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7/4/2008 It’s been four years since you hit fans with a new project. Because you’re able to successfully tour and have other business ventures, is releasing new music not an immediate concern for you?  I’m always caught up doing other things. When I’m not on tour or I go to South America to see my land. Or I’m somewhere helping somebody else out with another project. There’s a lot of things that I do behind the scenes. And then of course I have to help run Viper Records and get things off the ground and continue to move things musically. I signed a new distribution deal through Koch with no middle man. So yeah there’s a lot of things that we work on behind the scenes that take up a lot of my time.  How do you balance what you spend your time working on?   Well, I’ve learned and I’ve been learning, but it’s a process to try and delegate some responsibility. I had some people that worked for me before and I have a few people that work for me now. Basically I just have to learn how to trust people and trust them to get the job done as well as I think I will. That’s not always easy for me because I’m a perfectionist. I like to get things done myself because then, the only person to blame if things go wrong is myself. But like I said it’s a process because I’m so used to doing everything myself and now I have to rely on lots of other people to cover our expanding operations and all the charities and Revolutionary actions we take.  Knowing you, it doesn’t seem like you let people into your inner circle.  Not at all. You don’t know who they are and what they stand for. Even people who you think have been down for so long, sometimes they flip and wild out. You don’t know what it is. I’ll put it like this: Nowadays, no one’s going to just walk into my clique. I have people who work for me but that doesn’t mean that I lay out my whole five year plan for the new recruits. There’s nobody out there who needs to know all of my business like that. I still have about five or six projects that I’ve been working on for over a year that I’ve never really even told anyone about. I don’t even keep it on my computer. I have it on an alternate drive in my house and then I moved that drive into my house and into my office to keep it away from people. There are a few things that I feel adamant about giving my time to so I’m very involved in those.  How much time did you spend working on music the last four years?   This album that I released to Green Lantern has 19 songs. That is not the number of songs that I’ve written in the last four years. I’ve written over a hundred songs, it’s just that some of them have been recorded and some of them haven’t been recorded. Most of them I really love. Some of them fit the concept of a record and some of them don’t. And I have verses that people begged me for for their album. I’ve been trying to explain to people not to take offense if I can’t do a song with them now because I have to go on tour but I know that when I get back I’ll be able to hook people up who helped me with the verses that I promised them and then after that I’ll be able to discuss the business with everybody else.  Sometimes people come up to me and say, “I got two instrumentals that were going to do together.” I’m like, ‘Yo, homie, there’s a word named ‘presumptuous’ that I need you to look up in the dictionary right now. I don’t know you from a can of paint and you’re walking up to me like we’re going to do songs together. Who the fuck are you?’ So it really depends. I like working with people I know most of the time because I know what they’re about and I know what they stand for and I know that we have similar views. But I’m not opposed to working with people who I may not see eye-to-eye politically with as long as I know the music is going to be good and there’s a mutual respect.  It doesn’t sound like artists not down with you have a good chance of ever doing a song with you.  Maybe they know somebody I know and that person can vouch for them but that means a lot when you put your name and your rep up for somebody else and not a lot of people will do that. I’ve had people come to me out of nowhere in the underground and tell me that they want to do a joint with me and that they have no money. Well, it’s not really about money, homie. It’s about loyalty and mutual respect. They tell me they’ll promote the album and do it like that. They’ll tell me they’re getting a whole team of niggas to promote the shit out where they are and they’ll send me the joint and I’ll drop a 16 for it. I’m not conceited when it comes to stuff like that. It’s never been like, ‘Fuck it nigga let’s do it.’ It’s more of a question of the way it’s set up logistically.   Are you happy with the response you’ve gotten to The 3rd World?  I’m very pleased with the responses, not just from this country, but also from the hip-hop community all over the planet. I have gotten word back from West Africa, The Middle East and from South America. Places where I had sent the record before it ever leaked out here to the States. The beat in itself is infectious but the lyrics are what are meant to draw you into the entire concept of what goes on beyond our borders that we sometimes like to ignore. Not that it a world of savage chaos but rather a world of organized poverty and exploitation. And the people of these countries were definitely not the architects of this arrangement.  