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Immortal Technique



Last Updated: 11/17/2009

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Status: Single
City: NEW YORK CITY
State: New York
Country: US
Signup Date: 9/25/2004

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Monday, October 26, 2009 
.. .. .. .. .. .. ....

10/30/09

Cornell University – 8:30 pm

Appel Commons ABC Room

Ithaca, NY

All Ages


Recession Recovery Tour:
....

11/04/09

The Catalyst – 7 pm

1011 Pacific Avenue

Santa Cruz, CA

16+ $15 ADV/ $19 DOS

w/ Diabolic, Poison Pen, Swave Sevah

 ....

11/05/09

Shattuck Downlow – 9 pm

2284 Shattuck Avenue

Berkeley, CA

21+ $20 ADV/ $25 DOS

w/ Diabolic, Poison Pen, Swave Sevah

 ....

11/06/09

Avalon Nightclub – 8 pm

777 Lawrence Expressway

Santa Clara, CA

All Ages $17 ADV/ $20 DOS

w/ Diabolic, Poison Pen, Swave Sevah

 ....

11/07/09

Arcata Theater – 10 pm

1036 G St.

Arcata, CA

All Ages $17 ADV/ $20 DOS

w/ Diabolic, Poison Pen, Swave Sevah

 ....

11/09/09

WOW Hall – 8 pm

291 W 8th Ave

Eugene, OR

All Ages $18 ADV/ $20 DOS

w/ Diabolic, Poison Pen, Swave Sevah, Chino XL

 ....

11/10/09

The Nightlight – 8 pm

211 East Chestnut St

Bellingham, WA

21+ $15 ADV/DOS

w/ Diabolic, Poison Pen, Swave Sevah, Chino XL

 ....

11/11/09

Neumo’s – 8 pm

925 East Pike St

Seattle, WA

21+ $18 ADV/ $20 DOS

w/ Diabolic, Poison Pen, Swave Sevah, Chino XL

 ....

11/12/09

Wonder Ballroom – 8 pm

128 NE Russell

Portland, OR

All Ages $18 ADV/ $20 DOS

w/ Diabolic, Poison Pen, Swave Sevah, Chino XL

Monday, August 10, 2009 


I wrote a very long Journal entry on my travels to Latin America and the Reaction to the President’s healthcare plan but I feel like there is one or two parts left to finish so I will wait a few days. I have not been here to post things too often because I felt that as a Revolutionary there was more to do than just put my thoughts on-line and I would rather be out there in the world being a part of it. But informing you of it would help that cause whatever it is so I will try stay in the loop more, I just hate the idea of being considered one of those rappers who blogs more than they release music. To those of you who have devoted your time and energy to the causes I have fought for I am eternally grateful and indebted. I hope that we continue to work together as a unit, a rebel army that has a reach that can travel the planet in a heartbeat.



The 14th of August is coming up, and I look forward to seeing some of you at The Knitting Factory, if you haven’t gotten your tickets already, they’re going fast. This last benefit show will help to continue funding the orphanage Omeid and I created in Kabul. I dedicated a great deal of time out of my life to this and when I saw the kids so overjoyed and bewildered by the idea that someone cared enough to give them a chance to live and learn I felt humbled beyond belief, I felt stronger than ever. As if a bullet or a death threat didn’t matter. The support base of the Rebel Army has grown so much that together I feel we can meet any challenge. Some would call that confidence, some would call it insanity, but I call it finding inner peace, and I don’t give a fuck what other people think about it.



The era of being a Louis XVI musician is at it’s death knell, artists are failing left and right because they still have this idea that regular ordinary “non-celebrity” people exist to worship and serve them in some weird semi religious capacity. Who the fuck do you think you are and how long did you think that was gonna last you spoiled bitch. Have you cowards finally begun to understand that people are tired of that? I’m glad some of you rappers are Recession proof, but your fans aren’t asshole and that’s why they aren’t buying your records. Even the diehard underground fans feel the squeeze of salary slashing, job cutbacks, and the local economy in shambles. Cities in Michigan, Illinois, North Carolina, Kentucky, California, have literally seen their economic infrastructure decimated over the past year. I am not a leader in the Underground Hip Hop community by divine right, but rather because my word is unquestionable, my ideas work and I have the power in the street to make moves and command the respect of ideological opposites.



Being independent you can’t exist without earning a more up close and personal amount of support and criticism whether fair or completely unfounded. I love having my personal space and I have definitely checked people seriously for invading it. But besides the handful of incidents, most people just wish to share ideas and when I have the time I am more than willing to politick and as long as this person is respectful answer questions (not straw man arguments), and learn from people of all races, religions, economic situations and walks of life. I hope to run a forum in the upcoming months when www.ImmortalTechnique.com launches (finally) on lifting the Cuban Embargo, Socialized Medicine Vs. America’s Plan, Latin American Revolution: The Next Step, and Sikes/Piko:The Middle Eastern Blueprint.” I hope that you will all join me.

 ....

People have also been asking me to do a few tour dates before I get back to work so since times are really hard for the supporters of my music so I have decided to announce a “Recession Tour” in September after I finish a couple of dates with Jedi Mind Tricks. The first two shows in Philly and Baltimore (18th/19th) were not by my design so the price is higher but everything else on the tour is about $12adv - $15 day of show. Discount deals will be available on Merch and all that…

 


The dates are posted on the front page of www.myspace.com/immortaltechnique

 ....

 ....

Sunday- Sept.20th:                      Charlottesville, VA

Tuesday- Sept.22nd:                    Carrboro, NC

Wednesday- Sept.23rd:               Asheville, NC

Thursday- Sept.24th:                   Lexington, KY

Saturday- Sept.26th:                   Chicago, IL

Sunday- Sept.27th:                      Bloomington, IN

Monday- Sept.28th:                    Ann Arbor, MI

Tuesday- Sept.29th:                    Cleveland, OH

Wednesday- Sept.30th:               Pittsburgh, PA

Friday/Sat Oct. 2nd /3rd:            New York City

 ....

 ....

Following me on this trip are Poison Pen whose new album “The Money Shot” is in stores right now! J.Arch who is working on his next mixtape, and my old friend Diabolic, whose murderous debut CD “A Liar & A Thief” is being finished up right now. Please support these brothers when you see them. We are all taking a paycut and rockin’ shows for a fraction of what we would get in order to make people know that Hard Core Street Hop is alive and well. Commercial Rap is crumbling and the industry is falling apart but we are staying strong and thriving, because of the support base that wants to hear real music, real lyrics, and tough beats.



I believe that by the time I am out there the article I wrote for the Source will be in stores. You know I have always had a decent relationship with them, even when people were telling me they were a washed up dying entity I never chimed in for points. I think they still have potential for a comeback in the market. As an independent they gave me Unsigned Hype back in the day and even Hip Hop quotable off the strength of my lyrics and grind alone. But this article that is coming out was never proof read, which is what we agreed to, I don’t know what was left out or cut or recut to make it the product it is. So I might release the whole unedited version myself. Also the ½ I gave them has already been divided into 2 parts, which means this is going to be a 3 or 4 part series if they actually seek to continue it. Afghanistan isn’t an easy thing to sum up, it can’t be compressed into the time limit of your average juvenile drama soaked worldstar video. Also the photo credits that should have gone to C.Stuart (because I didn’t take pictures of myself) were absent and on top of it somehow someone over there wrote on the byline that I was born in Colombia instead of Peru. I’m not mad because I was told these things are being corrected. So I just came here to pass along the message they passed onto me. I’m not here to throw a tantrum because a mistake was a made I am still very grateful to The Source for providing a medium for the message, I just want to keep people who support the music and the movement informed about what’s happening.



My work on the documentary that has taken so many years to compile is almost done. I am home from Peru after looking over the lands that I invested in and I am proud of what I have accomplished. My family is proud of me too, they are happy to see me come home instead of just becoming an “Assimilated Latino” that forgets about his culture and place of origin. Once “Urban Warfare” is done with filming I can return to working on “The Middle Passage” and “Revolutionary Vol.3”. I have a bunch of songs done but more ideas come to me everyday. I’m going to go back to working on some more music and possibly will leak some in the next coming weeks if I can get it down when I return from LA. Big up my dude GK (www.prisonpenn.com), Rami my Lebanese brother who stays hitting me up with interesting articles, and all the people who keep up with the newsletters.



Much Respect,



Immortal

Technique



Wednesday, April 01, 2009 


As many of you already know I have recently returned from a successful mission out in Afghanistan to complete the promise I gave when I released “The 3rd World” album. In 2008 I launched The Green Light Project where I promised I would lend my undying and relentless support to a particular human rights organization. I am a man of my word, and on this occasion the people who captured my imagination and inspired this chapter of my struggle in life was Omeid International www.Omeid.org
 
The job was not easy, the planning ahead of time was meticulous and the objective was not completed without hard work, sacrifice and dedication. Without going into too much detail, I wanted to comment quickly on what a Revolutionary experience it was for me. Some would look at the simple action of building an orphanage, school and the beginnings of a medical center and consider what is so new, innovative and radical about that.
 
Well for starters this wasn’t done with any corporate funding, everything down to the plane tickets and other travel expenses came from me personally not any donations. The funds we raised through the shows and the people's donations (including my own) were all reserved for the acquiring of the property, food, clothes appliances, beds for the children, medical supplies, and the infrastructure of the school. This was done with your help, those of you who took part in the support of “The 3rd World” and came to the benefit shows. Secondly I didn’t throw money at a problem, I traveled to Afghanistan myself along with members of Omeid to help build this. We found an empty cold shell of a building, and furnished it into a home for those that “freedom” had forsaken. I could go on but I will save some for the in depth breakdown.
 
Our hard work combined with your belief and support of the cause, has given it life. My loyal soldiers, we have been successful in a part of the world where many people do not survive or come back alive from. And I was not accompanied around the country by US troops, armed guards or mercenaries although I did come across a few here and there. I was welcomed as a brother by the people of the country. You know, there are always cynics who cannot see anything but their own inability to succeed in anything besides a ‘cleverly written’ denigration of anyone else’s hard work while being unable to produce any example of their own. But if you forget your own ego for a minute, this is the proof that ordinary people like us, who work through problems and fight through set backs can succeed. And not only that, we can succeed anywhere. I say again, WE can succeed.
 
You see this triumph could not have been possible without the people of Afghanistan and the organization that helped me by pulling the strings to obtain my visa and being so committed to rebuilding their nation. I did not come into this to do anything except offer my assistance in whatever way I could. And I found in Omeid International to be a group of innovative Revolutionary sisters and a couple of serious brothers who were dedicated, resourceful and unafraid to risk their lives for this cause. I had to postpone a show before I left to ensure that I would make my journey on time, and I didn't tell anyone but my closest friends when exactly I would leave. And as I return here, those memories of mine will be with me forever, to be so well treated, humbly guided, inspired, and educated to the struggle of Afghanistan.
 
