Crooked I actually steals the show here, especially with memorable rants about right wing pundits (“gun pop off like the mouth of Ann Coulter”), religious doctrine (“They wanna get rid of this conscious crook / Like I’m a Gnostic, apocryphal, non-canonical, Gospel book”), and historical duplicity (“I’m black as them ancient Egyptians / before European historians went and changed the description”). Some more improbable topics get raised and killed on “Lick Shots,” which features Chino XL and Crooked I, who both drop stellar verses. You wouldn’t think anyone could make re-zoning sound like such a compelling topic, but he does so easily, focusing on the injustice in red-lining practices and gentrification on “Harlem Renaissance.” This is about as mellow as things get on “The 3rd World,” as the track’s swaying strings and hand claps belie the song’s serious content. To his credit, Immortal Technique manages to keep the topics new and interesting even while maintaining his focus on the political.
If possible, Immortal Technique’s delivery is even more biting in Spanish and his lyrics are just as fierce, while the guest MCs capably keep the revolutionary vibe going. This song is rapped entirely in Spanish by Immortal Technique, Temperamento, and Veneno, and it is one of the most striking tracks on the album. The grand scale of “Golpe de Estado” is aided by the sample from Nas and Jay-Z’s “Black Republican” but with some noticeable key changes throughout. He kicks things off with “Death March Intro” featuring Green Lantern, taunting his detractors, “I’m like the legs of a paraplegic really / Cuz I’m still a part of you even if you can’t feel me.” The menacing orchestral strings and military snares set the tone for the rest of the album musically, which follows Immortal Tech’s lyrical attitude in its dark yet high-powered aural qualities. With this kind of venom to spit, he has no trouble filling all 18 tracks with powerful material that is earnestly and skillfully delivered. “And they might even have a black president but he’s uselessĬuz he does not control the economy, stupid!” Of all races and colors to erase the hateĪnd try and love one another, so many political snakes” “But on a positive side, I think Obama provides While Nas has dedicated a song to the hopeful next president, in which he ponders Obama’s power to reignite interest in politics among black youth and heal racial wounds, Immortal Technique takes a more cynical view of Obama’s ability to bring about serious change, subordinating a potential black president’s power to that of economic structures: While both MCs provide valuable conscious insight, their differences can be summed up in their stances toward Barack Obama. This connection, as well as both rappers’ political themes, begs a comparison between the two. It is also a collaboration with DJ Green Lantern, whose recent work with Nas on “The Nigger Tape” has been making waves as well. It can be annoying at times, but it’s pretty minimal by mixtape standards and doesn’t detract much.
For one thing, his breath control is much improved, as is his apparent comfort level with his role as hip hop’s ambassador for the downtrodden.ĭespite the fact that this is all new material, it is a mixtape, which means that it is indeed “mixed,” with certain lines rewound and played back again. As a rapper, he has stepped his game up, which is saying something since he was good to begin with. Whereas on his first album he occasionally seemed intent on proving his MC bona fides with lyrical tongue twisters, and on his second he leaned more heavily on conscious themes, on his latest release he has merged both aspects of his persona beautifully. On “The 3rd World,” he seems to have finally found a comfort zone in the balance between lyricism and message, meaning that neither aspect seems forced or highlighted at the expense of the other. He also happens to be quite a skilled rapper, a fact often overlooked in discussions about his provocative political statements. A revolutionary who proudly wears this tag as a badge of honor, Immortal Technique is a Peruvian Harlemite whose raps are a means to an end, designed to enlighten and enrage you out of complacency and into action. Immortal Technique could be a polarizing figure in hip hop, if he ever got enough widespread recognition to inspire the fervent emotions his music inevitably provokes.