Immortal Technique has lashed out at the music industry for its approach to stopping illegal downloads. The political MC explained that he’d rather have fans download his music illegally on the Internet than have record executives accusing the youth of stealing, when they’re really the biggest crooks of them all.

“You could type my name, no ebonics, Immortal, live forever, Technique, get on the internet and just steal all my music off of it, because I really don’t care about that,” he told Forbez DVD. “I’ve had lots of arguments with executives about that, and I think that they have a lot of audacity accusing children of stealing music when they’ve been robbing artists for years.“

For Tech, he looks at the industry and sees nothing but corruption. “Even now, it’s come up that they were taking royalties under the guise of licensing for past capital. It’s just an embarrassment for them to be using the word ‘steal’ when realistically speaking, they’re the biggest thieves and gangstas in this entire business,” he continued. “They make everybody who rhymes about doing gangsta shit look pathetic in terms of the amount of money that they’ve stolen and the amount of culture that they’ve robbed of our people.”

HipHopDX | Rap & Hip Hop News | Ad Placeholder
AD

AD LOADING...

AD

The outspoken rapper suggested that instead of fingering listeners for taking music, the industry needs to reevaluate its strategy. “To me, I don’t quantify success in just record sales or YouTube views or Twitter friends. If you have 12 million friends on Twitter but you can only sell 100,000 units, there’s something wrong with you. That means that those statistics really need to be analyzed and looked at. So for me, I say yo, go steal all my music if you like what I talk about. You don’t have to agree with everything but if you feel and understand that I’m being genuine, come to a show, check it out for yourself, support us, buy a shirt online, but a CD.”

RELATED:Immortal Technique Talks “The Middle Passage,” Viper Records Position