All over the country the evidence of Martyrdom and War remains and yet I saw a Revolutionary spirit there and a perseverance in the eyes of the people and the unconquerable defense that had taken refuge in the spirit when the physical world became an inferno of betrayal, invasion and subsequent occupation time and time again.
 
While in Kabul I read an inscription on the tomb of a Mujahideen Leader, Abdul Haq. It read “War is easy. You just shoot the enemy. Politics is difficult you have convince people to do the right thing.”
 
He was right. Building this small testament to humanity brought me insight into the depth of what it means to Rebel. The war is not won by just the warrior, but rather also very much depends on what the people (mostly women and children) can stomach to suffer gruesomely through. The country I came to wore that scar on its face like a badge of honor, the fight has never left, and the fight will never leave this place. If the world ends anytime soon, these people might just survive it, because they were built to.
 
As a young revolutionary I observed, I worked hard and I took notes. I learned another dimension to Revolutionary struggle, another chamber, and another discipline. I also brought along an old friend of mine who is working with me to make a movie about my life’s work.
 
In the meantime I will return to my work on “The Middle Passage” working with Southpaw on some more tracks, and dropping a few guest spots. I also have a benefit show coming up on April 14th at BB Kings in NYC in conjunction with Rock to Save Darfur, and a short tour including an appearance at the Gathering of Nations with some of my Native American brothers and sisters on April 24th in New Mexico.
 
There is no end to this in sight. It is only the beginning. I am in the process of writing an article for The Source magazine and about my experiences in detail there. I hope that this small break down can hold you off until I finish it. I have so many people to mention and several places to speak on. I thank you for listening and for being part of a movement that actually has accomplished what it promised and set out to do. Like I said, it is only the beginning.

 
Khudah Hafiz,
 
 
Immortal
Technique
 
 
www.Omeid.org
 


Thursday, November 06, 2008 

Current mood:Hopeful
Category: News and Politics
I watched something necessary the other night, necessary for the legitimacy of America and it's interests around the world. Necessary for it's religion of capitalism and it's imperial ambition, which were not curbed in anyway with the election of an African American. Instead they gained perhaps the greatest spokesperson for their cause that they could have ever received. People that never felt inclusive now feel like part of America, like they have a personal stake in its success and for people that truly love this country, isn't that what you wanted? To have more people who live here proud of being an American? For many people Bush was never their president, to them he stole the first election and railroaded the second one with mired swift boat attacks on John Kerry's character while dodging facts about the mischaracterization of Iraq as somehow being involved in 9/11 and how the intelligence that led us to war was so badly distorted. Some surrogates even went as far as to suggest that Mr.Kerry might have inflicted the wounds on himself in Vietnam to receive a Purple Heart…
 
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JoM90bAsr1M
 
The same smear tactics were used all throughout this election, the same fear mongering and questions brought about Obama's faith, place of birth and his "relationship with terrorists." This cost the McCain campaign and it's supporters, opportunity and legitimacy about their complaints of the future 44th President. They went beyond the simple implications of the Clinton campaign deep into the territory of arousing the fear and hatred ingrained in the minds of white citizens all over America. And yet they were denied yesterday for good reason. The mob would not have tolerated it. His victory was a restoration of the crumbling belief in our democracy, because the loss of faith; that, my brother's and sisters is how empire's fall, not from simple military failure but when their people no longer believe in it. During the last few years of Bush, this is what I saw. I cannot answer if there would have been rioting would he have not won, but his ascension to the role of Commander in Chief has made a strong case for it being the people's choice in what and who control's America. When in truth the strength and power of Military Industry and Corporate Conglomerates saw more of a champion than any urban working class citizen could have, in Obama.
 
Through careful planning, timed responses, tactful alienation and one of the best organized campaigns, at long last the people of America have a man that they WANT to believe in, a man they can point to as an example of the death of racism, the birth of hope and the inclusion of member's of disaffected society in the United States. But is this to be?
 
Michelle Obama was right when she talked about feeling proud to be an American for the first time. And white conservatives took it out of context. They assumed that the Black and Latino community who have had the right to vote for the past 40 of the 221 years of this countries existence should kneel and kiss the ground of a land that is only now acknowledging their service and contribution. Truthfully I am more inspired by her words than most of his. And, I am reinforced in my understanding that a man (especially one that aspires to achieve anything significant) without the right woman to support him and offer him guidance will never amount to anything. Her words were prophetic for they truly did speak to the manner in which urban Black and Latino people have embraced the USA.
 
As I said before this was necessary for America to do… To not follow in the footsteps of the Roman Empire in its alienation of the people's that it conquered. Their great mistake was NOT to include their allies and offer them the benefits of citizenships and partaking in the glory of what the empire gained as a reward for assimilation. Africans were on this side of the world before Columbus, but in US history they were brought as slaves, kept subservient through a Europeanized Christendom, and lied to about their glorious past, and their contributions to the history of humanity. After all it was Africans who comprised the power ranks of the early church, Africans who nursed the philosophy of the ancient Greeks and African Muslims who ruled Western Europe for over 700 years, that's more than 3 times as long as the United States has existed as a country.
 
They are a people who have fought hard for every small victory and seemingly insignificant right taken for granted nowadays. They fought and died in every major US war going to back to the very founding of this nation when Crispus Attucks was the first person to ever die for American Freedom from British Imperial rule. Yet every time they proved their bravery and willingness to lay down their lives for the nation of their captivity, subsequent birth and allegiance to, they were denied the honor of a well-deserved recognition. They were denied loans, given substandard housing, redlined into the ghetto, had their communities filled with drugs and their addictions criminalized whereas the upper class of white society had theirs treated as an illness. Africans have had their commitment to family and values overlooked by a media highlighting of the worst sections of society. The Black family did not fall apart until the crack era, for even during the times of slavery, it came together with more strength than ever! Because there were sisters who were looking after children who weren't theirs and brothers who played the father when their father's were sold off and gone.
 
Black people for all intents and purposes have a right to have certain cynicisms and grievances with America. Perhaps not as much as Native Americans but they wouldn't be the only ethnic group in the world to have a difficult relationship with the nation they live in. After all the world's nations are actually comprised of many nations most of which are included by right of conquest and not willing consent.
 
And yet November 4th I saw Black people in Harlem waving American flags proudly and loudly. I saw them painted red white and blue, chanting and cheering "USA, USA". I saw cops shaking hands with brothers from the hood who hate cops. I saw white college students who have gentrified Harlem and the last of Harlem's bulk of Black residents welcoming them with open arms dancing in the streets because they were wearing Obama buttons or carrying Obama posters. He truly is a unifying force. He has changed the FACE of America, but now the question remains can he actually change America? Can he stop the war? Or can he just change it.
 
America has a new leader. To me personally I have always seen race a great illusion to justify slavery and build the capital for capitalism. His race is not as important as his design for the economy. But those who would think that we live in a post racial America are blind, and those who think that his minor experience will prevent him from acting with the full force of the greatest military power in the world will be surprised. His great strength is in his ability to listen and remember, to communicate and to inspire. To convince and to come up with the best explanation possible instead of perhaps some of the worst excuses for leadership, rationale for war and political nepotism that we have seen in America's history during Bush II.
 
But his victory, he was right to say was not his victory alone, it was also the resounding failure of the Right Wing Republicans. So much so that it seems as if people from the very onset on the right might have aided McCain's downfall to have the president they thought would be better for business in the neo liberal world of globalization.
 
McCain lost this election for many reasons though.
 
-McBush: His inability to distance and separate himself from George Bush and the fiscal crisis that came as result of economic policies of the 43rd president's administration. His pathetic attempt to make the difference known at the end of the 3rd presidential debate was too little, way too late.
 
-The "Right" Enemies: A person is often judged by their enemies, McCain lost to Obama because of his inability to curb what was first seen as the fringe of his party and eventually came to be seen as a significant % of the base. In some videos you can even see his own surprised and disturbed reaction to what his supporters believed. The rallies became more and more about hatred and not any issues of real consequences. I know Christians and Right Wingers that are logical independent voters and when they saw the Republican base questioning him being a Muslim (as if that was a crime), an antichrist, a socialist, and screaming out "terrorist", even the many of which had planned to back McCain/Palin were disgusted.
 
They looked at their own party as if to say I can't really believe that you're doing this to us now. If I were Obama I would have not feared these people, I would have engineered these people, and right now I would thank God for them. They cost McCain the election. Any rational debate that true fiscal and family values conservatives would have had were mixed in the same bag as these people.
 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVFWahLTdUo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl2EndLZv7w
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E
 
I would like to personally thank these idiots should they ever muster the courage to actually leave their Petri dish rural environment.
 
-The Palin Factor: Like I said, I know a few conservatives, most of them aren't religious zealots (although I do have some family like that) and they told me that in good conscious they couldn't vote for their ticket. The right wing talking points said that Obama and Palin had the same amount of experience. To which a Military officer who is a friend of mine snidely but honestly from the bottom of his war hardened heart responded, "experience being the same, she's incapable of answering a straight question, she's incompetent, she can't stand up to Putin or anyone else. I voted Obama." Truly her champions were people who cheered during the procession of The Emperor's new clothes. She was no Hillary.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nokTjEdaUGg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWZHTJsR4Bc    ( THIS IS THE MOST FRIGHTENING ONE)

 
Smart move old friend...
 
Right Wing Defectors: Colin Powell put the nail in McCain's coffin for all Republicans who were creatures of logic over blind faith. He spoke for those who wanted understanding about the real issue, the economy. McCain choose to focus on Ayers and other old professors instead. He lacked vision, thinking his party could influence the moderates and the independents with this. Instead Scott McClellan, Christopher Buckley, etc… became a testament to Obama being able to win over not just working class whites, but conservative whites, which he proved to be able to do in the home stretch.
 
http://tips.webdesign10.com/politics/more-conservatives-back-obama-346.html
 
Duh, Economy: These are all compelling arguments, but none of them more of a resounding factor than the economy. Which McCain avoided!!! Had McCain chosen for example Mitt Romney as VP this race would have been much closer in some key states. Here was a well-spoken, respected and successful businessman. He was the most well known Republican after McCain. He made millions from his business, he understood the crisis from a definitively fiscal Republican base, and would have won independents who found no answers in the 2008 GOP ticket. Instead the economy became the blow that McCain/Palin never recovered from.
 
But what does this all mean?
 
Is the Revolution over? Hardly. Are the world's problems solved, not at all. Is Mumia going to get out of jail? I hope Mr.Obama looks into that but I bet it's not high on his list. The threat of terrorism isn't over nor is the threat of preemptive strikes. Should people of color now sign up for the Military now that the president looks like someone in their family? Stop it.
 