Besides that though the websites who heard it, The Source and XXL showed it lots of love, the concept was not lost on them. Just for the record so people understand this is an album of original songs that is cut up and blended together like a mixtape! So it’s a mixtape, but an album, for those that want the tracks individually unmixed they will be available on iTunes in that way, unblended, but the iTunes version doesn’t have the hidden track. And there are three hidden tracks on the actual CD and you can’t burn one of the hidden tracks off the CD easily at all. The mixtape/album is very powerful.  What did you want in the production of The 3rd World?  Variety was what I went for. Even though it’s an album in terms of having all original songs and a complete concept when you play it front to back it is cut like a mixtape. And, in that respect it has so many different subjects to deal with, there needed to be a feel for was being talked about. Some songs I have a more conversational tone, some are from me coming off tour, raspy and angry about the theme. But whereas Volume 2 was more straight spittin’ this invokes more charisma and flow for the harsh reality addressed.  How would you say your style and flow have evolved compared to your first album Revolutionary Volume 1?  People are always going to complain about something, on Volume 1 it was about the beats and the battle rapping, which they thought was too much. They said that I was trying to revive something that was dead. They said Revolutionary Hip Hop was useless that no one wanted to hear it. 135,000 independent albums later, those people are either punching a clock somewhere and not on a message board because they have jobs and bills to pay or they have decided to find something else that’s wrong. On Volume 2 people said the production was better but that my breath control was off and the flow had improved but people will always talk shit even though the album was a complete success. I also have never released accapellas so whenever I put out music people take it remix it and then throw it together off beat, nothing I have on The 3rd World is off beat, anyone with a fucking ear can listen to it, but some of the things people are remixing and have been doing for a while sound so off that new kids base ideas off that and then just succumb to message board pressure and just believe what a few hateful people say... I sold out BB Kings, Nokia, 3,000 person venues in LA, the Filmore on a Sunday. I don’t give a fuck what people are going to come up with to criticize and talk down the hard work me, and DJ Green Lantern put into The 3rd World.   What’s your writing process like?  I mean, it really varies from song to song. I’ll put it this way. I wrote “Dance with the Devil” over the course of, like a year. “You Never Know” took from before the time that I was locked up to the time that I released Revolutionary Volume 1. And “Bin Laden”, crazily enough I did that overnight. Green Lantern hit me with that at night and I had it back to him the next day, complete with adlibs and all of that. “The 4th Branch” took me a couple of days. “Caught in the Hustle” took me an afternoon to write. Boom, what’s next? “Point of No Return” didn’t take me too long either. I wrote “Peruvian Cocaine” on the spot. I don’t like doing stuff like that though. Everyone wrote “Peruvian Cocaine” on the spot. I called everybody to come to the studio and told them how it was going to go down. Everybody has a different way of doing it. I would rather take the instrumental and let it marinate for awhile and see what the cause of the record is. I can write on the spot easily. I just would prefer not to do that.  Do you feel more comfortable over a beat or acapella?  Depends on if it’s at a show, or just fucking around freestyling. I like accapellas because the people can really here your words, they can hear the way in which they are delivered. I was told by those that came before me to always start a show off with them, which sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. It really is more about the mood. But either one is cool for me.   You’ve got your team like Akir, Poison Pen and Diabolic who consistently tour with you. What’s it like being on the road with you?  I’m associated with a lot of different people and a lot of different places. Sometimes that causes friction in other places. So far the friction hasn’t been too serious, but I know as I get more and more popular, I know that that’s going to change. When I say that I know people have assumptions because they see me with lots of different organizations. I’m not trying to brag like rap niggas who think it’s cool to be down with a gang. I don’t walk around saying that. I’m not sitting here getting jumped in a gang. Come on. I’m a grown ass man.  So if I’m working with gang members, we talk about the history of where we came from. I teach a lot of brother’s Salvadorian history, the history of Salvador. It’s very important that we understand where we come from and how the United States funded the Civil War with $1.8 billion given to a government to support a right wing paramilitary death squad. That’s not socialist mythology.  Don’t let your bias ever extend into what I’m doing. That’s your experience. Don’t think your experience matches everybody else’s because it doesn’t. That’s my position. I go to lots of different places, I talk diverse groups of individuals and collectives, I network with lots of organizations. I try to make changes in their community and some people appreciate that. It's a very serious thing. That’s why we have rules that govern that and it’s a very serious thing. That’s why we have rules. We’re not a bunch of niggas looking to get high and meet bitches all the time, there is always time for having a good time but work comes first on the road over here... That’s how our tours work. And if anybody on my team forgets that they get the emergency flight the fuck home because I'm not playing games. And anybody who rolls with me knows that.  