One of rap's great polemicists, Immortal Technique has spent his career criticizing abuse of power in its many forms, Bush Administration, the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, the drug trade, class struggle, the media, racism, etc., etc.
Of Afro-Peruvian descent, he was raised in Harlem and briefly attended Penn State before he racked up a series of assault charges and went to jail for a year. From his official bio: "He was facing a 5-10 stretch, but the hiring of a pitbull attorney helped him compile the cases without turning snitch like his co-defendants."
Like Big L, Tech's less than spectacular beats somehow accentuated his righteous fury. Click through the gallery to revisit a handful of his best tracks.
"Point of No Return"
One of Tech's most popular tracks, "Point of No Return" is a reminder to himself that he has crossed the Rubicon on his virtuous quest. Given his forceful conviction and invocation of revolutionary figures like Nat Turner, Malcolm X, the Knights Templar, it's tough not to get swept up in the fervor.
"Nat Turner with the sickle pitch fork and machete
The end of the world, motherfucker, you not ready"
"Industrial Revolution"
"Industrial Revolution" is an indictment of the music industry's exploitation of its artists. Immortal Technique is one of the most significant independent artists in rap history. One doubts Technique, a man of great pride and principle, would have signed to a major label for any price.
"A&R's tried jerking me, thinking they call shots
Offered me a deal and a blanket full of smallpox
You're all getting shot, you little fucking treacherous bitches"
"Harlem Streets"
Tech grew up in Harlem and attended Hunter College High School, where he was a friend of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Occasionally, Tech's anger got the best of him, and on one occasion he threw Miranda in a garbage can. Tech wrote an eloquent statement on the media's coverage of the garbage can story and on his childhood. "I guess, at 17, it was hard for me to see that the person I was really fighting was myself," he wrote.
"The subway stays packed like a multi-cultural slave ship
It's rush hour, 2:30 to 8, non stopping
And people coming home after corporate sharecropping"
"Positive Balance"
On "Positive Balance," Immortal Technique prescribes a positive mindset as a means to counteract systemic evils. He manages to slip in one of his textbook masturbation bars.
"I jerk off inside books and give life to words"
"Obnoxious"
"Obnoxious" is basically Tech's attempt to establish himself as a pugnacious character without resorting to political rhetoric, but even then he can't help himself; he disses corporate America, George Bush, George Bush's daughters, and R. Kelly.
"I'm the best of both worlds
Without the hidden camera and the 12-year-old girl"
"Peruvian Cocaine"
One could make the case that "Peruvian Cocaine" is Immortal Technique's best song. It features Pumpkinhead (RIP), Poison Pen, Diabolic, C Rayz Walz, Loucipher, and Tonedeff; each emcee raps from the perspective of a different worker in the drug-trafficking business.
"So I pray to Jesú Cristo when I go to the mission
Process the cocaine paste, and play my position"
"You Never Know"
"You Never Know" is a lengthy (four verses!) and extremely depressing tale of the great love of Immortal Technique's life. Jean Grae handles the chorus.
"I rarely ever perform ['You Never Know']," he told Montreality." I've done it maybe three times. It takes a lot to do that."
"The story ends without a sequel
And now you know why Technique don't fucking fall in love with people"
"Caught in the Hustle"
"Caught in the Hustle" is one of the more complex Tech songs, an admission that the proletariat is probably doomed. But there is a shred of hope: "But I never lose hope, success is psychological."
"But the emptiness is what bleeds you to death when it cuts you
And it's the lawyers, not the inmates, scheming to fuck you
Tryna fight the system from inside eventually corrupts you"
"Dance With The Devil"
There is no rap song more riveting and disturbing than "Dance with the Devil"—a cautionary stale about street violence that ends in unspeakable tragedy.
"And they wanted to test him before business started
Suggested raping a bitch to prove he was cold-hearted
So now he had a choice between going back to his life
Or making money with made men up in the cyph
His dreams about cars and ice made him agree
A hardcore nigga is all he ever wanted to be
And so he met them Friday night at a quarter to three"