In order for Mr. Obama to have become America's president, he had to back Israel 100%, not mention of the suffering of Palestinians, so the Middle East will not change drastically. Rahm Emanuel whose father was a soldier in the Zionist paramilitary organization called "Irgun" was recently selected as his Chief of Staff. I reserve my judgment and approach with an open mind so as to not give into hypocrisy because a man is not always his father. I just hope Obama can inject different opinions as well as his powerful logic into that conversation. I hope he will normalize relations with Cuba, for the sake of everyone who has family they cannot see, but in order to win Florida he had to change his tone about it. He will not investigate 9/11 although I think that now that he has the power do to so he should not be afraid to use it. I hope he will look into that and into the origin of the faulty intelligence that led us into Iraq. He will be everyone's president, but the majority of white America doesn't see Malcolm X the way I do, nor did they see the Black panthers as freedom fighters, they saw them as terrorists, are we to give up our history and whitewash our heroes and praise those who kept us subservient because of this victory?
 
Racism hasn't disappeared and you can always tell a racist/ignorant person by their notion that because Obama is president that we live in a post racial America. It is a sign of progress, it is a great triumph for all people, (after all we forget Barack is half white too.) It is very inspirational, but inspiration alone doesn't complete a crusade.
 
I am sometimes accused of being too serious, which fools mistake for negativity. No I just understand that now the idea of Reparations for Blacks in America will be completely off the table. The powerful will remain powerful, the rich will stay rich and we gain advancement only in serving other's causes that we then accept as our own. He cannot change the past but he can change the future, and this more than anything is what I, and others are hoping he will be able to do expeditiously.
 
After all he only has 18 months from the time he is elected, until the next congressional election really gets into the swing of things, and the members of Congress turn to the their own races. He will need to act quickly.
 
The price of having hope is sometimes disappointment, but the price of having no hope is always failure… That said I have a few main concerns for America's new Caesar: Repairing, regulating and reforming the economy, Healthcare for all the people of the richest country in the world. Bringing logic and reason to the war on terror and "war on drugs". And lastly the reason that many Latinos and Indigenous people voted for him and delivered in key battleground states. Stopping the criminalization of hardworking immigrants upon whose backs our great nation is built.
 
I am just a man, one of 300 million, and though my support base is massive, one of the largest in the underground. I know Mr.Obama will never read this. But I have hope for the future you are trying to fight for us to have Mr. Obama and any change from the last 8 years of this record gas price, record home foreclosure, record incompetence (Katrina & Bin Laden's 8 yr holiday) government is a good start to me. My cup of hope is full, but I sip it slowly, because hope is a powerful drug.
 
Remember, all politics is local, our job hasn't ended with the election it has just begun.
 
 
Que Viva La Revolucion,
 
 
Immortal
Technique




PS. New Tour Dates Coming soon.





Tuesday, June 24, 2008 

The Green Light Has Been Given...

On the heels of my new release "The 3rd World" I have taken the opportunity to announce "Project Green Light."

I made the people of the world a promise. Not the music world, not the subdivision of Hip Hop, not the 4th Branch, and not the 3rd World underground. I made the world a promise. I told people that on June 24th the Green Light would be given. I know that people who believe in Revolution are naturally cynical. They expect their leaders to be flawless and almost take pride in finding the subtle or blatantly obvious hypocrisy in those they idolize. That is why I never wanted to be worshipped or followed blindly.


I know it is hard to trust anyone and anything in this life, you feel better when you don't because you feel like you are no longer as vulnerable. But I am a man of my word and I have never let other people's insecurities and self-image dictate my course of action. I gave my word that there would be a serious mission on June 24th. Some of you just thought that was just the release of an album, which it is partly. But it is really so much more than that for me and for the eternal struggle.

The time has come for me to announce the first stage of "Project Green Light." It is the first stage of one of many projects but an important one that I will dedicate myself to completing. I am always contacted by different organizations who reach out to me personally and ask me to fight along side with them in their struggle. I have done so with immigrant groups, youth detention centers, with those organizing against police brutality, gang workshops, funding children's hospitals in Palestine and of course our fight to try and preserve the South Central Farm. So once again I am here to answer the call of my brothers and sisters, whether it comes from across the street or across the ocean.

I have decided to work with a Non–Profit Human Rights Organization called Omeid International. (
www.omeid.org) We will come together to build an orphanage/ clinic/ school in Kabul, Afghanistan for children who have been left without families because of the wars and diseases that have ravaged the land. It will be called "The Amin Institute."

-    The orphanage section will house 20 children at first, from toddlers to ages 10, while the clinic will service the impoverished community surrounding it.

-    There will be caregivers there, widows, dedicated people that have witnessed the violence that has consumed the country since the Russian Invasion first hand.

-    There will also be a school the serves the area and will teach K through 5 to the children with certified teachers from here and Afghanistan. And we will also
have the children work with therapists and psychologists to aid their undiagnosed post traumatic disorder that in many cases rivals that of veteran infantry troops.

In every city in America we see homeless people. We have become numb and desensitized to it, as if it was an acceptable normality. We have standards around the world about using certain gasses or bombs on people and yet we have no standard, no right to NOT facing starvation or poverty. But if you travel to Africa, South America, South East Asia or The Middle East you will find something we are not used to seeing in America. Homeless children. The children in Afghanistan face starvation, death from disease being drafted into warring factions, and the disgusting child prostitution rings and human traffic of modern day slavery. I cannot change this throughout the world overnight, or I would, but I feel as if we have a good chance to start a small project in Afghanistan that we can build on. I pledge myself to this cause, to this Revolution.

Pledge 1: I will participate in a gigantic Hip Hop fundraiser for the orphanage / clinic/ school to be known as 'The Amin Institute'. I will reach out to those from New York, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, the Bay and anywhere else that Hip Hop has Underground and Mainstream Support so people that I hear talk the talk can join me in this fight to raise the funds and awareness necessary to complete the first phase of this program.

Pledge 2: "Amin" the name of the institute literally means "trustworthy" in Arabic. It is an important word because it was one of the early nicknames of The Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) even before he fathered Islam. I know people are scared to believe in anything as I said before, and regrettably there have been so many charlatans scamming their own people over the years. Therefore to show all that I am working closely and that I fully trust the partners that I have formed at Omeid International. I will pledge $10,000 of my own money into a foundation to support the cause.

Pledge 3: We all have a destiny and I will see mine fulfilled. I will succeed or die trying. And that will come as my vision for this mission is completed. So, I pledge to personally travel to Afghanistan and see the completion of the project that I have decided to dedicate my time and effort to. Omeid after all, is the Farsi word for hope.


This is not a Middle Eastern issue. It is not a Muslim issue. It is a Human Rights issue. And that is why I chose people who came to me with a blueprint, proposal and a passionate desire for real change. We throw that word around a lot, "change" and yet the war hasn't ended…IT has just changed. There has always been an ulterior motive to our involvement anywhere as a nation and so OUR response to that will be motivated by selfless Revolutionary action. It will inter-relate our struggles because I have decided to also create a forum here on my networking site, so that you can all participate in Revolutionary action. This is after all something that will BEGIN in Afghanistan but spread all over the world as different stages are completed. People from all over the globe are being activated and are in motion.

To some people this music is just entertainment, and even if it is that for many people, entertainment can inspire, it can brighten people, and it can feed their imagination. It can also pacify, it can placate and distract, it can shadow and mask real problems around us that we cannot see. But for me this is not about entertainment, it never has been it has always been a mechanism for delivering so much more. Hopefully by this time next year there will be a child in Afghanistan who knows NOTHING about Rap who doesn't even know what an Immortal Technique is, and the money I have made off this music will be giving them a place to live and a chance to learn and rebuild their own nation instead of paying some US corporation trillions of tax payer dollars to do so after we destroyed it. Unless you're brain dead and completely lost on the meaning of what our people's spirit truly is there is no way shape or form to deny no matter what your taste in music is…THAT is Hip Hop. More so because I'm not a Hollywood actor making millions getting tax breaks, I'm not rich at all, and this was done with Underground Hip Hop money. That, my people, is Revolutionary. This is not making music but it is an integral part of the struggle and one that must never be forgotten. It's the foundation of the culture that we owe our identity to.

I thank you for listening and I hope you will spread the word, support "The 3rd World" (
www.ViperRecords.com) and of course donate to the cause at www.omeid.orgso that we may expedite the coming of our combined strength. If I can succeed here it is a great sign, a sign that I can go to the most violent and distraught place in the world and triumph. That means that everywhere else I go, the Caribbean, Africa, South East Asia, Latin America and anywhere here in the states, that we can succeed.


Con Amor de Revolucion.


Immortal
Technique



PS.

I am not as worthy as those that have come before me, but greater men have achieved less and smarter men have accomplished nothing. I am no longer a Revolutionary Apprentice but a Young full fledged Revolutionary working towards maturing and strengthening his ideas. Learning from his failures and building on his success. There have been many rebels, leaders, and prophets that came before me and there will be others that come after me. None of these men were perfect, as they were human and man is naturally imperfect. But as they lived and died for what they believed in I will devote myself to the causes and the fights that I choose, not to champion religion or national pride, I seek no rewards or trophies that I leave to you, for me the fight is all. Read. Read. Read.

Monday, June 23, 2008 

When I made parole I was ejected onto a New York City that I had not seen in over a year and yet the familiarity of it all came to me with ease. Right away I was confronted with trying to find a job in whatever field I could, and it wasn't easy considering that I was fresh out of lock up. I can remember coming home sometimes after a day of searching for a job and just looking through the stacks of notepads that held treasures of rhymes I had written while incarcerated. The early works of Immortal Technique.


Inside these papers were the graffiti style scribbled versions of "Poverty of Philosophy", "Revolutionary", "The Prophecy" and even the first verse of "You Never Know." I thought about what I was going to do with all this music that I had written, all the ideas for sound that I dreamt would accompany them. But every time I wandered into the forest of imagination I was abruptly shaken awake by the present condition. I keep a reminder of that condition nailed to my wall, it is a bank statement that shows I had $74.01 in my account and that was after depositing $45 for helping someone move equipment. Money was never the motivating factor for me but that paper serves as a good reminder to help me understand that someone can come from hardly anything and complete a vision with hard work, discipline, personal responsibility and good friends.

I remember about 2 weeks after I had been out struggling to find a job and trying to go back to school part time I ran into some brothers I used to know back in the day. They had been throwing some open mic battles and they offered me a spot to battle. At the time my demeanor was quiet, angry, serious and cold. I had just spent a year being a slave, having people tell me when I could eat, and what I had to wear. I had also been transported from one place to another in chains and resigned to keeping most of my opinions to myself.