Have you ever had to send anybody home?  We haven’t had to kick nobody out the team but we definitely have had to discipline people before for doing things that they shouldn’t have done.  Because you’re so political, do a lot of fans come up to you and try to engage you in political discussions at weird times?  It really depends. If I’m in the middle of a crowd and signing a bunch of CDs, they’re going to feel really stupid trying to have a political discourse in the middle of a crowd. But if I have the time I’ll discuss politics with somebody. Sure, why not? I think that I am always going to attract believers, skeptics and especially the person that is an intelligent idiot, who “knows everything I’m taking about, and doesn’t know why other people want to listen to that in Hip Hop.” As many agent provocateurs and cowards from other people’s street teams that roam the internet looking to make a niche for their agenda or that of some piece of shit artist they are promoting, there are people with sincere questions and criticisms of ideas.   For example I had a really good discussion one time in Boston with this Cuban girl about socialism and about the influence of the Cuban revolution in Latin America. And her family came here awhile ago. But it wasn’t like a fucked up argument. We sat down and we had a rational discussion and we came to terms with a lot of things. It was a great communication. I have met people who passed on information about the struggle of Sikh’s in India…There are times when I met people from Africa who want to give me a book so I know what’s going on in Ghana or Nigeria. They just want to let me know so we don’t forget about them. I tell them I’ll take a look at the book. And then there are people who just want to have information passed to me so I can look at it, cross-reference and examine it. That’s cool. There’s been one or two times when people came at me sideways and they got it straightened out real quickly. But other than that we’re good.  Do people ever take hate to another level?  Every ‘hood in the US is being gentrified, there is a war that will not end no matter who is president, even if people talk about change, the war will not end, it will change. The world we know is being ripped apart. There are more important things to focus on. I run with a squad I got people in every city in the streets making moves. But I’m not a gangsta rapper. I am a revolutionary. Maybe that’s a throwback, maybe I bring up subject matters that people despise, I get hate and the occasional death threats, but there is something to be said about getting hated on by the right people. I live off that. I can breath in your cancer and exhale oxygen.  At this point there are people who are struggle to make it, someone who I never responded to on MySpace. Saying and posting, he’s feeling himself too much, he’s conceited, he ain’t shit. Right. But if I’m not then what the fuck does that make you, pussy? The 3rd World has a much stronger flow, obviously I’m a grown man so my voice has changed from Volume 1 but my breath control is much better and the flow has once again gotten more on point. It’s just undeniable from a tactical point of view. So just come out and say it, you hate what I stand for. But that’s cool ‘cause the people I fight side by side with outnumber you. You will be graced by the truth someday. We can only hope so.  How important is participating in panel discussions to you?  I mean, for example, there’s some things where people understand and they listen to you and there’s other times when a reporter will just take something and then blow it completely out of context. One time I was on a panel with KRS-One and some bitch-ass nigga decided that he was going to take what me and KRS-One said differently. Someone asked about Kanye and someone made a joke about people wearing tight-ass clothes and me and KRS-One were laughing and the guy made it seem as though we were making fun of all guys who wear tight clothes and taking shots subliminally at Kanye, I’m a grown man and I’m going to do a subliminal insult to someone that isn’t even there on a panel? Are you serious?  I guess the reporter was ambiguously heterosexual himself so he thought that we were insulting people’s preferences in terms of that. So that’s how people can take you out of context. Mind you, I hang out with C. Rayz Walz who wears hats with animals on it. I wear fatigues. It ain’t none of my business for me to be criticizing anybody else’s clothes! (laughs)  First of all I know that every city has different styles. Someone could be wearing a shirt down to his knees and you could laugh at him and it’s funny until you get blasted in the face. Don’t come to New York with that dumb shit. And then you go out to the Midwest and you find someone who’s jeans are too tight and you end up with a knife in your gut. I think it’s best to leave that stuff alone and I realize how easily it is to be mischaracterized in a panel discussion. If you could be mischaracterized over something like that, imagine how I feel when people take something I said about politics and play it to whatever end knowing that the controversy will support them. So I’m very careful when I do panel discussions and to discuss very clearly what I mean and to clarify what the fuck I meant.  You’re also involved in The Amin Institute in Afghanistan, which is going to be an orphanage and a school. What made you want to get involved in that?  