When Immortal Technique speaks, you listen. This was proven in my most recent interview with the prolific Harlem-based emcee. Backstage at The Waiting Room in Omaha, Nebraska (of all places), Tech spent 35 minutes with me to discuss America's obsession with violence, savagery and the meaning behind the War and Peace Tour he's currently on with Brother Ali. It felt more like a college lecture than an interview. In fact, the discussion was so thick with information it has to be broken up in to two parts. Stay tuned to RAPstation.com for Part II later this week.
Brother Ali was telling me a little about the meaning behind the War and Peace Tour. What's your take on that?
For me, it definitely was showing these larger venues could be packed out with an independent voice of hip-hop. There are incredibly harsh things that Brother Ali and I rhyme about but it's not gratuitous violence. It's violence with a purpose. For example, if you want to oversimplify what I've been doing and say, 'Immortal Technique made a song about rape,' well, there's a moral to the story. At the end of it, someone's doing this to himself or herself. For example, if someone commits an act of savagery, they become the savage. Not the person who they've committed the act against. I think that goes with anything. If you enslave somebody, they're not the savages; you're the savage for enslaving them. If you rape a woman, she's not the savage. You're the savage. Unfortunately, in this society, in the legal system, a rape victim is actually the one that's put on trial. A person who has had their entire life colonized is then held responsible for not knowing who they are or where they come from. So I think these double standards fit in to what War and Peace is all about. I think it's important to talk about war and peace in relation to the States because since the founding of the republic, also, we're in a situation where we might involve ourselves in the third war now. Since the founding of this republic in 1776, we've only known 20 years of peace. We've been at war with Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Germany, Spain, and Panama. We went to war with Canada for God's sake. How many fucking people can say they went to war with Canada?! And let the White House burn down.
Do you think America has an obsession with violence? Why are we constantly at war?
That has a lot to do with humanity, as well.
You think that's an innate characteristic or our primal nature?
I would say not just innate characteristics. Also, we haven't really come to terms with who we are as a human race. We haven't come to terms with the more negative aspects of what we do; killing each other for resources, for money; we've made something that naturally has no place in our society. Even me, I'm a victim of it. I had to go to Australia and New Zealand to come to terms with it. When I was in New Zealand, someone said you know the natural habitat for a human being is not a block of concrete. I was just like, 'holy shit. I'm a New Yorker. That's where we belong in my mind!' Where we belong is eating fruits and vegetables near a tree. We'd probably be a lot smarter.
We should be living off of berries and using bows and arrows [laughs].
Even if we played it with a utopian mentality that way, there would always be some issue that would come up. People would be like 'that's my lake, those are my fish. I'm going to kill you if you touch it. I think that scenario is very much the crux that we're caught at right now. We need to become more self-aware as a human race in the fact that we know, 'yes we are superstitious, well groomed warrior ape that has managed the ability to speak.' If we all just let our hair grow and came into a room with a monkey we'd be like, 'oh now I get why man and ape are 99 percent similar. You just can't talk about and rationalize throwing shit against the wall.' When we do it, we can say, 'oh my god, that monkey just threw shit against the wall. He must have multiple personality disorder. Then all of a sudden the monkey is rationalized in doing that. But if that monkey does that, it's like 'oh that's just what monkeys do.'
That's the worst excuse ever. The "that's just how they are" excuse doesn't work for me. Do you feel there's any sort of social responsibility to put your message out there, whatever it may be?
I think the word 'revolution' gets thrown out there too much when referring to me. I want to remind people that before they think about picking up a weapon and the economy, they have to have a revolution of the mind. They have to confront the methodology of America, how colonization came to the Western Hemisphere and capitalism, because it's definitely something that has failed, and recently. Democracy and capitalism are not synonymous. They have been at odds several times over the course of American development.
By Kyle Eustice for RAPstation.com
Exclusive: Immortal Technique - The RAPstation Interview - Part One
When Immortal Technique speaks, you listen. This was proven in my most recent interview with the prolific Harlem-based emcee. Backstage at The Waiting Room in Omaha, Nebraska (of all places), Tech spent 35 minutes with me to discuss America's obsession with violence, savagery and the meaning behind the War and Peace Tour he's currently on with Brother Ali. It felt more like a college lecture than an interview. In fact, the discussion was so thick with information it has to be broken up in to two parts. Stay tuned to RAPstation.com for Part II later this week.
Brother Ali was telling me a little about the meaning behind the War and Peace Tour. What's your take on that?
For me, it definitely was showing these larger venues could be packed out with an independent voice of hip-hop. There are incredibly harsh things that Brother Ali and I rhyme about but it's not gratuitous violence. It's violence with a purpose. For example, if you want to oversimplify what I've been doing and say, 'Immortal Technique made a song about rape,' well, there's a moral to the story. At the end of it, someone's doing this to himself or herself. For example, if someone commits an act of savagery, they become the savage. Not the person who they've committed the act against. I think that goes with anything. If you enslave somebody, they're not the savages; you're the savage for enslaving them. If you rape a woman, she's not the savage. You're the savage. Unfortunately, in this society, in the legal system, a rape victim is actually the one that's put on trial. A person who has had their entire life colonized is then held responsible for not knowing who they are or where they come from. So I think these double standards fit in to what War and Peace is all about. I think it's important to talk about war and peace in relation to the States because since the founding of the republic, also, we're in a situation where we might involve ourselves in the third war now. Since the founding of this republic in 1776, we've only known 20 years of peace. We've been at war with Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Germany, Spain, and Panama. We went to war with Canada for God's sake. How many fucking people can say they went to war with Canada?! And let the White House burn down.
Do you think America has an obsession with violence? Why are we constantly at war?
That has a lot to do with humanity, as well.
You think that's an innate characteristic or our primal nature?
I would say not just innate characteristics. Also, we haven't really come to terms with who we are as a human race. We haven't come to terms with the more negative aspects of what we do; killing each other for resources, for money; we've made something that naturally has no place in our society. Even me, I'm a victim of it. I had to go to Australia and New Zealand to come to terms with it. When I was in New Zealand, someone said you know the natural habitat for a human being is not a block of concrete. I was just like, 'holy shit. I'm a New Yorker. That's where we belong in my mind!' Where we belong is eating fruits and vegetables near a tree. We'd probably be a lot smarter.
We should be living off of berries and using bows and arrows [laughs].
Even if we played it with a utopian mentality that way, there would always be some issue that would come up. People would be like 'that's my lake, those are my fish. I'm going to kill you if you touch it. I think that scenario is very much the crux that we're caught at right now. We need to become more self-aware as a human race in the fact that we know, 'yes we are superstitious, well groomed warrior ape that has managed the ability to speak.' If we all just let our hair grow and came into a room with a monkey we'd be like, 'oh now I get why man and ape are 99 percent similar. You just can't talk about and rationalize throwing shit against the wall.' When we do it, we can say, 'oh my god, that monkey just threw shit against the wall. He must have multiple personality disorder. Then all of a sudden the monkey is rationalized in doing that. But if that monkey does that, it's like 'oh that's just what monkeys do.'
That's the worst excuse ever. The "that's just how they are" excuse doesn't work for me. Do you feel there's any sort of social responsibility to put your message out there, whatever it may be?
I think the word 'revolution' gets thrown out there too much when referring to me. I want to remind people that before they think about picking up a weapon and the economy, they have to have a revolution of the mind. They have to confront the methodology of America, how colonization came to the Western Hemisphere and capitalism, because it's definitely something that has failed, and recently. Democracy and capitalism are not synonymous. They have been at odds several times over the course of American development.
By Kyle Eustice for RAPstation.com