But I had battled, and I had written, and practiced my freestyle everyday, something I wish I had more time to practice now. And so I accepted the invitation. It was the first organized MC battle I had been in. I had done lots of them in the street, some while incarcerated, and several in front of other peoples schools but this time it was a microphone and crowd. I'll save the details of that story for another day, but long story short, I won, and decisively. The prize was not money, or a recording contract, but something simple and yet more valuable to me than anything I could have imagined.

I learned so much from my years as a battle rapper, like how to maneuver around stage and connect with people (yet another story for another day,) and here was my first chance to show and prove. I have always had many sets of friends, people that I grew up with, people I did dirt with and the real crazy friends that I used to wild out with but not bring around because everything was a scheme or a robbery to them. I told all of these different sets of peoples about my performance and the work I had been doing and some showed up. I remembered what it was like to spit the rhymes I had written while locked up for a crowd of about 300 people. They seemed like an ocean to me. A diverse ocean too, from the very beginning; rowdy street cats, my friend and his homies straight out of the marines, dedicated hip hop heads, college kids, old school heads, backpackers, gang members and some high school girls that snuck in the club.

The crowd's response was overwhelming and so I began to utilize this skill at battling whether freestyle or written, (contrary to the 1997 backpacker canon either one is perfectly acceptable in the streets, the only thing that counts is the win. But stage battles, where it SAYS freestyle competition is another story.) At any rate, I became an animal, entering every contest I could as long as I was allowed to perform afterwards. It became a requirement for me to enter a battle. It was a long awaited opportunity to speak my mind. Braggin Rites, Da Cypha/Blaze Qualifications, and countless other battles I became known for my talent at that. And yet I had to confront people after the battles and small showcases who wanted some music they could buy with empty hands. So many other rappers at that time were trying to get signed to a major label or trying to get to a major independent. I always heard the same story from them, that they would go commercial and then come back with an album that would be, "the real them." To this day I have never seen any of the people that came to me with this idea have it work out for them. I hated the idea of pretending to be someone else so my music was always what I felt or what I saw and had experienced.

I remember being on the subway train writing rhymes and running into people I used to know and telling them about what I was doing and they would look at me like I was crazy. First off because I had a legal source of employment (I finally found a job an internet company in 2000 doing absolutely nothing,) and then I had started making all these rhymes about the world and about the Revolution that I saw this nation headed for. I thought about how an illusion of freedom could not last forever and as much as we had technological advancements, we were still held captive by our own disingenuous relationship with our human spirit and with the Earth. Eventually the world would turn on us, and we would begin to turn in on ourselves. Most of my peoples understood what I was saying but some just scoffed at the idea of getting Revolutionary Hip Hop and Street Hip Hop combined in a manner that could infiltrate several demographics. They just told me I was dreaming and missing out on "street money", that was going to pay the bills.

I learned a lot about real friendship during this time and a lot about the industry. I constructed an album called "Revolutionary Vol.1", with the help of many of my friends and I began to take it around and sell it myself. I also met with a few major labels to have meetings with them about my music. I would go up to the offices of some executives, both black and white, and the answer was always the same: they loved the lyricism and the concepts of the album but they wanted the politics out. Some liked aspects of what I did, but never felt the vision. Looking back at the situation now I guess I was naïve for thinking that someone who had been ingrained with the idea that acting like a corporate vavasour was the only ticket to success could ever understand what I was saying.

Most of the people I have met in the music industry touted their marketing background and their ability to hustle people into thinking something was dope when it was just nice looking, but they didn't know shit about music. And their struggle coming from the hood was 1 dimensional. They hadn't really left that mentality, they were still a prisoner to it, still a slave to themselves. The worst part came when an executive told me that his kids liked it, that HE liked it he thought it was sick as fuck. He had asked me for an extra copy even. But then he confessed that he didn't think that Black and Latino people would ever understand it. This dude (I'm not going to say who it was) actually told me that he didn't think we as a people were smart enough to grasp what I was talking about! He said "they won't get Dance with the Devil" They'll just think it's ill cuz dude raped a woman and died. They won't read into it." He said, "What the fuck does a little nigga in the hood know about Revolution?" This and other conversations like it where I was told that I was an exception amongst my people and the rest of them were living like "ignorant savages", turned me off completely from the music industry. Some of the people didn't say this straight up but the implications soaked through their vague explanations. Some people were sincere so I didn't get disrespectful but some weren't so I was very disrespectful.

My argument was simple: the hood and people in general love lyricism, they love 2pac, Biggie, Pun, Rakim, why? Because they had similes, metaphors, concepts, word play, that's what the hood respected. These rappers that I had grew up listening to, they had a vocabulary that rivaled any college graduate. They touched on topics that had to do with real life, not some manufactured industry bullshit. This market isn't like the one in 2000, it's not even like the one that was in 2004, or 2006. But the spirit of Hip Hop is no different, lyrics and concepts still rule the streets.

My flow and voice have changed a bit due to practice and spending constant time on the road, some songs were a little raspier than normal, I had just gotten over strep throat and being on the road for 3 months, but I have poured my heart and soul and the working of my mind into every project I have done. I am not motivated by revenge on some war of ideas but only the fact that many of us are still either dreaming about the 90's coming back or selling out completely because that's what we feel we need to do to be successful, and yet we cannot even define success. I have made steps in this Underground war hoping that one day I would be able to see my work either be completed by me or by someone who I could help pave the way for. It would be a great honor if it was one of the people reading this right now.

I have always told people to burn my music because I want them to listen if they cannot find it in stores or can't afford it. And if you have no money and you want it, by all means I invite you to get it and spread the word. I just ask that you encourage those that really connect to it to help us out here. We have survived a war fighting with nothing, no major budget, no corporation investing in us, just us. Just a room full of people, of all races and religions, trying to make this Guerilla War successful, but we hope to do more than a traditional Guerilla campaign, we want to do more than just hold out long enough to cripple the enemy, we aim to rip apart section of the industry and make a real voice for truth. Hardcore truth from the streets, not just of America, but of The 3rd World. I wish inspire the people themselves who are the main component of any nation to rise up. Not like a mob, but as an informed and aware public that will not be swayed by cheap political parlor tricks and generic music.

This isn't about just music for me, it is much more than entertainment or business, but I know that if we can send a message to the people in this corrupt industry, to the journalists who aren't really reviewers who will write half ass critiques, to the cultural leeches that never create anything or participate, those cowards who are jaded by life.

I ask that those of you who are listening now please pre-order the album at www.ViperRecords.com or at www.amazon.com where you can leave comments (and I hope many of you will show your support.) I have had the website here at Viper and Immortal-Technique.com bombed by right-wing religious fanatics, racist Nazis and TONS of anti immigrant bullshit. And that's aside from the occasional humorous death threat from anonymous lunatics. None of this though, is as bothersome to me as the fact that message is in danger of being purposefully over-simplified and distorted. I am not a conspiracy theorist or a Marxist, but I guess its easier to fight someone you can't really fuck with when you put them in a box.

Both of these places are great, I would like to get them at
Viper but Amazon will be just as good as they have discounts if you are already a member. Plus you can leave your good reviews to counter the hatred from other people's street teams (they do that and then hype their people up), commercial idiots and conservative chicken hawks. I thank you for reading this and I hope you will stay tuned as on the day of my album release I will make another huge announcement. Thank you to all of you that are soldiering for the cause and for your own causes around the world. Our struggle will not be forgotten, it will echo throughout the history of this world, because the music lives on forever.


Revolutionary Love & Respect,


Immortal
Technique


PS. June 24th. If you are overseas, order it on-line at
www.ViperRecords.com or www.amazon.com you will get it 4 weeks quicker than the present distributor... or order it on i-tunes. I thank all my peoples across the oceans who are supporting, your words have not fallen upon deaf ears. Join our mailing list because June 24th I will NOT just release a record, I will give the Green Light and I will answer your cries.



Friday, June 20, 2008 



Objective: To have all supporters help spread the word and get ready for the announcement of the green light.

Mission: Goto http://www.reverbnation.com/immortaltechnique and sign up for the street team and get audio widgets with songs from "The 3rd World".

Weapons: POST AND SPREAD THE BANNERS!!!!
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M12
Viper Records Staff

Saturday, June 14, 2008 

As we move into the final stages of promotion for "The 3rd World" I have received so much support. Not only for the strength of the music but also the power of the message in it that brings us back to our roots and culture. I have also gotten countless requests from the public that want to involve themselves more thoroughly with our group.



I am honored that so many people are requesting to help us and so I would say to those people that wish to participate to please sign up for the mailing list that is listed on the front of our myspace page. I appreciate the constant love and the devotion of the support base we have and look forward to not just working with you on the promotion of this new album/mixtape "The 3rd World" but also on several other political, visual and musical projects that we have coming up.


We will be sending out an introductory email to these people on the mailing list in the next few days so I would like to get as many people to sign up by then and be able to turn the volume up so loud that the ignorance and apathy of the commercial industry will be forced to recognize the power of this insurgency.


Remember, the link is on the front of the myspace page or you can check us out at www. ViperRecords. com where you can also pre-order the album.


This resistance to measured mediocrity and lack of substance in the culture is the battle that we still fight today. Hip Hop was created in the divine wisdom of a higher power, in the hopes that it would bring all races and religions together and speak for those with no voice. (That's why it was called The Universal Zulu Nation) It was not made only ennoble with sound those who could afford to get into the club to dance and enjoy the rhythm but also to inspire and call to action those from every direction on this earth. I invite you to join us on our mailing list and I look forward to communicating with you all.




Peace & Respect,


Immortal
Technique



Thank you all ...

Thursday, May 29, 2008 

Category: News and Politics
The Rumors are true, there will be a new Immortal Technique CD coming out at the end of this Spring. And I am going on a short tour to promote it before I go back and finish the next CD. I have partnered with Green Lantern to bring you the new project entitled

"The 3rd World"

It is an album/mixtape of all original tracks. Political but something very brutal and street orientated like I mentioned in earlier interviews.

I was told that for every page you write in a journal you lose readers, and while I don't expect you all to sit here for 20 minutes in your busy day to read this entry... It costs less than a stamp to print this up and read in the bathroom or on a break to spread the word.


Now… all of the journal entries that I have made on this page have been toward a specific cause or a subject matter that I have found integral to the survival, advancement, and the education of the Revolutionary spirit of my people. When I say "my people" though, I have already lost some of the more cynical and semantic-driven individuals who would answer, "Are we not all Americans?" Or even deeper and more placating to philosophical means, "Are we not all human beings?" And what of the class structured divisions? Am I to resent another because they were born into wealth, by no fault of their own, as are those who are looked down upon by this society because they are born naked into the world screaming in a refugee camp? Is it not my responsibility to educate those that are kept in a prison of opportunity and blind ignorance to the outside world much like the prince Siddhartha before his divine revelation? Who are "my people?"

