Immortal Technique Hip Hop Artist Profile and QnA

Immortal Technique

He is dangerously intelligent, and his stunningly sharp lyrics make Immortal Technique a true force to be reckoned with in hip-hop. The Harlem-bred Latino emcee has accomplished a lot in his musical career, which took off after serving a long prison bid for assault that ended in 2000. He recently wrapped up a tour on Rock the Bells—a giant hip-hop festival jam-packed with some of hip-hop’s all-time best artists. He has also released his third studio album, “The 3rd World,” with Eminem’s former DJ, Green Lantern. More impressive though is how he has used his success to push forward his political agenda and the causes he believes in.

As popular as he has grown, Immortal Technique still managed to find some time to do a show in Reno at The Underground … and he even managed to squeeze in half-an-hour to sit down with Reno Passport.

The thing to know about Immortal Technique is that he is fucking hardcore! Technique is probably the most politically radical emcee to achieve as much commercial success as he has since Chuck D did with Public Enemy. Imagine the spirits of Che Guevara and Tupac Shakur combining and entering the body of one man. That’s Immortal Technique.

Immortal Technique financially supports a variety of projects—high school writing contests in American, orphanages in Afghanistan, and farms to feed locals in his native Peru. If he’s going to rap about social and political change then, by damn, he’s going to use his success to make some.

“I hope that people are supporting the movement and they realize that the revolution isn’t something to be romanticized,” Immortal Technique told Reno Passport. “It’s something to be sacrificed for.”

For as radical as his views are, Immortal Technique has fan bases in a variety of demographics, from suburban to inner city—and from black to Latino to white. He seemed offended when asked what makes him so appeal to people of so many different backgrounds.

“Not everybody who is broke is gonna be down with what I’m down with,” he told Reno Passport. “Not everybody who’s rich is gonna be against it.”

By Daniel Riggs