As one of the most politically-minded artists in Rap, Harlem lyricist Immortal Technique didn’t hesitate in offering up his take on the current crisis taking place in Syria during a recent interview. According to The 3rd World rapper, the issues taking place in the Western Asia country today stem back to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, an agreement made between the United Kingdom and France in 1916.

Tech says that the agreement divided up land from the former Ottoman Empire (present-day Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and close to 50 other countries) for either British or French control.

“This goes back,” Immortal Technique says. “And I tell people all the time when they ask me about, ‘Oh, how did you get your knowledge’ so to speak. And I say, ‘Listen, it’s about reading several different sources and it’s about going back in time.’ And if you want to understand that conflict then you have to go back to World War I. And even to before World War I. I mean, pretty much the powers of Europe and Russia decided that the Ottoman Empire was the quote-on-quote ‘Sick Man Of Europe.’ And they signed a treaty called Sykes-Picot. And with Sykes-Picot, it states that Europe being under of course France and England’s leadership, along with Russia’s help, would come in and would annex parts of the Ottoman Empire. In other words, they would take those lands that didn’t necessarily belong to them, but that were in proximity to them and they would use them to their own creed. They would expand colonialism in that way.”

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Additionally, the New York emcee expressed his belief that the Sykes-Picot Agreement is the reason why America’s “little buddy,” Great Britain has no desire to intervene in the war with Syria.

“But ask yourself who just tapped out of the Syria war,” he said. “Our little buddy that goes to war with us everywhere, over anything, with anyone, says ‘Hey, guess what America? When we made this deal a long time ago, Syria, that’s not our slice.’ And you know the Brit’s are willing to go for any kind of paper that we have to send. And they curiously, and I use that word loosely because well obviously being sarcastic. They curiously decided, ‘No, we’re not gonna go to Syria.”

Most recently, the United States and Russia reached an agreement that will legally require Syria to surrender its chemical stockpile.

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On top of sharing his thoughts on Syria, Immortal Technique also offered up a few details on his much-anticipated The Middle Passage LP. According to Tech, the album will include production from DJ Premier, 9th Wonder and a number of other notable beatsmiths.

“I’m about halfway done with The Middle Passage now,” he said. “We have production from DJ Premier, Green Lantern, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, 9th Wonder, Southpaw. Just a bevy of individuals that have—Scram Jones, people that have been supportive of my career throughout the time that they’ve known me. I have some specials guest that I can’t necessarily name, but I’ll give those to you as soon as they come out. It’s just I’ve been working on a couple of other projects as well, I guess on the business side of it.”

Video of Immortal Technique’s interview with Get Your Buzz Up can be found below.

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