Well, I think it’s a very revolutionary thing to do. Other people have probably done things like that, but we’re talking about Hollywood movie stars and celebrities. This is being done with underground hip-hop money and with an underground hip-hop audience. This is being done by individuals that feel my music and they want to see their money and efforts achieve some sort of fruition. We’re not trying to hustle nobody. This ain’t no motherfucking game. I’m opening an orphanage in Afghanistan and a school with a medical center, and I’m donating a chunk of my own money  To me that’s incredibly revolutionary. It’s not too often that rappers in my position dedicate themselves to that. That’s not me saying that I’m more righteous or more capable than any other rapper but hopefully this inspires others who read this who are in the business people who are more affluent and powerful than I am. This isn’t a contest about being revolutionary, and if it is, I hope you win if you’re reading this, because it means you’re doing more than I am. And that is great service to our people. A lot of rappers read the blogs and whether they like to admit it or not, they read the message boards. You can do this on your own and give back to your peoples. Please, at least try.  I know why sometimes people don’t try though…  In Latin America and Africa, these leaders that steal hundreds of millions of dollars from their own people, how come they don’t ever give it back to their own people in food? The reality is that everybody knows them and they have a rapport of being hardcore and for being tough and if there was even a shred of doubt in their resolve then there’s somebody who’s their right-hand man or somebody in their regime who can take that little slipup as a sign that the leadership is getting weak and they’ll take control. That’s why they’re so scared to be noble to their own people. We have the same problem, the problem of image. Why the fuck are we acting like that? Following the slave mentality mold. I give my time and my effort to it all. If someone disagrees with me, come see me we’ll rap. But don’t approach me like this is all some sort of hustle. We’re going to both die proving you wrong, motherfucker.  You’ve gotten a great platform, made money and inspired a lot of people through your music, but do you see yourself as a rapper?  If I was just rapping about what I was rapping about and the similes and metaphors weren’t good and the beats didn’t go together then I wouldn’t have half of the success I do. People have their own criticism and that’s cool. I’m not affected by that no more. People can say something negative and what can I do? Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion and I can’t marginalize it, in the same way it can’t marginalize me in my own mind.   I’ve been planning The 3rd World project for awhile. I as thinking about what the hell I was going to do. I have the Afghanistan thing and these other projects. I was telling people the green light was going to be given for the invasion and they didn’t listen. It’s not just about the album, stupid. This is about everything we’re trying to do. This is about my life. It’s more than rapping on beats. I really enjoy being on the road and that’s because I get to perform for people and that’s also because I get to network with community organizations and street organizations. They all have different ideas and we bounce some of them off each other. It’s a beautiful process.  Awhile ago you were working with GAME to establish health insurance plans for rappers. Are you still working with GAME on that?   We’re still doing that. We’re still working on that. It’s GAME – The Grassroots Artists Movement. You can go to KickGame.com. We’re continuously smashing the industry, telling them, “Look, we want a basic foundational health care for all of our artists.” We can’t handle people who get pancreatic cancer and shit like that, but basic stuff is what we can do. And we’re just brothers from the street. The industry should have no trouble doing that. You have artists who are the flagship artists of the label. I know some people are saying, “Oh, here he goes taking this again.” Nigga, these are my people I’m talking about and if that bothers you then obviously you’re not down with Black or Latino people and you’re not down with the ‘hood or Hip Hop. If you’re bothered by what I’m saying right now and you listen to hip-hop, you have no place in our culture. Go kill yourself, you fake fuck.  Now I’ll continue.  The problem with our people is that we continuously are the workhorse for this artform and we get jukes'd out of everything that we have coming to us. And sometimes I say that we have a role in doing that to ourselves because we’re taught the methodology of the record industry and we need to change that. It’s not just white people prostituting Black and Latino people to the record deals now. Now they’ve trained us to do it to ourselves. And yet they’re sitting on the top of everything still making money off of us because the nigga’s that’s pimping us, they’re just mid-level niggas. They’re not distributors. There’s no Black or Latino distributors! (laughs)  I think that people need to understand that if the flagship artist is not getting healthcare and the people who file papers are, and I’m not knocking them because I know that’s a lot of work and a lot of running that they do. See, this is me clarifying myself. I’m not knocking them. But if YOU have health care and the person making the sales for you to have lights on in your office and for there to be paper and pens there for you to do your jobs and for your to have your salary every day, then doesn’t that person deserve to have health care. Don’t they deserve to have just as much health care coverage as you?  Have you guys been making any progress?  