are you going to be doing?’ I swear, I was holding in the laughter. Just her talking reckless in that sexy accent did it for me, but I guess because they got sexism there like a muthafucka, she feels like she has to show her tough side to niggas…I get a kick out of it.”

After a good laugh, Tech gets back to seriousness and the topic soon changes to the music. When asked if he feels the poorly performing economy is having an effect on the music industry, he states, “To some extent, yeah. Obviously there are people doctoring their sales. There are record labels who are buying thousands of their own records in order to give the illusion of their project’s extreme success. I don’t have the luxury of doing that.” They aren’t the only ones with tricks up their sleeve, though, and Tech decides to let his fans in on a playful trick of his own – how he hid the “Apocalypse” remix [click to listen] featuring Pharoahe Monch and Akir on The 3rd World. “I think if people haven’t found it, I’ll have to tell y’all niggas. It’s on the negative track of the first song. If you play it in a CD player and rewind on the negative of track 1, you’ll get to it. As something that very rarely, if ever, has been done in Hip Hop before, I wanted to try a different approach to a hidden track.” Continued on page 3 »