I visited about 15 different Occupy sites when we did the first half of The Martyr tour, and we had a chance to examine some of the local issues people had been dealing with, as opposed to the national concerns Occupy Movement put on the forefront of the political scene. I was there when it first started, down in N.Y.C. Let’s talk about your participation in the Occupy Movement. I appreciate the outpouring of support that I got because of something like that. It was something that I had to give away to people absolutely for free, and it was incredibly successful. I couldn’t call this album The Middle Passage or Revolutionary Vol. Not that The Middle Passage doesn’t have stuff that I had been working on for a couple years, but at the same time it was in its own vein.
#IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE MIDDLE PASSAGE RELEASE SERIES#
But it definitely is part of the series it’s just comprised of so many different time periods that went into making it. What makes The Martyr a new concept, instead of a continuation of Revolutionary? I think, for me, the Revolutionary series had a bit of a - I wouldn’t say a format, but most of my albums have a similarity, and I think this was more in the vein of a compilation album. Recently, I caught up with the emphatic emcee to chat in anticipation of his show at Casa de la Raza this Saturday, March 3.
#IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE MIDDLE PASSAGE RELEASE FULL#
With four studio albums now under his belt, including the release of last year’s The Martyr, Immortal Technique remains unsigned to any label and retains full control over his music and collaborations (the latter including a partnership with Omeid International to build an orphanage in Afghanistan). The political landscape may have changed in the decade since Coronel began his recording career, but his willingness to confront key issues has not. Corporate imperialism, xenophobia, poverty, rape, institutional racism, religious hegemony: these are but a few of the ideas he challenges with his songs. I, under the name Immortal Technique in 2001, Coronel elevated himself above the noise level with visceral storytelling and a focus beyond the sybaritic pursuits typically associated with the rap game. Self-releasing his first album, Revolutionary Vol. Born in a military hospital in Lima, Peru, and brought up on the streets of Harlem during the “Golden Age” of hip-hop, the rapper made a name for himself as a champion battle emcee whose rhymes reflected the political and physical violence of the world around him. In music, as in politics and religion, militarism is often an effective vehicle for impressing one’s message - just ask Felipe Andres Coronel.
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