It took me most of my young life to begin understanding and learning the extremely long and painful history behind the concept of race. That it was built around the necessity to justify slavery and religious superiority for something beyond the visible goals mentioned. It was created to enforce economic and political domination. When I acknowledged that, it shone a light on a great many things. We must understand that the countries that we immigrate from to America are the bread basket for this empire, and without them there wouldn't be a fraction of the luxuries, culture and food we have now. The propaganda behind immigration is a necessity for some to drum up because there is a fear of our culture. But if we take away the influence of Latino, African, Asian and Middle Eastern cultures what do the xenophobic racists who hide behind the preservation of "American Culture" really have. I am not threatened by other people's beliefs and their religious preferences because my convictions are strong, because I have faith in my perspective and I welcome the ideological challenges and historical debate. Were I weak and fearful of confronting those changes perhaps I would fear the addition of more opinions. Such the same are people with allowing others to practice their own culture, because in truth American culture is essentially to many uneducated white Americans supposed to be centered in European culture. Which has never really been true, but has been perceived that way for the past couple of centuries. But now we are calling on America to fulfill it's promise or wear the crown of hypocrisy it has been ducking and dodging for years.

It was Leo Strauss, one of the surrogate fathers of modern conservatism that suggested that liberalism had failed in the 60's and 70's because of the social revolt and apparent movement towards nihilism and hedonistic impulses that tried to devoid the nation of a moral foundation. But there is no greater mischaracterization. The nation was not led astray or conflicted but was in fact schizophrenic during that Revolutionary era. It was torn between the identity it claimed as the Land of the Free and that of the violent oppressor of it's own people and those with a desire of self-governing over the 3rd World. There are people who have been naïve enough to believe the subtle propaganda thrown out there that attempts to marginalize people who speak about the method in which Communism and Capitalism served the great empires of the world. In such a manner was their service rendered that too many people behind the scenes grew rich at the expense of vassal states that served one or the other side. They were dedicated to the doctrine but unable to look beyond the meaning of their own significance when confronted with the reality that they were pawns in a much larger game. And while the people who lived through such chaos begin to realize the cause and effect in their old age sometimes their children forget. The second generation immigrants that come here from Latin American, Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries sometimes have only have a pedestrian understanding of what past US interventionism has been a part of, in order to protect what it calls "it's interests."

With the dollar in the toilet and the subject of the economy FINALLY becoming a national issue the ideas on how to rebuild an economy, and define our foreign policy are still muddled. Some proposed that a low dollar is good for business because others can now buy American products cheaper and it helps us sell goods abroad, until it began to sink like the Lusitania and the average persons savings account lost a significant % on the global market. But since that idiot Brit Hume and the rest of the Right Wing fluff girls on Fox aren't missing a meal and, none of their friends are struggling to make ends meet, they kept proposing that the economy was doing fine… Unless of course you asked a regular person, and regular people I'm glad to see have finally started making issues like these and healthcare a part of the election instead of nonsense sidelines distractions like missions to Mars and constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage or the big illegal immigrant scare which I'll discuss shortly…

I recently walked into a store downtown the other day because it was cold as hell outside and I wanted to buy a hat. I found two that looked identical, one was a little thicker than the other and hat a larger brim on it. I picked the heavier hat and looked it over, it had a big sticker that said "Made in America" and named a factory in Michigan where it was made. And right next to it there was another hat with some famous name brand that was thinner and looked kinda flimsy. I looked inside the hat and it said "Made in Vietnam." Vietnam is a country that this nation once lost a Guerilla war against, (for a variety of reasons) but while the fall of Saigon symbolized the end of Americas forced occupation of the country it was a pyrrhic victory for that nation and its neighbors that had their entire infrastructure obliterated after relentless bombing runs and years of fighting the colonial powers who have historically profited from this political love/hate relationship.

I compared the hats in price and I saw that this item that was made for and handful of pennies in a foreign country with a brand name was selling for about $16 while the sturdier American made $4 hat stood unassumingly right next to it.

I usually buy hats, gloves and mixtapes all from the street vendors on 125th to offset the gentrification perpetuated by the corporate investments in the neighborhoods ruthless gentrification. Harlem is certainly not the same crime ridden area that had left murdered people on our front door when I was a child, but it was made into a nicer place for the specific purpose of moving certain people out and replacing the population of the area. All the while skyrocketing the cost of living. The equivalent of me coming over to your house renovating and cleaning it and you thinking I'm so nice for doing so, until you realize my ulterior motives. That I'm planning on eating in your kitchen, sleeping in your bedroom and living in your living room, but don't worry I left you a little spot to sleep, next to the shitter. I often explain to my friends in the music business that soon there will be no more "hood" in New York City of which to speak in their rhymes, only to reminisce about. As outsourcing increases and technological revolution sets in workers find their job skills obsolete and their rents quadruples. But, like so many other things this is just a microcosm of a global effort to ethnically cleanse populations.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/gentrification/

US economists have always "conveniently" seen the nationalization of natural resources as bad for the 3rd world because it is said to limit competition and stifle the growth of the global market. Unless of course you are CITGO or have control of your own nation with the sphere of influence and authority to create a national policy around your own market. These are the same people that advocate the exploitation of foreign workers under the premise that those are the best paying jobs in the developing world's sector and that they are doing the local population a favor by being there. And the 3rd world governments are usually compliant, not because of the economic growth to the nation itself, but rather they look the other way from substandard conditions and outlawed unionizing because of the massive amount of corporate kick-backs they get. The responsibility for unbridled corruption falls on the shoulders of both laissez fair economics practicing companies and installed regimes that are "friendly" to what we call "US interests." Maybe that's why we forcefully install and protect so many dictatorships and look away from the abuses of those authoritarian regimes we try to pass of as democracies engage in.

Some will point out that I could have saved you all about 3 or 4 paragraphs by concluding that we go to war for money. Some people have told me that these long dissertations of mine are too complicated to read and that they should be simplified because somehow I'm "less from the streets" if I express myself in these terms. But I'm writing this from Harlem right now. I'm still back and forth from South America where the ghettos are tougher than anything ever seen in the States. And the purpose for this was to express that the economic downturn and outsourcing in this nation does NOT strengthen the local structure but reverses the functionality of labor practices, democracy and human rights law in the developing world.

Global trickle down economics shouldn't be the mantra of 21st century society.

Needless to say I bought the $4 hat and I left and it left me thinking about the rational behind the debasement of our currency. I also thought about how whenever I did any of the prison programs I do for young Black and Latino people and walked through all the neighborhoods in America I saw people of all so called races, and social walks of life who gained nothing but suffering from our foreign policy.

So naturally the question that always comes to mind when I read about protecting US interests is "Just whose interests in the US are we protecting?" It's most certainly not the interests of the people at the bottom of the de facto caste system. They are not on the board of directors at the Banks that give developing countries loans to pay off the interest from the loans they were previously given a few decades ago. And they aren't ones who have been selling you a $5 cup of coffee that costs a fraction of a penny to produce while starving out their workers and blocking their collective bargaining. People who argue that the middle class would enjoy discounts by way of cheaper products because of outsourcing jobs are useless. Their like an asshole who roots for a sports team with the logic that if they win the superbowl, or the world series they will personally inherit the economic boom enjoyed by the city itself. Local businesses have a good day but, sports stores sell Jersey's, the city pays for a new stadium sometimes. But after that the painfully obvious fact that there is little gain sinks in and someone's who just lost their 401K 's gotta clean up the ticker tape parade. Mind you this coming from a man who put up dough on the Giant's for 17-1 odds, so it's not about me hating on sports.

The average American citizen shares probably about a fraction of a percentage, an almost negligible amount of profit for what we achieve abroad. Compared to those sitting on the top of the pyramid that it is. Everything that we touch is imported from the far reaches of the world. Here it provides us with a variety of goods, but what do we trade for that? When did turning a blind eye to Pakistan's political assassinations while dumping money in the hands of warlords and funding the political "stability" (ie: payoffs to heads of state that allow horribly sub-standards conditions of work) suddenly become in the interest of all the Black and Latino and even middle class white communities???

They aren't protecting us from terrorism. As a matter of fact it's become apparent that whether they like to admit it or not the end result of them shielding extremists and militants justifies our presence in the region. We have trouble even deciding what that word and torture means anymore. It isn't even in the interest of any of the Semitic Diaspora here of either Jewish or Palestinian descent who wish to find a lasting peace when we fund billions of dollars to an IDF war machine. But it's still actually seen as the "duty" of American according to the corporate media to sponsor that. (Both Hillary and Obama are staunch supporters of Israel by the way)

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1201523779464&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

It's interesting that the ratio of the population would really have us sending more money to a variety of other countries that have a higher number of representatives among our constituency. This unbalance wouldn't bother me so much as a taxpayer except that when the inner city communities ask for money from the Federal Government it's characterized as welfare by the pious GOP and even some Democrats and Libertarians. I think back to the people of El Salvador and those in Nicaragua whose right to elect whatever form of government suited their economy best was blocked. A civil war was funded to a degree that I don't think modern historian really have the intellectual courage to come to terms with yet. But they have to now. Because the restructuring of 500 yr old class and racial structures perpetrated by European nations during the age of Conquest is the right of every 3rd World nation. It is not our right to be hateful and racist in a reactionary manner but it is our right to be offensive with facts to the oppressor if that means taking back what was stolen from us during the era of Colonialism.

Colonialism. I am one of many who have suggested that this word doesn't do the period of 1492 to 1994 justice. It doesn't embody the same awe inspiring terror that words and phrases like "Genocide" or "Systematic Rape" do. But that is exactly what it is. It is decorated with high interest loans that modernize a small % of the country, it is littered with so-called missionaries, it even though it exchanged military presence for a more subtle mercantile monopoly it cannot hide. It coats the concept of ruthless and deceptive control with sweet sugar, but the sugar itself was probably processed through the backbreaking slave labor that our ancestors toiled in during the age of our physical bondage. And now to escape mental slavery we must understand the various dimensions of this foreign policy. We must comprehend the history that mutated a free nation into a slave state after years of violating the land and the people who lived on it.

Around the world there are those who don't live in the safety of a college dorm or the shelter of even pubic housing and whose Revolutionary ideas, are not sabotaged by the super powers that be. To understand instead of romanticize why people in developing countries Revolt and yet are fearful of Revolution for a good reason we must destroy the mythology of such a struggle. For innocent people always die and innocent women are always raped, even in fighting for the most just causes. I have stated before that this has happened in all Revolutions dating back to the dawn of organized government and tribal society. But when a system has become so corrupt, so blatantly abusive of the people and their capacity to endure the hypocrisy and burden of a nonfunctional or non-believable centralized system, the people chose to risk it all. They risk death, misery torture, and they risk uncertainty. They risk starvation and annihilation for a new life, not just for themselves, but more importantly for their children. But when governments are overthrown by outside sources for the purpose of regime change the economic motivations far outweighs the peoples' interests.

