Hip Hop & Racial Politics 2012

Whatever you Want to Call it

We began this semester talking about the first message rap, "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, then we started talking about political rap and political rap artists such as N.W.A., and somewhere along the lines we talked about conscious rap, which revolved around Lupe Fiasco but not everyone wanted to call him a conscious rap artist. Obviously there are a lot of rappers that fall into those categories, and in between them, one of the most interesting artist that I can think of is Immortal Technique. 

Immortal Technique

Immortal Technique is a rap artist born in Peru but raised in Harlem, New York and when I think about message, political, and conscious rap I think Immortal Technique. He used to compete in underground rap battles in New York. Immortal Technique was one of the first hip hop artists that I actually ever listened to when I was growing up. One of my older friends introduced me to his music, and gave me his album Revolutionary Vol 1 to listen to back when cds' were popular.The very first song that I heard from Immortal Technique was Dance With the Devil. 

I knew from that point on that he was a different type of hip hop artist. It is hard to explain this song, and it has an interesting twist, so if you are interested listen to the song.

Immortal Technique is well known for talking about global politics, poverty in America and other countries, the government, the police, historical and institutional racism, class issues and struggles, colonialism, and many other controversial topics. He raps about everything, and his music does what Tricia Rose says raps music does, "rap music articulates the discrepancy between urban lived experiences and dominant ideologies of race and urban experiences". However Immortal Technique also uses rap to talk about lived experiences on a global scale. A good example of this is the song, 3rd World. In this song he talks about life in 3rd World countries, and about the existence of colonialism and occupation in those countries. 

Another thing to note about Immortal Technique is that he is angry. Anger permeates throughout all of his songs, and is a big part of his identity. You can sense the anger that he has when he raps, and when he does interviews with people. He is an angry rapper with a lot to say. 

Questions: 

*What type of rapper would you consider immortal technique to be?

*Does being angry help immortal technique and his rap image?

*Is his rap name suitable, or does it seem like he is preaching to everyone else about these issues?