XXL - Imortal Technique Intervju
With all due respect to Mista Chuck, “political rappers” usually get the Jehovah’s Witness treatment in hip-hop; we hear them ringing the door bell—and sure, they probably mean well—but we’ll be damned if we’re not gonna hide under the kitchen table so they don’t see that we’re home. Immortal Technique is the rare exception. His forceful presence, biting intelligence and personal confessions have set him apart from the set of preachy MCs. His two albums, Revolutionary, Vol. 1 and Revolutionary Vol. 2, have revealed an artist committed to showing the bigger picture behind ghetto realities.
It also seems that Tech’s own picture is getting a lot bigger these days. He’s now the president of his own independent label, Viper Records, where he just executive produced his new artist Akir’s album Legacy. With his own third album, The Middle Passage, on the way through Babygrande/Koch, a DVD documentary called Urban Warfare and a “mixtape/album” with Green Lantern on the way, it’s amazing that he has time to focus on running a label.
After we listened to Green Lantern’s new mixtape and heard Tech spit the line, “Al Queda and America been doing business well/They tighter than Interscope and XXL,” we thought this Peruvian was trying to do us in. So, just before he left for the West Coast to begin his 2006 Invasion tour, we had to catch up with Tech to make sure it was all good. Shoot, after this, maybe Tech and XXL will be tighter than Interscope and, well…us.
First of all, thanks for the shout-out on “Impeach the President.” How tight are Interscope and XXL exactly?
I’m sure that’s a question that the people at accounting over there could answer a lot better than I could. Not to imply that y’all take money for covers or articles or for reviews, but when you do that much business with someone, you must come to form some sort of bond. It was just a rhyme, it wasn’t a shot out of disrespect. Come on now, you’ve heard my music, fam, that’s nowhere near being disrespectful for a ###### like me. I think I just pointed something out that wasn’t news to anyone in the game, or someone looking at it from the outside. I’ve always appreciated XXL’s support of the shit that I do. Shout to the Chairman, Bonsu, Leah and all the staff that works hard.