That is the difference in between a Revolution, and what the ideal that the right wing asks the people of Iraq to pay for. In the end it is someone else's vision of their country and the control of their oil supply. The concept of Freedom is a propaganda tool rather than a symbiotic partner of Democracy. The Revolution is betrayed and the war exists to prolong war itself and consolidate power, not abroad, but here.

Trying to understand the dynamic of our relationship as a Federal Republic, whose corporations are its image abroad as much as it's military presence around the world without digesting these facts is nonsensical. In order to understand Christianity for example or even Islam, one must understand the history of their regions of origin. One must learn the history of the Egyptian Dynasty's, the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire, Zoroastrianism, The Khazars, The Byzantine Empire, the Caliphate and the Northern African nations who adopted all these religions at one point in time. One must be able to grasp the idea of what the world that these faiths were born into was like. Judaism admiringly has the benefit of the Old Testament, which is intertwined with the historical essence of a people and the geopolitical reality of migration, survival and knowledge of self. Something I wish my people had more of. A Cultural Revolution without the destruction of ancient artifacts and the violation of human rights to bring a people struggling with their identity a new idea of who they were as a point of trajectory to not just see who they are, but who they will become in the future.

End of Part 1.

This political season because of the amount of influence that I guess I have with people who choose to immerse themselves in the culture and roots of Hip Hop, Supporters of Street Organizations, Youth in general and specifically the young Latino, Black & Middle Eastern intellectual base, I have been approached by many representatives for the people who are running for office. Some have asked me for endorsements, and some have just wanted to talk. (Note: Hillary Clinton and the Major Republican factions were not among them.) I have, been approached the most though by Cynthia McKinney, Obama and Ron Paul supporters who are either former Democrats or Republicans, (I have right wing acquaintances believe it or not…) I had a small debate with a select few of the more heavily involved upper tier of them about some serious issues I had with Ron Paul as a political entity. Even though some people throw their support behind him because of his libertarian and fiscal conservatism, we must be clear that he doesn't pose a threat to the structure of the right wing as much as he poses a threat to the balance of the left wing. Libertarian doesn't mean liberal after all, and it's not synonymous with Revolutionary.

If there are young and impressionable people coming from the left and the democratic party to support a man who claimed to be "the most conservative member of the Republican Party" during the presidential debates. There is something wrong with that. That's not hip, sexy or cool. Stripping down the Dept. of Education and replacing it with some bone marrow devoid femur of a tax credit borders on ludicrous and I don't mean the rapper muthafucka. He may speak volumes of truth about some domestic issues and the foreign policy that we have concerning Iraq. But it's not enough.

I won't vote for someone just because they wish to end the war and talk about bringing the troops home, because so does Obama and even Clinton alludes to downsizing. But think about it, without that message, without his call for the ending of the war in Iraq and talking about the causes for 9/11, he would not be in the limelight or have garnered a tenth of the support that he had. It would be the equivalent, numerically, although not ideologically to George Bush not being an evangelical Christian and seeking the nomination back in 2000. I'm not suggesting that people who support him are all naïve and stupid, not at all. But I have only met a handful of people who knew the extent of his positions besides a "humble foreign policy" and closing the borders. Sure I read the websites and watched the debates, read all his platforms but I also did research. This debate is interesting on all key issues especially for Republicans.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/special/forums/video.html

I can applaud Dr. Paul's theorized ideas about US policy abroad and while I will admit that his ideas about tax reform are very interesting especially about deconstructing the IMF (which I'm sure would cost him his life,) some of his domestic policies are an indefensible failure. Sadly some have even become the safe haven for white people who like to hide their bigotry and small-minded uncultured ideas about the principles of democracy and the historical context of immigration behind his message. And I'm not saying he's a racist, because first of all that terminology itself is so overused it needs to be updated and redefined as much the phrase "Real Hip Hop." I'm not mad because he got money and refused to give it back to white supremacists. I understood his reasoning. I didn't, however buy his rationale that claimed a, 'property rights', issue as the reason he voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. The bill that allows Black, Brown and White people to eat at the same places, go to the same schools and drink at the same fountains, that legislation that hate it or love it, forced integration. That's something confederate flag waving whites have associated with "big government" and have hated Democrats for, ever since in the South was occupied by General Grants Army.

No, we didn't need to go to "white schools" to get a better education, ("I've heard this attempt at a logical argument by conservative African Americans) we needed the same resources and attention that this fundamentally racist government thought we didn't need because we were slated to be a permanent underclass in the land of the free. Blacks and Indigenous people were purported by Eugenicists during the early 20th century to become extinct, so therefore no effort was made to preserve their condition. And even without that theory there was no real expectation for us to join the elite that's why education was seen as a farfetched idea for our populations.

The Civil Rights Bill and the way it was implemented as well as Affirmative Action are as I stated before, are a pathetic excuse for reparations, but without it we would be a modernized version of South Africa during the early 1980's.

There is little justification for this issue so I refuse to be mischaracterized as someone who "Doesn't get it" or is "confused" about his position. No son, I know what they are and apparently if your reading this and you are in disagreement then there is a question about your Revolutionary nature...not mine.

I would love to see Cynthia McKinney get some more light in the press considering that if we are talking about standing up for your principles and putting it all on the line, none of them hold a candle to this woman. But I would also love to see Obama get the nomination and win, I liked his reps very much, just like the Ron Paul supporters ( who were very respectful and debated well), very dedicated to changing the direction of this nation. I just think that whoever Republicans are hoping to win they must have an agenda behind it and right now they are attacking Clinton hard because they want her to lose against Obama. I think they still believe she has a better shot of getting independent votes than McCain. Although, pay attention… McCain was smart enough to not feed into the negative media about illegal immigration. After his endorsement meeting with Arnold Schwarzenegger who beat native Californian Cruz Bustamante it became obvious that he plans to go after minorities by splitting the Latino vote almost in half the way Schwarzenegger did. McCain hopes to achieve the same result knowing that even if Clinton wins instead of Obama he is still not going to get any significant % of the African American vote. So that's why banking on the Nation's largest minority will be a must.

Some people are taken aback by McCain's ideas about being in Iraq for 100 years, but I think that in some capacity we will remain there for a considerable amount of time regardless of who is president. After all the war in Germany has been over for about 60 years and we still have almost 80,000 troops there and the German government foots a 1 billion $ a year bill for their presence. We have 40,000 troops in South Korea and another 40,000 or so in Japan…We have thousands in Italy, Panama, Afghanistan, the Balkans etc… Essentially everywhere that we have gone to war or "intervened" so I think whether we are ready to accept it or not unless someone who has no strings attached wins this race it will be the same thing over and over again.

That's why, I can heavily appreciate any message about America not being in Iraq, although having a non interventionist policy in these terms of absolutism leaves questions about what one would do in cases like Rwanda and Darfur. But realize that when you decide to police the world and reap the economic benefits of having a capitalist scaffold built around the world you have to pay maintenance of an empire. If nothing else for the illusion that you really represent freedom and liberty for the people around the world, but when we go to Kuwait and not to Rwanda it makes things to obvious... Anything else gives us the same Clintonesque lateness that brought us to Bosnia a couple of years AFTER the massacres to overthrow an old fraction of a man who had already committed atrocities in the face of the world unchallenged. The question was posed here…

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/special/forums/video.html Check the Darfur q&a

I think this debate is important to keep having, in order to better understand when and how to intervene, when or when not to send US troops or when to work with the UN to give food or supplies to a cause. It is objectionable to anyone with a conscious to NOT think we should have done more or should be doing more all these scenarios. But the question becomes, when do we run in to provide aid for the sake of our moral responsibility and when is it a question of our selfish corporate interests? What litmus test can be run to determine the global consequence and the genuine cause that precedes any other agenda when we enter another nation?

That is the real debate we need to have.

A charismatic leader who is true to his or her ideals, and doesn't betray them for the sake of money or comfort is admirable. But that doesn't imply they are Revolutionary. Ron Paul was a breath of fresh air in some domestic respects and when it comes to his position on world issues he was often mischaracterized and slandered as a, "Neville Chamberlain" of the Right Wing when he is just a man who understands the fiscal reality of this mess in Iraq. He was right on when he was talking about repealing federal drug laws that are fundamentally racist, I thought his honest views about abortion brought legal issues into question and he admirably changed his position on the death penalty. But he and other conservatives and libertarians are not at all progressive or Revolutionary as some call them when it comes to the issues of immigration. Unless Revolutionary involves repealing the citizenship of children here in American born to undocumented parents and shipping them back home. He's definitely not as intellectually backward enough to think we can round people up with the Army so I can applaud that because he was definitely not as one dimensional as say this screaming harpy below.

Who I'm going to present now, not because there is an ounce of validity that can even be considered, but to show how conservatives invent people. This woman had NO political leverage whatsoever. She didn't even have a reason for being on the air. She's helped nobody but herself talking about (just like Lou Dobbs) and yet FOX and others have decided to give people like this a platform. Because it is a divisive issue for whites in America and it is becoming so for Blacks especially where there are issues of Black/Brown violence growing in the communities. She reportedly endorsed Ron Paul openly once after Tom Tancredo (long overdue to) threw in his chips but the endorsement was asked to be rescinded, and subsequently was, because to put it quite frankly, they thought the bitch was a liability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvtuJXajE2M

Smart move.

None of my criticisms of any of the politicians I have mentioned are said out of disrespect, so I don't think it's possible to marginalize or attempt to defame me as an individual for having a mind of my own and not wanting to be a part of the "Young Libertarian Republican Revolution." Because to be quite honest I'd rather shoot heroin...

But, I do have a great amount of esteem for any man who will stand among the people in his own party or political wing and fight vigorously against pure illogicality.

For example I have argued hard with a lot of rebels and historically challenged militants about how white people are not devils. I've definitely had the ongoing discussion about Marx's economic principles being flawed and how socialism itself needs a new definition and new understanding, a new testament if you will. I've argued about Che Guevara's mishandling of the Cuban economy and his marriage to Communism instead of Revolutionary independence even though he was right about the Sino Soviet dispute. I've argued about how Islam, although incredibly revolutionary in its context as a spiritual and social mechanism for people who live under oppression still has the capacity as it has proven in the past to be an agent of conquest in Africa just as Christianity once was. And although my mind was opened to another chamber by reading the Qu'ran, you cannot talk to me about it as a religious faith without speaking on the history of Islam, Arabs and The Middle East in general and the entire region in historical perspective. If you are majoring in the subject or would like to learn more I would suggest reading at least couple of volumes of Al-Tabari's (838-923) "The History of Prophets and Kings". I highly recommend Volume 36, "The Revolt of the Zanj", for those who are more advanced in this area of study.