I mean, we’re jabbing them in the motherfucking face right now. But I think that’s a reality. I think that’s something they’re going to have to face real soon. I mean, the world is unionizing itself right now. But some people aren’t going to want to change, some slaves don’t want to leave the plantation and they just need to be left there. Honestly, I’m tired of this shit. The artists talking hard are the ones getting raped by their label. You’re talking about running up in someone’s projects. Why don’t you run up on your label? They owe you money, motherfucker.  When I see rappers beefing it makes me sad because it reminds me of a story one of my elders told me about back in the days how they didn’t allow slaves into the stores. They used to have the master leave the slave on the corner outside of the store. And the master would go inside the store and the slaves would be outside of the store. So outside of the store the slaves would get into arguments with each other about whose clothes were nicer and whose plantation was nicer and they would argue about the different food the master gave them or the different women they were rented out to breed with. That’s what would happen. They used to rent Black people out for the purpose of breeding other people to get a stronger slave so that you would get more work out of a genetically superior slave. They would argue about who had newer chains because the rust and metal chips gave the slaves all sorts of diseases. So the slaves would get in fights during these arguments and the masters would make bets about who they thought would win.  So obviously nothing has changed because you have a bunch of niggas standing outside of the corner store arguing about whose projects are nicer, whose chain is nicer and whose label treats them better. Nigga, you’re getting chump change and you need to realize your position in the game. I’m not talking about anyone in particular. That’s not to nobody personally. This is just in general. These are things I learned from the elders. These are things passed down to me by Master Teacher John Henrick Clarke, and Legends like Chuck D, KRS-One, Lord Jamar, Chino XL, and individuals in D.I.T.C. and Ultramagnetic or, talking about brothers from back in the day like Afrika Bambaataa and people from the Zulu Nation. When people ask me who influenced me, that’s who. Not lyrically, but in terms of my outlook on this business. I see the way we’ve been prostituted as a people and how the culture has been raped.  What do you think of the 360 deals that a lot of artists are signing today?    I’m not going to sign one so that’s all it is. That’s what I think about it.  You worked with Sick Jacken and his crew Psycho Realm on “Hollywood Driveby” and also featured Crooked I and Ras Kass on The 3rd World. Being that you have a huge following out West, how important was it for you to work with respected West Coast artists on The 3rd World?  My supporters on the West Coast have always been there, but I think that it’s very important for people who are like-minded and for people who are in the same vein of what they do to show solidarity with one another. I really respect Psycho Realm, Sick Jacken and Cynic and their whole squad. I see how they operate. They have their merch game down pat. They have everything setup when they get there and they have mutual support. They don’t have regular fans. Their fans are supporters like mine. They believe in what they do and in what they discuss. So anybody that I see like that, I’m very, very fortunate to be a part of their movement as well. The same thing goes for Chino XL and Crooked I and anybody I see out there who’s not only lyrical but is also able to pull off any concept that they do.  One of the biggest knocks on you throughout your career has been your production. Do you agree with that criticism?   I feel like they’re the same fans that want to send me to their MySpace page so they can send me a few beats. To be honest, I’ve actually gotten a few beats like that. People tell me they don’t think my production is tight so they’ll give me beats. Yo, nigga, if you’re going to have a criticism, have a solution to that. I think the beats on The 3rd World are real solid. I haven’t really heard any complaints on that. That’s one of the things the people really liked .They liked that the flows were stepped up and that the beats were a lot more diverse and that they knock a little bit harder. We had a different mastering place for this album so that’s cool. I hope that whatever they have a slight issue with musically doesn’t destroy the message for them or anyone else.  How would you say your style and flow have evolved compared to your first album Revolutionary Volume 1?  People are always going to complain about something, on Volume 1 it was about the beats and the battle rapping, which they thought was too much. They said that I was trying to revive something that was dead. They said revolutionary hip-hop was useless that no one wanted to hear it. 135,000 independent albums later, those people are either punching a clock somewhere and not on a message board because they have jobs and bills to pay or they have decided to find something else that’s wrong.  On Volume 2 people said the production was better but that my breath control was off and the flow had improved but people will always talk shit even though the album was a complete success. I also have never released accapellas so whenever I put out music people take it remix it and then throw it together offbeat. Nothing I have on The 3rd World is offbeat, anyone with a fucking ear can listen to it, but some of the things people are remixing and have been doing for a while sound so off that new kids base ideas off that and then just succumb to message board pressure and just believe what a few hateful people say.  