Ryan ChartrandThe appearance of hip-hop MC Immortal Technique, best known for his revolutionary spirit and lyrics dealing with politics, poverty, religion, and racism, was part of Summer Skool Fest at Downtown Brewing Co. last weekend.
The event featured performances by Public Defendaz, Venomous Voices, The Circle, 40 oz. Freaks, Crown City Rockers, Diabolic, and Rakim.
On tour to promote the release of his new mixtape-album “3rd World,” Immortal Technique continued the evening’s revelry by galvanizing the crowd before the last performer, Rakim, took the stage.
While Technique is provocative and bombastic on stage, he can be soft-spoken and contemplative before the show. During an interview, he followed his tradition of drinking tea with honey and explained why he likes to examine the bigger picture in his lyrics.
“A lot of rappers in the mainstream, they talk a lot about their hood, about where they represent. They never talk about why they have those conditions in the place they’re from,” he said. “They’re so desperate to be considered real because they’re from the street that they never talk about the socioeconomic matrix. They don’t have to speak in such universarian terminology about it, but they could stand to talk about it more.”
During his set, he interspersed his profanity-laced songs about American support of repressive regimes in South America and the realities of harsh urban conditions at home with direct social commentary on the issues that give his songs meaning.
While hip-hop culture is often steeped in the thug mentality, Immortal Technique takes time to decry the glorification of hood imagery. In music and commentary, he attempts to provide an accompanying exploration of the ruthless realities of that existence.
Sometimes the truth can be shocking.
“Every time I play (“Dance With the Devil”) here people get a little fucked up. They come up and they talk my ear off going, ‘Yo, is that a true story? Is that a real story? Did that really fuckin’ happen?’ and I tell ’em: ‘it (rape) happens every day in every city in every country around the fucking world.'”
“Sometimes I have to visualize some of the more violent and some of the more unpleasant things about society that we may like to forget about, things that create the conditions that we have today,” he added
The Peruvian native who immigrated to Harlem at an early age, compares the social conditions that create similar positions for people in New York, California or the third world, “whether they’re stacked vertically in the projects or spread out single-story in the ghettos of suburbia.”
“Some of these things we don’t even realize,” he said. “For example, there’s a food crisis in the world and people don’t connect that a lot of times with the fact that 20 percent of the world’s wheat is going to bio-diesel. So I think that, as nice as we like to believe the world is turning, I genuinely provide examples of the work that we need to do.”
From the stage Technique addressed the audience with an attitude of scorn. He said that it takes more than concert attendance to be a revolutionary; one also has to take action and stay informed.
His closing message was that while hip-hop is a powerful tool, it does not replace direct intervention.
“You don’t fulfill your revolutionary responsibilities by showing up to a fucking performance circuit,” he said.
The audience clearly enjoyed his performance, participating in the clamor of call and response, rhythmically announcing to the world, with fists in the air, “We are the rebel army!”
It was unclear, however, if anyone took the evening’s message to heart. His positive and proactive attitude does win over a local following.
Before turning the stage over to Rakim, Immortal Technique announced that he would also appear on Monday to meet fans and promote “3rd World” at Boo Boo Records on Monterey Street. The store estimated that between 50 and 75 people turned out to have posters, albums and paraphernalia signed by the artist.