(Viper Records)
The most exciting thing about Immortal Technique is his growled, gargly delivery of pissed off so-far-left-they’re-almost-far-right barrages with a battle-rapper’s bravado and a cyborg’s relentless insistence (best exemplified here on the title track and ‘Parole’). You probably (hopefully) don’t always agree, but it’s rather thrilling that someone’s saying it and making it sound so great. Technique's third effort (produced by DJ Green Lantern) features some so-so songs with lackluster beats and unfocused rhymes (lines about racism, terrorism and capitalism assembled randomly), and well-constructed, coherent arguments connecting local problems and global crises over hard (occasionally excellent) beats.
So on the pretty brilliant ‘Harlem Renaissance,’ Technique connects his neighborhood’s artistic golden age to its present-day gentrification, and to broader problems in municipal politics and globalization. Later, on the booming ‘Reverse Pimpology,’ he dissects music industry branding and pigeonholing: “I’m not a crack rapper/I’m not a backpacker/I’m not a wack rapper moonlighting as a bad actor.” What’s missing here though (what made Revolutionary Vol. 2 amazing) are the few tracks that humanize the outraged and angry cyborg Technique.
The most exciting thing about Immortal Technique is his growled, gargly delivery of pissed off so-far-left-they’re-almost-far-right barrages with a battle-rapper’s bravado and a cyborg’s relentless insistence (best exemplified here on the title track and ‘Parole’). You probably (hopefully) don’t always agree, but it’s rather thrilling that someone’s saying it and making it sound so great. Technique's third effort (produced by DJ Green Lantern) features some so-so songs with lackluster beats and unfocused rhymes (lines about racism, terrorism and capitalism assembled randomly), and well-constructed, coherent arguments connecting local problems and global crises over hard (occasionally excellent) beats.
So on the pretty brilliant ‘Harlem Renaissance,’ Technique connects his neighborhood’s artistic golden age to its present-day gentrification, and to broader problems in municipal politics and globalization. Later, on the booming ‘Reverse Pimpology,’ he dissects music industry branding and pigeonholing: “I’m not a crack rapper/I’m not a backpacker/I’m not a wack rapper moonlighting as a bad actor.” What’s missing here though (what made Revolutionary Vol. 2 amazing) are the few tracks that humanize the outraged and angry cyborg Technique.
A similar version appeared in The L Magazine and can be read here.
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