I sold out BB Kings, Nokia, 3,000 person venues in LA, the Filmore on a Sunday. I don’t give a fuck what people are going to come up with to criticize and talk down the hard work me and DJ Green Lantern put into The 3rd World.   Was improving your flow a conscious effort or did it happen naturally as you worked on more songs?  On two or three of the songs, my voice is a little bit more raspy because I had just come off tour. I was real fucked up. I was on tour sporadically for six months then eight months. I was trying to do shows here and there but after I would do a show I would go back to just being a mess. So on a few you can hear the effect. I would spit it at home and work on the dynamic of how I put rhymes together. For example, I would think about where I would insert adlibs or hype tracks or how I would actually spit the rhymes instead of being straightforward and just attacking the lyrics. I would try to put some feeling into it and some charisma. I was very focused on that as well.  You also have a hidden track on The 3rd World. How can people find it?  It’s difficult. I would have to say people have to go back to before everything started and that’s the way to find it.  Were you happy with the way Green Lantern mixed The 3rd World?  I think it was cool. We’ve done lots of different versions for people. If you don’t like the way that it’s mixed up together, because it’s an album that’s cut up like a mixtape, but for people who don’t want to hear the cuts, there’s an iTunes version that’s available that has all of the songs on it individually as songs and then, as a bonus, the entire Green Lantern mix of The 3rd World for free, two for one. So we got something for everybody, whether they like it the way it is or whether they like it differently. Me, personally, I think it’s excellent the way it is and individually.  I spoke about this with Green Lantern when I interviewed him a week ago. When I asked him about the variety of artists he works with, he said he was able to work well with artists like you, Uncle Murder and Jay-Z because he works well with artists who are extreme in what they do. How do you feel about that statement?  I mean, talk about extremes, Green Lantern himself is extreme. He’s extremely dedicated to making music, DJing and touring the fucking world all of the time. It’s not that the views that I’ve had have ever been too much for him. Anything that you play off the album/mixtape that he blended together, it’s not going to be nothing like, ‘Technique, you took it too far.’ (laughs) We’ve always seen eye-to-eye with things and he’s always been straight up with me. He’s never been on no bullshit. He’s always been straight up and done things off GP. And that’s how I’ve been with him.  We have that underground hip-hop solidarity, where it’s like, ‘I’ll do something for you if you do something for me.’ He’ll tell me he needs me to do a verse for this joint and he’ll give me a beat. No problem, man. We’ll make it happen. He’s cool. He was doing a free mixtape that he was giving away with Nas and people were asking me if I thought that was going to interfere and I was like, ‘No, that’s a mixtape that he was just doing as a prelude for this dude. It has nothing to do with my music and my album is going to be in every store.’ The difference is people will come to me and they want to ask questions about my political views. I’m more than happy to do that. To engage the crowd and the audience when I have time.   That’s what my whole persona is built off of, communication and of revolution in general. I’m not a rapper. I’m a revolutionary. I have to be accountable to the people. I have to be able to express my opinion. Green Lantern works on a lot of stuff. This is a project that’s going to require lots of extra stuff. But I don’t think what he does interferes with what I’m doing at all. He’s more than welcome to work on other projects. Just because I do a feature for Ill Bill it doesn’t take away from my album. It adds to it. Him doing a joint with Nas helps me. At the end of the day, the people are listening to both. They might have a favorite between the two but what matter more to me is that the people are getting the message.  I’m cool with everybody unless they cross me, and Green Lantern has been nothing but a brother to me. He’s been nothing but good peoples. He’s been nothing but respectful and hard-working. He’s definitely looked out for me. You’re not going to see this relationship sour anytime soon.  And I won the chess game in the picture. I won the chess game. I won. You heard that, Green? I won.  Green Lantern is no GZA of chess?  I didn’t say that. (laughs) I didn’t say that. I just said I won. That’s all. It’s funny because the picture had eight or nine niggas standing behind Green and 15 niggas standing behind me. There were a whole bunch of people standing behind me. But the way that it looked when we zoomed out on it didn’t work. It would have made our faces unrecognizable and you wouldn’t have been able to tell who it was.  Are you sure that’s the reason or was it because you were losing to Green?  You can ask him right now. I’ll call him on three-way and be like, ‘Who won that game?’ He’ll be like, ‘I didn’t.’  You could be making that up.  I could be making a lot of things up. You could be making a lot of things up too. You could be lying like you write all your columns and you could be pawning off an outsource in India or Bangladesh to some comedian out in the middle of nowhere. So what the fuck?  When you say “comedian” that must mean you think I’m funny.  You’re humorous at times.  Four years ago you were in talks to record an album exclusively with Stoupe of Jedi Mind Tricks. Looking back on that and the buzz you have for your music because you haven’t released a project in so long, are you happy that never happened?  