Music CD
Immortal
Technique: Revolutionary Vol. 2: Viper
Records
Growing
up on the streets of New York, the young man became enamored with Hip
Hop culture, writing graffiti and starting to rhyme at an early age. Although
he frequently cut school and ended up being arrested time and time again
for his wild behavior, the kid still managed to finish high school and
got accepted to a state university....
One of the rites of passage in establishing oneself
in the Hip Hop community is following in the steps of those who made their
name in lyrical warfare before you. 
Immortal
Technique quickly became known throughout the underground. His brutally
disrespectful style was trademark, and it was not long until he had
won countless battles not just on stage and in clubs, but on the streets
whenever a random cipher would pop up. From Rocksteady Anniversary,
to Braggin Rites, SLAM DVD's and hookt.com's infamous
battles, he established himself as someone who could captivate a crowd
and who people looked forward to seeing. But it was then that Technique
realized what every battle champion had come to terms with before him,
battles was just that, battling, and not synonymous with success at making
music. 
Turning his eye to production and touching up some of the songs he had written in prison he now focused on trying to get an album together, but major labels wanted a more pop friendly image and were uncomfortable with his hardcore street style that was complemented by his political views. In response to their lack of vision, Immortal Technique left the battle circuit and released his critically acclaimed Revolutionary Vol.1, which at first moved 3000 copies, but to date has moved more than 12,000. This earned him Unsigned Hype in the Source (11/02) and numerous articles in Elemental & Mass Appeal.
Preview sample Audio Clips Immortal Technique: Revolutionary Vol. 2--Immortal Techniques' Website
Immortal Technique's Revolutionary Vol. 2 album has its virtues -- and its vices. Sadly the vices are so disheartening that I must view this CD less as art than as an uneven collage of clever beats and testy challenges to the U.S. ruling class interspersed with appallingly misogynous and homophobic diatribes.
I like the name he's given himself: Immortal Technique. But I question whether he's really found the technique, or voice, he really wants or aspires to AS AN ARTIST. If he has, then he's sunk, and his "immortality" is just a silly fantasy. But if he knows he's still got a lot of growing to do, then I'm with him (hell, even Tupac made some terrible ethical blunders; one would hope the Pac's heirs would take a lesson from how fatal such blunders can be). A number of tracks on Revolutionary Vol. 2 fiercely and at times wittily attack the racist political economics of the United States of America, nailing the GW Bush gang and general corporate hypocrisies of both major political parties, as well as of "house nigga executives".
Track 12 is graced with Mumia Abu Jamal
speaking on hip hop, and on track 14,
"a little thing for the kids", is a witty riff
using lines from
the Walt Disney classic Pinocchio, with the spirited puppet singing
"there are no strings on me" -- indicating Immortal Technique's
pride in his independent label. The irony of it is: an independent
label is no guarantee against self-deluding trash-talk against women,
offering no good leadership to young black males who need all the help
they can get in this still-patriarchal kleptocracy to know how properly
to honor their sisters and potential lovers.
Certainly it's savvy to avoid being coopted by sweet-talking white
manager types, but survival alone isn't what should drive
someone's music. When
I listen to a rapper or any musical performer or public speaker,
I want to trust her or him. So
when a guy says "I
never make songs to disrespect women or to judge people about the way that
they're living" then he turns around and says "I'll rape your
mom, I still murder rappers on the street for sport . . . and fuck
your family too", I can't trust him. The excuse that "the
way that I am is based on what I was given" is no excuse at all,
it's just a morally flatulent cop out,
conforming to the lowest
common denominator of street-victim consciousness, rationalizing
omnidirectional rage-aholism.
A trustworthy hip-hop artist
knows how to posture with the best of the macho maniacs but doesn't
need to because his
self-respect is deep
enough to not have to play that kind of self-and-other-destructive game.
So when on track 18
he says he "wrote this for Mumia, other prisoners and the children",
well, I don't think he spent enough time re-writing. If
Immortal
Technique seriously
had children's well-being in mind, then he'd have thought more carefully
about how insulting much of his lyrics are to those children's mothers
and grandmothers.
I hope he reads this and considers himself a (potentially) significant
enough artist -- I will definitely look out for his next album --
to grow beyond the mistakes of this last effort, which does contain
some hot beats and right-on stabs at clear-focused snapshots of the tyrannies
of the military-industrial-media-conglomerated rich, who, by the way, love
it when the oppressed (black men, for instance) oppress each other
and oppress other oppressed (women, gays, etc.). Rather than
"render unto
Caesar" as Jesus
is alleged to have said, it's more likely Christ said, "Beware of Caesar,
whose empire rests on the premise 'divide and conquer', which
amounts to strings of lies intended to cause all of with less material
power to doubt, distrust and fight each other while Caesar keeps hand over
fist taking from us all.
Despite Immortal Technique's apparent critical intentions in his attacks on mega-corporations, my fear is that, his protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, he may be one more rapper who's out to get his own, and not truly intent on justice and equality for all. Track 5 is full of ugly lyrics justifying anger, violence and contempt for women. Homophobic foolishness also degrades what could have been a pretty exciting, politically bold album. When he shouts lines such as "degenerate fags burn Trent Lott in a flag" I wonder whose side is he on, the hard right's or those truly committed to equality? All the great hip hop artists are serious students of history, and they KNOW their success in the mega-capitalist marketplace is in large part thanks to the achievements of, among others, a brilliant and courageous out-there gay man, Bayard Rustin. So, shame on any self-promoting Black performers or activists who fail to honor, or worse, don't even know about Rustin's sacrifices for the Civil Rights Movement (If it hadn't been for Bayard Rustin's courageous and ingenious diplomacy and organizing skills, we might never have heard Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.
Rappers only become artists when they recognize that self-expression
alone doesn't make art. You have to have the heart and soul it takes
to struggle in private with many sources of information and misinformation
to construct material that breathes
with the light of real
consciousness, real love, real hope. Immortal Technique will
vanish like all other would-be-creatve mortals if he doesn't apply this
insight to his craft with consistency. After all, what's the point
of even opening your mouth and blowing air across your voice box if you
aren't speaking to the whole family of humankind with the same breath as
you'd breathe when kissing a baby goodnight?
Peace Out.
-Steve Greaves
The public is invited to send
us your candid comments on " Immortal Technique: Revolutionary Vol.
2: Viper Records
to bryworld@aol.com
Send your press packages to:
Bryan World Productions, LLC.
Attn: Bob Bryan
PO Box 74033
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Tel: 323/856-9256
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