That's not to say that getting an interview with Tech was simple. In fact, when first asked if he would mind being interviewed for The Amherst Student, Tech turned down the offer, stating that he was not conducting any interviews before the release of his upcoming album. Fortunately, at the last minute, Tech, having had a change of heart, agreed to do a brief interview with me before the concert in exchange for the promoting of his upcoming album throughout the campus.
Both the concert and the interview were made possible by Daniel Calvert '08, who had been planning the concert since last April. While thinking up potential La Causa events for the upcoming school year, Calvert, a longtime fan of Tech (they even went to the same high school) said that Tech's name just popped into his head.
"I realized he was a perfect fit for our organization as a Latino artist who is adamantly outspoken about social justice issues." Calvert said, "I was passionate about bringing high-quality hip-hop artists to campus to fill the obvious need."
Half an hour before the show, Immortal Technique arrived at the Alumni Gym almost unnoticed by the student workers. Yet, soon enough, the news that Tech was in the building spread like wildfire and before I had time to compose myself (I had heard that Tech was pissed off with his non-smoking room), I felt a tap on my back, but I knew who it was before I even turned around. Fifteen minutes later, Tech and I met in the empty dressing room to talk about the current state of hip-hop, America and social activism on campus.
P: First of all, where do you stand with regard to the ongoing debate about whether or not hip-hop is dead?
I: I think that the general idea that people have about hip-hop is that it's not properly represented, and I think that was more the argument that Nas and other people were making: that it's not a question of the art form being deceased, but rather the fact that commercial radio and the industry itself is only permitting of certain aspects of our culture as a people. For example Italian people aren't just pizza; Jewish people aren't just matzo ball soup, you know what I mean? So why do black and Latino people just have to be singing and dancing? Why do our women just have to be whores? So, it's indicative of a lot in terms of our culture because hip-hop is what we created here in America. I don't know if I would call it American culture, but it's definitely our people's culture. We came out of America and we brought [hip-hop] as a response to America, not to glorify America. This is our vengeance on America-our verbal vengeance.
How important is it for a hip-hop activist to perform at liberal art institutions where the students aren't necessarily exposed to the radical ideas that you promote through your music?
Well, you know, I'm not really a hip-hop activist. I do a lot of work in the community, but I look at that role that some people play, and I'm not talking them down, but it's more like there's hip-hop artist and then there's hip-hop activist, you know, people who don't rhyme but they're associated with hip-hop and they have a connection to the culture. And then you have people like me who live what we talk about and we go around the world and we not only bring a message but we raise money for causes and we lend our physical support to things … whatever it may be to help them and to in return understand that the development that needs to happen will legitimize us as a people. Because if we don't do that, then we're always going to end up being the wards of this country.
Other immigrant groups-whether they were forced here or whether they came here on their own accord to escape famine or whatever economic condition existed in their country-they came here and they had lots of criminal elements, criminal elements that run amuck. We talk about Irish people, Jewish people, Italian people, Russian people but yet they found a way to legitimize themselves. I mean, what were white people when they first got to America? They [formed] gangs ... if European Americans can legitimize themselves over a period of time, then we should be allowed to have the same courtesy available to our people. Otherwise, don't call it America.
Do you have advice for students trying to rally other students for support for their cause, or for what they're trying to do?
Not everybody in college's going to get politically involved. You can lead people to the water; you can't make them drink … it won't matter until it affects them personally. Like, you take a stereotypical fraternity dude that wilds out and thinks, oh yeah, it's all about strippers, bitches, and beer … it's all good 'til somebody date rapes his sister. Then it affects him. Then he cares … It'll be the same way in every community and that's the shame because this country is built like that. We're built to be reactive rather than proactive, rather than say how can I affect that. It doesn't mean we have to be neurotic about change. No, just the things that make sense.
What do you want the audience to walk away with after tonight's performance?
If all I ever do is make music, then I'd consider that a personal failure because I always wanted it to be much more. Something my father told me, every time I come on and do a show, period, he said to me, there are so few people in this world who really do what they love to do, who really have a career that they enjoy … [those people who don't. Not to say that their lives aren't happy, because their children, and their husband, and their family completes them as an individual. But everybody has dreams and aspirations, and not everybody gets to live them. And the beauty of being at this school, or at any school, is that you actually get to choose what you do in life ... I don't think a lot of people come here understanding that.
Life is about balancing your passion and your responsibility. So, I think that people need to realize that if you're at college you have a definite opportunity to choose what you wanna do with the rest of your life. Take a good look at the world; 99 percent of the rest of the world doesn't have that opportunity. So take advantage of it now.
We gon' talk about a lot of different subject matter tonight. I'm not a positive rapper. My songs are about rape, murder, torture, misery in the hood, a third-world reality. I understand poverty more than any motherfucker in here. You know? I wasn't born in Harlem, but it ain't nothing as bad as South America, Africa, South East Asia or the Middle East right now.
So, I hope they take a different perspective on it and those that understand their potential to affect so much change outside of their immediate circumference and that when they finally expand the diameter of their knowledge, they'll be able to affect change in that new circumference.