Musically I wish that it happened. Business-wise, because of relationships, I’m glad that I’m in the position I’m in now and that I’m not locked into a contract with anybody else. I’m glad that there’s just me and a distributor. It makes things less complicated. Things are a lot more fair and a lot more upfront. The position I’m in is fine. I dare a nigga to hate on my success in secret and to the bullshit street teams online, do whatever you do. Just keep you complaints under your skirt. (laughs)  Me and Jedi Mind Tricks, we’re cool. In terms of the business and how it was going to be set up, I didn’t like it from the start. That’s probably why a lot of things fall apart in this business anyway because of how things are set up. People say that they wish two people would do an album or this boxer would box this boxer. That doesn’t happen because of the way things are set up.  You signed to Babygrande for The 3rd World. And then you left and put it out on Viper Records yourself straight through Koch. A lot of artists have complained about them but you never have. What do you think about artists complaining about their labels?  If I ever had complaints with people behind the scenes, I took it to them and usually they understood how serious I was about it. And if I do have a problem that lingers, well then what business is it of anybody else’s? I’m going to handle that when and how I feel the necessity to handle that. Not on anybody else’s time or with the public’s pressure. None of that. It’s on me. It’s my decision to make. When you come out like that and you don’t have the time to deal with it and win in court in two or three years, it just makes you look confused and angry instead of looking on point about how you define your music. I’m just very pleased to be signed with a distributor directly. It’s 1,000 times better for me.  This is my perspective so I can’t speak on nobody else’s. When something doesn’t work out, I tell myself that I’m going to leave that situation and that the new situation will be better than the old one. I don’t dwell in the past and I keep it moving. And I hope that people who are out there who may have not enjoyed the best relationship with me would show the same level of maturity and respect in dealing with things because when they don’t that’s when people start feeling the repercussions of shit. But nobody ever plays them self out of pocket with me. Niggas know how to fucking behave. We’re not friends but we’re cool. I don’t have their names written on a piece of paper. C’mon now.  How is The Middle Passage coming?  I’m still working on it. I’m still writing rhymes for it. Every day is a hustle. I’m working on the logistical aspects and the tour and the other things I want to release before we get out on the road. That’s pretty much my focus. But I always take time to listen to tracks so that Revolutionary Volume 3 can come out.  Right now, I still have a world tour to take care of but believe me there is nothing I would like to do more than to finish up The Middle Passage and Revolutionary Volume 3. I was in the middle of working on these records and because of the way that I always writing and constructing new songs I realized just in writing that I had about an albums worth of music ready to go and it needed to really get out there. So now the people get not only a new mixtape/album with me and DJ Green Lantern, they get a US tour and mad new shows overseas.  You’ve had deep stories with “Dance with the Devil” and “You Never Know”. Will we see more of those types of tracks on future projects?  Those types of shits? That’s what y’all want? I’ll give you another one of those on Revolutionary Volume 3.  Do you have a long-term career strategy?  I have some projects like the Police State Chronicles and The 3rd World writing contest that I speak about freely and others that perhaps only my inner circle and I really deal with. This and the work in Afghanistan is all public information but there are many things I plan and that I strategize on that not my DJ, producers or my consultants know about. The only issues arise would be if I tried to impose a deadline that was unrealistic for something I just informed people about. I have Revolutionary plans that go so far beyond music and what you see now is just a test run for the many others things that I have coming.  Tons of people complain about poor sales today but you seem to have the best approach: build a strong fan base and go on tour cause that's also an ideal place to sell merchandise  It’s a blessing to have so many have a strong support base from people not only in this country but also around the globe. I think it is the sign of the times. This generation has been criticized for being apathetic and yet I’ve seen more young people motivated to make the changes they want to see in the world in themselves first and then start a movement of their own. These countless personal crusades and guerilla tactics implemented by the youth of today is the spirit of judgment for an empire that feels bereft of any responsibility to it’s citizens and the people around the world it has affected with it’s policy both military and economic. I make it a point to work with the people I meet out thee provided they are serious responsible and sane.  When it comes time for the shows I don’t make it a habit to hide in VIP or adopt some Louis the XVI attitude towards the people who would shed blood for their freedom. I always make it a point to talk to people, to share ideas when I have the time and entertain new ideas. As long as people approach me respectfully I welcome the conversations. And I have had lots of them, with Republicans, with anti-Castro Cubans, who believe Fidel betrayed Che Guevara in Bolivia and sold him out to the Russians and America.  