****I will NOT tolerate someone's misinterpretation of what I just said, because all versions of history are my greatest ally. Virtually all religions after all are brought to people by their conquerors. And any religion can be used by an imperial power's tool to reinforce it's sphere of influence over a region much like the Ottoman Empire did in the Balkans, Spain did with Christianity in the Americas. No religion in it's truest form be it Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, or Islam is a proponent of slavery, they are made to free the mind body and spirits of people. But whether used in violent campaigns or through the condescension of missionary agents that come into a country to offset the cruelty of the colonial powers the result is the same... a consolidation of political power through the use of religion.****

But this is not a criticism of any religion in specific terms but rather the idea that anyone who would follow a prophet or a doctrine is flawed from the moment they are born. They are human after all and so when unquestionable divinity is attributed to anyone or anything besides God, it is often the benchmark for where the excuses and indulgences of civic and economic practice begin. A prophet of God is a man of peace but his followers are almost always men who use the divine power of the message to satisfy their thirst for power. And then it is no longer God making man in his own image but rather man who makes and then remakes God in HIS own image to suit whatever military, economic or social agenda he has planned.

We all have our hypocrisies and flaws. But I'm not conceited or easily disillusioned so I don't shy away from addressing them and trying to fix them when they are pointed out, that's the process of growing intellectually. I think anyone who would take offense to my honest and fair questions would do themselves, their ideas and their favored candidate a great disservice.

After all I can at least validate the honesty of the opinions given by John McCain, Ron Paul, Colin Powell and others who walked their talk and went to fight in Vietnam. However misguided that war really was, at least they stood by what they preached, it actually makes a debate with their ideas more constructive. Unlike the college Republican chicken hawks who cloud issues to avoid debate and ramble about Islamo-Fascism but would rather get raped with a paddle at a Fraternity initiation than fight in the desert against the, "mortal enemies of America." I would think they'd be the first in line to raise arms against those who attacked us because they were jealous of our freedom and driven insane by the fact that we have cable TV.

As an apprentice of Revolution I train, and I read a lot. The master teachers I have studied from like John Henrik Clarke and others, opened doors to the past and helped me gain a perspective of my peoples past. But this also left me and other Revolutionaries with the responsibility of our nation's future. A revolutionary owes his allegiance to the people, and therefore, I cannot be the champion of a privileged class of American citizens before those in our country that suffer the greatest weight of what this Federal Republic requires in order for them to earn their right to live here.

I fight for the working class and the immigrant in America who built and is building our future as we speak. I don't think that everyone who has issues with immigration is a racist, that's just not true. After all you can have serious issues with the domestic and foreign policy of Israel and not be Anti-Semetic (no matter what AIPAC says), and you don't have to hate Blacks to question Affirmative action. But I spit in the face of those who would persecute immigrants under the guise of legality. So don't think you can fuckin' toy with me with your sheetrock-thin talking points. After all, how many Native American treaties and international laws has the US violated? I fight for both the documented and undocumented that live in this far reaching empire, those of all colors who have found their calling in a Revolutionary spirit.

Some people think I hate America. But I just see her for what she was, I see her for more than what she is, and I see what she still could be. I see potential for advancement in the way we think as human beings, while others just see the opportunity to keep using her like a whore until there is nothing left. Before of course they discard her and move on through the evolution of globalization that makes corporations gods and nations the lowly servants of false idol. I guess it makes it easier to marginalize my positions by calling me a conspiracy theorist for believing that government lies to it's people, than it is to talk truth. It's easier to send me death threats and bullshit emails about immigration, messages about being a nigger and spic instead of discussing the past 2000 years. I guess you forgot that I passed The Point of No Return…

And I think the people of this nation deserve better than what they have. They deserve to pay less taxes, and to have more accountability from their government. To have more efficient service and to stop the political nepotism that exists in Washington and, that has ruled this country incompetently for too long. America can be better than this. And its problems do not stem from people coming here to work. After all most of us immigrated here because our countries were taken over in a post-colonial age with the help of this and other former imperial powers for the express, purpose of exploiting our nations' resources. Much like the music industry comes to the Underground to try and prostitute our talent. We come here for a new life, for freedom from fake democracy and the repression both political and religious of our people. We come here for the promise. But that promise is sometimes a lie.

The immigration issue is not a simple legal issue, it is a complex human rights question and a global reality that repeats itself every generational cycle. And now it is a tool to dismantle progressive ideas and to dismantle a nation of people who are on the brink of Revolution but choose to go backwards and forget what it was supposed to mean to be an "American". I am not opposed to having immigrants learn English, after all I did. Spanish was my first language. But the attitude that we must give up all our culture just to assimilate is the testament to the racism sometimes involved with the immigration issue, because white Europeans didn't have to give up theirs completely.

Our lengthy, often ignored, proud history before enslavement is who we really are spiritually, maybe that's the problem. Maybe if we had a less important role in defining what it means to actually be a human being they wouldn't give a fuck about us learning it. Those who worked here for over 10 years to build America should be able to celebrate that just as others here do without being deported. Spare the children who are innocent in all this prison camp like imprisonment and homelessness when you ship their parents back with these ICE traps. Learn, that if there is a God he surely would not smile down on a nation that cast out his poorest and humblest, and those that are stronger in their practice of faith than much of this nation. But even if we take religion out of the equation completely, one day the climate of this Earth will change. Remember that the only thing that protects us from the merciless radiation of the Sun is the magnetic field around Earth, which is theoretically caused by the constant revolutions of molten iron. Interestingly enough due to our slightly elliptical shape, the most protection garnered from this field, is at our equator, the center of the 3rd world. Perhaps one day we will be crossing the border South instead of North for survival, and I'm sure someone will come up with an excuse to take our land again.

I could go on for about 30 more pages of history and rip apart the general consensus on immigration held by those who favor deportation in America. But I won't I'll just say that we as so called Latino people are not the first to receive this treatment, all South Eastern Europeans (and Middle Easterners) including Italians, Armenians, Slavs, Greeks, etc were portrayed in the same light when they first came here. Immigrants are the life and blood of America, and yet we must suffer as many others did before us, the torments of the establishments that finds us incapable of assimilating to the American family and championing their selfish angry Eurocentric nationalist ideas. Interestingly enough while these nationalities I mentioned were eventually incorporated into America through the idea of a "melting pot", we indigenous people were never meant to be a part of the melting pot idea. That was reserved for European immigrants. We were just the brown wood destined to be fuel for the fire. It is a destiny we now have the power to change and that we need to change. After all the real victims of the worst economies in America are those who are at the bottom, not the upper or middle class.

My people are suffering the most in this country, more than anyone. And regardless of your skin color, or religious affiliation, if you are strong willed, mature, progressive, intelligent, compassionate and Revolutionary, if you are someone who believes in truth and freedom, they are YOUR people too. And that in turn answers the initial question about who "my people" are.


Afterthoughts:

I hear the word "change" being thrown around so much, repeated over and over by candidates, but nothing too specific about what exactly they will change. Ending the occupation in Iraq is a good change, but cutting funding for the Dept. of Education (whose teachers are severely underpaid and not given resources for better education as it is) because its BIG government isn't a good change. Neither is repealing Roe Vs. Wade, and taking a woman's right to a terminate pregnancy when she is the victim of rape or incest because of some theological doctrine that people who run as the Christian candidates like to use selectively. While I am not personally in favor of abortion that is my personal choice (that I will speak of on a later day) that I cannot apply to others. I think there is something to be said about the legality of life in the womb. But I sometimes wonder though how these individuals who have run on these strict pro-life tickets like Rick Santorum, Sam Brownback, Fred Thompson and Dick Cheney would've reacted if their wife or daughter was raped and she became pregnant, or if she was knocked up by some "swarthy non-English speaking sweaty illegal alien." Someone that makes everything in their home including their dinner but they resent having to treat at the same hospitals or teach at the same schools.

My experience has taught me that people's self-righteous, sanctimonious nature is usually only applicable in a vacuum, because in real life you have to bleed for it. So it's easy for some people to think like this. It's also easy for them to chant "stay the course", most of them never picked up a rifle or stayed on extended tours in 120 degree weather while their families suffered back in the states, otherwise they might understand what it feels like to want to come home. It's easy to think that "surge is working" until you realize that your tax dollars you don't want going to "big government" are in Iraq buying off street gangs, Extremist Militia's, with monthly stipends to decrease violence against US troops. Then again this war being conceived and then run by people who dipped out when it was their chance to serve still amazes me.

Next thing you know they'll be putting Arabian Horse racers in charge of FEMA and hooking their girlfriends up with high paying jobs at the World Bank.


The world is a cold place sometime. I'm glad I bought that $4 hat.


Con Amor de Revolucion,


Immortal
Technique

President of Viper Records
Thursday, May 29, 2008 

Category: News and Politics
****** This blog is part of a much bigger action. If you want to be part of the movement and allow your stories to be used in a packet I am putting together, when you post PLEASE leave your NAME, CITY, and that I have your permission to use your excerpt. To cut down our workload, PLEASE try to clean up the story and typos. If you are not comfortable posting your information on the blog, feel free to send it through e-mail. We appreciate your support whole heartedly.****



Please forgive the mass mail. It is not often that I find it so unequivocally necessary to write everyone on my personal mailing lists and express the words that we often think and wish we could vocalize but that remain inaudible.

Recently, someone inquired about what they thought were a series of blogs that I released on myspace and on other websites. At first I was confused until it dawned on me that I have never explained to anyone how I keep a journal, almost a book's worth I would say, of personal stories that detail events in my life. These stories are written without the anger, pain, sadness or bitterness that often clouded my vision at the time that these things happen. I usually only release the politically charged ones to the public, because I am not in the habit of sharing personal stories about my life, unless it is with my inner circle that gets a chance to read some of the entries at times… However, the events of the past week have provided a reason for me to bring up a story about my youth. I pray that those who I am just as close to in mind, heart, spirit and Revolutionary cause may be able to understand and hopefully identify with.

I grew up in Harlem during a time when the Apollo had underground Rap acts performing there every weekend, when Morningside park wasn't a place where you wanted to be without a weapon, and where they used to fight pitbulls on the steps after dark. I can remember when to the West, Grant's Tomb used to throw huge Jazz festivals, and they would incorporate upcoming Hip Hop acts as well. This was all during the era of struggling Black businesses, the sunset of redline district ratings, and what would become known as the golden age of Hip Hop. New York City was not the police state that it is now, and while some see the city's past as a lawless criminal haven, there was a balance in the fact that there was more culture rather than a contrived tourist attraction that nets corporations money, but that threatens to remove much of the current population. All that said, I think it would naïve to think that just because all this is true, that the old New York was better. Because I couldn't say that to someone who lost their child to gang violence, drug addiction, murder, or a bevy of other issues that used to claim so many more lives than they do now. However the problems haven't gone away. They've simply been masked in many areas and increasing the prison population hasn't resolved the fundamental problems of social imbalance that are the root cause of many of these issues.

