Immortal Technique
Last night Immortal Technique played at Belly Up in Solana Beach. For those who aren’t familiar with him, he’s a Peruvian-born, grew-up-in-harlem, hip hop artist who raps about revolution and socialist democracy. His most famous line, “Bin Laden didn’t blow up the projects… It was you n_… tell the truth n_… Bush knocked down the towers…” is probably what hooked most of his listeners on his socially aware (albeit violent) brand of hip-hop.
He raps about everything from immigration - “We’re not in Southern California tonight - we’re in Northern Mexico!” - to corrupt drug policies - “If you’re dealing drugs, you’re working for the United States government” - and, of course, economic democracy:
Latino America is a huge colony of countries whose presidents are cowards in the face of economic imperialism. You see, third world countries are rich places, abundant in resources, and many of these countries have the capacity to feed their starving people and the children we always see digging for food in trash on commercials. But plutocracies, in other words a government run by the rich such as this one and traditionally oppressive European states, force the third world into buying overpriced, unnecessary goods while exporting huge portions of their natural resources.
What’s interesting about Immortal Technique and similar underground hip-hop artists is the demographics of his fan base. He spoke a little about it last night, saying that he is often criticized for having a large white audience. He responded by saying the mainstream artists like Jay-Z have a much larger percentage of white fans. He went on to say that he was proud of the white people in the audience for paying attention and taking responsibility. By my own estimates, the crowd was about 70% white (it was Solana Beach after all), 20% latino, and 10% black.
At any rate, it’s an interesting thing to see the mix of people who are listening to his message of politics and freedom. I got the sense the hip-hop over the last few years has broken out into new territory.
Great show, by the way.
April 20th, 2006 at 8:20 am
Most black and latin folks don’t really listen to conscious or leftist hip hop. They just don’t. The beat is not always hot enough or the fact that most underground artists don’t have hooks to their records or ….either way what ends happening black and latin folks want beats regardless of content and so will listen to crap to feel good over substance to enrich their spirit.
p
April 20th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
The question I would be asking myself as a political strategist is why are so many privileged white kids going to see a guy who raps about overthrowing “the man”?
April 20th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
I may have to give Immortal Technique a listen. However, I’m not sure it’s “new territory.” Public Enemy was doing this stuff years ago.
Louder Than A Bomb
But I be knowin’ the scheme that of the president
Tappin’ my phone whose crews abused
I stand accused of doing harm
‘Cause I’m louder than a bomb
C’mon C’mon louder etc…
Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos
I got a letter from the government
The other day
I opened and read it
It said they were suckers
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me given’ a damn - I said never
Here is a land that never gave a damn
About a brother like me and myself
Because they never did
April 20th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Yeah, but Immortal Technique is cooler.
The new territory I’m referring to is actually what seems to be a mainstreaming of underground music among certain populations combined with a broader base of fans for this type of material.
April 20th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
I wish I could have seen him, but to be honest–and it sounds like he is pretty good, but any fool can be a poet like him–I don’t mean his skill level–and I am not familiar enough to have any critical insight into his work, what I mean is–what he is saying is so easy to say. It is actually an ulitmately superficial message. In the same way the movie Crash shotgunned a shell of sterotypical buckshots, political “against the man” poetry and rhetoric is about as easy to conjure up as any kind of say, argument against one’s faith. We all want to rise up and break out, so why not attack what is easy to attack–why not go after Vincente Fox, drug cartels, the people who leave their communites. Why not, instead of attacking the easy target, does an artist not focus on mercy, truth, and compassion–oh, I will tell you why, because it doesn’t seel, it doesn’t get people hyped with you in the immediate way that we so so need. See Cesar Chavez, MLK, and so forth–to understand what I mean. They aren’t poets (yes they are) but this revolutionary archetype–it is getting old–it’s just too easy. And let’s face it, I have seen too much of it, and…I am in a bad mood I guess, so I put the worms back in the can.
Bear
April 21st, 2006 at 2:26 am
Wow. Cesar Chavez and MLK in the same sentence. Didn’t see that comin,’ but, hey.
–
Bear, I think I kind of understand where you’re coming from. I’m a bit tired of the facile, yet profitable ’stick it to the man’ -ifestos. But I’d draw a distinction between pseudo-revolutionaries, revolutionaries and prophets.
Hip-hop stars who talk about the ‘hood’ but don’t give a damn about nobody but themselves and their bling-encrusted posses? Pseudo-revolutionaries.
Chavez? He’ll die for his cause, but he’ll take a lot of people with him. A revolutionary as far as I can tell.
MLK? A prophet.
The world has probably seen enough revolutionaries. We could always use a few more prophets.
April 21st, 2006 at 7:31 am
Bear, John - you both brought up really good points.
First of all, I should confess a weakness for music of this sort, regardless of genre. So, I’m not the man to give a real objective analysis of guys like IM. Both of you did a much better job of that, although I realize you were responding emotionally to my post and his message.
Here’s the deal, from my perspective: guys like Immortal Technique ultimately resort to violence as their vision for changing the world (ignoring for the moment that we’re just talking about a rapper). Not only is that solution bad in a moral sense, it doesn’t scale. It’s not sustainable. So right there a good 50% of his message is useless.
What makes the remaining 50% compelling for me is a combination of his fan base and the material he covers. Like I wrote earlier, it’s fascinating to see the range of people that are into his music.
Everybody from human rights activists to students at UCSD and near-homeless people were at the show. So, clearly he’s tapped into something that breaches many of the traditional dividing lines of race and class.
The second thing that interests me is the material - sure, he’s ultimately an entertainer, but it’s nice to see entertainers, especially in hip-hop, provide a look into what life is like in the third-world under regimes that capitulate to the consumer-driven imperialism of developed nations.
But like I said, I’m a sucker for that sort of thing.
April 21st, 2006 at 8:52 am
you’re just a sucker….plain and simple, yo’!
April 21st, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Alright, I agree with a lot of what you say John, but I don’t know if I can get into a debate about the definitions of prophets vs revolutionary vs the psuedo kind. I will however give up the notion that I threw some names together almost flippantly. Also, like I said, there is a lot to be seen in seeing. In other words…I should go see the guy, and then I can comment. Have you guys ever seen Black Ice perform. Now there is a message straight from the “low” places.
Bear