I have had discussions with ardent Ron Paul supporters about Libertarianism, with Israelis, Palestinians, Turks about Armenia, those that believe Barack Obama is the future, and even the ones that think he is a Zionist imperialist puppet. There are people who don’t vote and people who do, people who believe strongly in God and those that think it is all an illusion created out of ignorance and fear. I am willing to talk to people who might come from a different perspective than me, so it’s more than just touring. I am speaking to dozens of communities. I am conversing and working with soldiers from different wars, learning from people. I am listening to concerns and I am implementing strategy.   What do you think of hip-hop artists’ overwhelming support of Barack Obama?  Who are they going to vote for? McCain? I couldn’t see a rapper coming out and supporting John McCain and not getting booed offstage. I mean a real rapper.  What do you think of Barack Obama?  I’m going to vote because I always vote but I’m not going to run around with Barack Obama posters because he would probably do the same thing for me that he did to Jeremiah Wright if they ever brought it up. He’d be like, ‘No, that’s a leftist guy and this is what’s wrong with hip-hop’ and here he is canoodling with Puff and Jay. Whatever, yo. He’s a politician at the end of the day. He’s not Jesus. He’s not Black Jesus. He’s not the savior of the world. He’s Black Cesar. Just know what he is. I have no illusions about what he’s going to do. I think he’ll have a great impact in terms of social programs. I think he’s a much more intelligent person than George Bush but we throw this word “change” around all the time. Barack Obama is not going to end the war. I don’t think that he has the power to. He’s just going to ‘change’ the war.  How influential can hip-hop be in this election?  I think it completely turns the tide against anybody who’s labeled a “hip-hop candidate.” (laughs) It will motivate every white person in conservative America to vote against the hip-hop candidate and everything that hip-hop stands for. I think that it could motivate some people to do it, but I don’t know in terms of fighting for people and getting people to the polls, I mean, can hip-hop destroy apathy? I don’t know, yo. It definitely hasn’t so far. In fact, all it’s done in terms of its commercial success has created more apathy.  So in a way hip-hop artists’ support of Obama could essentially hurt him at the polls.  It could. It could be successful for him in certain inner-city areas where people have never voted if a lot of Black and Latino people are behind it. To keep it real, Black people vote Democratic 90% of the time, regardless of whether or not it’s a Black candidate. So what? Now they’re going to vote 94% democratic? The Latino community is what Obama needs to focus on as well as moderate to slightly conservative white people. That’s where he needs to focus on. That’s what needs to be the ultimate target for what he has because he already has the liberal left. He has the Kennedy clan behind him. But since hip-hop is supported by a majority of 70% white people…What is it about 70% of white people buy hip-hop albums? They need to talk to their parents. The moderate to slightly conservative white people. If they could get their parents to change their minds, that would be a big thing. If someone made a song telling kids to talk to their parents about Obama, that would be a big thing. If that shit’s a hit, he’ll get some extra points.  When are you going to be an analyst for a cable news show?  (laughs) They’d have to pay me a fuck of a lot to share my opinion and they wouldn’t be able to censor me.  You’d probably drop one too many f-bombs.  That’s another thing. I would definitely have to clean up my act. (laughs)  The thing about you that a lot of people probably don’t know is that you’re a pretty funny guy.  Humor, that’s what they say, that’s Immortal Technique’s secret weapon is humor. The humorous stuff on the album always seems to resonate when it has a lot of politically charged stuff in it. For example, “Reverse Pimpology” is a fun song to make people crack up but it has serious issues. So is “Mistakes”. People love those songs and they’re filled with political undertones and messages that resonate with people.  And “Obnoxious”.  Exactly.  Speaking of “Obnoxious”, when you performed that for the first time at Rocksteady you got your mic turned off. Have you had your mic turned off since then?  Let’s see. With the garrison of loyal troops that I travel with now, who’s going to shut off my mic? Who wants to spend the night in ICU? I think maybe one time in, like, somewhere in Cali, one person did that only because it was 3 o’clock in the morning and everyone on the club staff wanted to go home and it was taking too long and I got onstage late and I finished up the last song that I was doing, which, by the way was “Obnoxious,” funny you should say that, and I just finished up that song with no mic, accapella, and the crowd was screaming the lyrics back. A sea full of loud women, cheering Ese’s and regular neighborhood kids were screaming the lyrics back. That was beautiful to me. I didn’t give a fuck if they wanted to shut the mic off on me. That rarely happens. Even at Rocksteady that worked in my favor because people were like, ‘What song was that?’ ‘Obnoxious.’ ‘Where can I buy that?’ ‘Right here.’ That’s where it started to change.  I still have a long way to go too.  http://ViperRecords.com http://myspace.com/immortaltechnique http://reverbnation.com/immortaltechnique

By Brian Kayser

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