I was very young and unable to articulate what I can now but I remember everything. As God has blessed me with one of the best memories out of the people I know. To remember things in detail is difficult for some people but when thoughts are ingrained into my mind, they can be recounted effortlessly. Even more so often I guess because I often wrote them down in detail as a child. As all children when I was young I got into my fair share of trouble, but much more so as a teen and a young adult than as an adolescent who was more concerned with just playing stickball, arcade games (remember those?), Street Football, and talking to girls in the neighborhood.

Behind the tomb of the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, on 122nd Street in what is now gentrified West Harlem, there is a small park. The park extends from what would be 123rd street all the way to 125th where it ends and a bridge carries the remaining road parallel alongside the Westside Highway and above what was once was the empty meat market district. The park is has a paved path with a row of benches on its side leading up to a playground where for as long as I can remember a large diverse community of people gathered over the summer. Blacks, and Latinos, including Mexican's, Puerto Rican's and Dominican's from the Harlem and the Washington Heights Community have traditionally set up BBQ's and family picnics there. The entire area was then, and still is, littered during warmer days with people who allow their children to play together in the jungle gym and swing area. I remember watching people of all ethnicities having a good time there when I was young.

Across the street from the park there is a strip of sidewalk that follows the scene I just described towards a Bridge. Like a lonely admirer, the street never joins with the park but rather continues on it's own as a path as it proceeds over the bridge up to 135th street.

On a summer day when I was about 13 years old, I was walking down this exact same path with three of the kids from around the way, Jay, Angel, and Mark. We were walking through the park, laughing, making jokes and just basically having fun. We we're drunk or high or scheming on anyone, we didn't harass any females, or spit on someone we thought looked at us wrong. We brought no cause to even notice us besides the faint laughter heard from a distance as we cracked jokes on one another. Usually we just walked through the picnic area to see if there were girls there or played stickball with one of our other homies Dominican Chris (RIP) who I shouted out on the "One Remix" at the end of Revolutionary Vol.2. On this one occasion we thought we'd walk back down the path opposite the park and go down a street called Tiemann to get to 125th. I saw the long open road that followed the park, turned to the fellas, and bet that I could beat any of them to the end of the road in a race. We went back and forth, talking shit for a minute, until finally, betting a quarter water and some 25 cent cookies on the winner of the race, we all took our mark and then we ripped down the street. Just some innocent kids enjoying a summer day running through a park. I remember seeing my lead come and go as the other competitors struggled to obtain lead and excel.

As we finished the race, (Angel beat us all), we slowed our run to a jog and then stopped to rest in front of a row of steps. But no sooner had we stopped running when another competitor who had obviously been watching our race very carefully joined our group. The police cruiser pulled up right next to us in what can only be described as an unhealthy speed to try and stop a car in front of anyone let alone children. It slightly came onto the curb but didn't jump it completely. The cops barked for us to all "FREEZE!" I can remember feeling nervous at first and then all that fear subsiding because I knew I hadn't done anything wrong at all. The cops then ordered us all to come to the car, and we all did so quietly and reluctantly, all of us except Angel. He backed away from them towards a set of stairs that led down to another street. The cops immediately asked us who we had robbed, they asked us what we took and where we had hidden it. "I didn't steal anything," I answered back and was told to shut up. "The only reason niggers and spics run is when they've stole something" was the response the cop in the patrol car.

I had seen the cops rough people up before. There is a deli near my old apartment that for many years during the 90's was a famous coke spot that everyone from college students, junkies and business people frequented. But those were drug dealers from the hood. In Hip Hop we glamorize the drug trade sometimes, but I always understood the harsh reality of that world. I saw cops rob drug dealers before and they beat down a few drunk people on the street who were talking reckless, but I hadn't seen them talk to children like that. They came to my elementary school once, only a few years earlier, to talk to us abut safety and drugs. So while it wasn't the first time I had seen or heard the police get physical or confrontational with people, it was the first time it was directed at me personally. There they were calling me a nigger and a spic and accusing me of stealing something when all we had done was what their kids did in their all white community 15 miles out of New York or in a Queens suburb, race each other in a fuckin' park.

But that was just the half of it. When Angel came back, away from the steps they all of a sudden seemed interested more in him than of the rest of us. "What the fuck did you step back from us for?" they asked. "Why'd you run away?"

They ordered him to come towards the car. When he obeyed, the cop who was riding shotgun grabbed him by the neck and yanked him halfway inside the vehicle, leaving his little feet dangling in the air. The cop driving slapped him in the face and growled "what the fuck are you running for? What the fuck did you steal?"

We all watched in disgust and horror at the sight of our friend being mangled by these grown men with the power of life and death over us. They asked us how old we were and I clearly remember that we each went down the line saying, "13, 12, 14, 13" and I think back on it now, noting how small we must have really been in comparison to these police officers. He then asked Angel to give him his mother's phone number to find out where he lived, he asked him over and over, and then one of them yelled at him "don't lie to us!" He didn't pose any threat to them in any way shape or form, and yet they felt the need to keep hitting him. They even pulled out the top of their nightstick and banged it against his head. We all started yelling about how we didn't do anything and again they told us all to shut up. Finally, they then let him go and told us that if we didn't steal anything and we weren't guilty than we didn't have anything to fear from the police.

We walked back to our block silently, but there was a quiet attitude in Angel that I hadn't seen before, he was not just left without words, he seemed to be silent inside. He wasn't as badly bruised as I thought he'd be. He had a few marks and his face was red but there was something behind his face looked like it was broken…

I am going to leave that story at this point for now, and not go far into detail about explaining to my father how useless it was to look for their badge numbers or about how this was just beginning of my abusive relationship with NYPD, who only 3 years later pulled guns on me outside of an 86th street train station because they claimed my green jacket matched the description of a robbery suspect. I could really tell a whole chapter of these stories. Almost getting killed by cops, but by then I was already a criminal, which coincidentally doesn't mean that a summary execution of me was in order.

Scooter Libby is a criminal, he broke the law, and so did Oliver North. But I'm sure if someone shot them both tomorrow that person wouldn't be exempt of the charges because of the victim's status. I watch people often implant these ideas in our mind to justify what happens to drug dealers, to thieves, to people that come from a community that is persecuted or to people whose politics are adverse to our own. We are media-trained to see ourselves as a threat, rather than the system as one. Perhaps that's why even when the cops are of color they feel more threatened by a Black or Latino person. They feel like they're less concerned with the consequences of doing this is in our communities vs. other places where they'd be more accountable for their actions by the governing council. Who all need to be voted out by the way, immediately!

When I went to school the next day I talked to my classmates about my crazy weekend and I found shock and disbelief from some of the white students, those who came from a more affluent background but the few Black and Latino kids were more understanding and we even shared stories of their own with each other, but not with the rest of the class, we felt like they thought the police were their friends. Imagine that… Sharing stories about police brutality in 7th grade.

I know that it's been a horrible week for anyone out there that was looking for some sort of justice in New York. Some of us hate marching. We're tired of it. And many others wanted us to riot, as if destroying our own neighborhoods would do anything for us. Others talked about destroying other neighborhoods, rich white neighborhoods, as if that wouldn't bring about the wholesale slaughter of our people. Some say that this would at least highlight the difference in the way police deal with people of color from the inner city vs. other communities. Some said blood needed to be shed, and that we must expect to incur losses, and we shouldn't be squeamish and look ahead. But these are the same "hardcore activists" that have never seen bloodshed or violence the way I have. And if we are all for sacrificing lives on the altar of Revolution then the question to be asked is, if there was only one life to sacrifice to bring attention to this police state, and it was your son, or daughter or husband who was father to them both, would you give them up? I can guarantee that while the Bell family is happy to receive the love and support from the community and the help of so many organizations to expose police corruption and seek justice, that they would trade it all to have Sean Bell back… If I was them… I would too.

Sean Bell's murder isn't just about race. Although it is important to point out that that the idea that one cannot be prejudice against their own race is just ridiculous because there are glaring examples of it present in our everyday lives all the time. But I firmly believe this is much more about power. The power of a growing authoritarian state who will protect it's praetorian guard at all costs, a city who values some lives over others, that doesn't mind paying out as long as the PBA can spin the issues and use whatever legal maneuvering with a retiring judge to make the decisions it finds favorable. It is about the power of a government to torture or kill a human being and not have to answer to the people that its supposed to represent. If our only claim to democracy is the vote we somewhat take part in as a nation 25 times every century, and not the foundation of it's institutions, then are we not truly a democracy in name only? But I am not here to preach to the choir, I actually presented this old journal entry of mine because I want to hear YOU SPEAK… We NEED to hear you speak.

I wanted to take this opportunity to make this an open forum for people from all walks of life, all races, sexes, religions, persuasions and ethnicities to speak on their experiences with police abuse. In response to the Sean Bell killing and various other issues facing this nation Other Revolutionaries and I are working on coming up with more proactive solutions to the problem s our communities are facing. Telling these stories is a way to communicate more with one another. Marches are good to show solidarity and display the numbers of a community but they are just one tool in the arsenal that we have available to us as a people. Communication is another, and as we search for non-traditional ways to battle the system, to take it beyond complaining and press conferences, as we take it beyond the predictable means of typical protest, a greater network is necessary to establish. We are not defenseless, we are not sheep, and we will not be placated "civilians" whose diversified skills and ability to structure ourselves with military organization will be allowed to go to waste. Networking is key.

Please feel free to post a personal account from you or your family's experience with Police brutality, whether you are in NY, LA, Seattle, Toronto, Russia, China, Japan, The Middle East,Chicago, Jersey, Atlanta, Miami, The West Bank, Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, or somewhere off in Latin America, in the 3rd World, where the police are the military and they are 10 times worse towards the people. Write us here from everywhere...

If you are not comfortable posting to his blog, please free to email your story and info to: policestatechronicles@yahoo.com


While we keep fighting, I and other Rebels of all walks of life make moves. So I want to hear from you, to hear your experiences so that we can learn from them, speak to one another, and form a stronger alliance. People know me as a Rapper but I see that as I always have only piece of what I am, music is really just a small part of my life, it is only the beginning of what I have begun working on. Communication is an essential component in all types of warfare, releasing this piece of my journal and asking for you to speak on stories of your own is part of a much larger action planned to increase Communications all while moving our other projects ahead…

R.I.P. Sean Bell.

But remember, that he will only Rest In Peace when we bring those that murdered him and the state which basically sanctioned his execution, to justice. We must be well- trained, disciplined, sober, vigilant and ready for action when it comes. We remember the many that fell before Sean, and those that are still to come because this will never stop unless we take action to stop it. We are taking action this is just the first step.

We are the people. We are the Revolution.


Respectfully Submitted,


Immortal
Technique



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