I'm wondering if you're wondering. When I said, you know what, I want to interview in Mortal Technique, people kind of looked at me like, wait, what why?
Violent lunatic.
From Fudur Media and BrX. It's Latino USA. I'm Mariano Josa today a portrait of rapper Immortal Technique. So why don't you introduce yourself?
My name is Felipe Cornell. A lot of people know me as a Mortal Technique, Immortal Technique, stuck in your thoughts, talking in dreams. No one's as good as me, just got better marketing schemes.
Born in Peru, as Phelippe Coronel in Mortal Technique is a legendary underground hip hop artist known for his skills on the mic as well as for his raw, super political lyrics.
You listen this ponts of my corporations. That's why Halliburton gets paid the rebuilt nations. Tell me the truths. I don't scare into paralysis. I know this. CIA saw been Latin on dialysis in ninety eight when he was top ten for the FBI. Government ties is really what it? Government lies redigious.
His family immigrated to Harlem New York from Peru when he was just a toddler to escape the armed conflict there. He grew up in Harlem during the eighties and nineties, at a time when New York City was notoriously rough checked.
The Czech costant struggled to make the payments work in your whole life, wondering when a day when the subway stays packed like a multicultural slave ship is Russhawa thirty to eight nonstopping the people come and home app the corporate.
Share cropperty Pettybas says that because of the way that he grew up, he harbored a lot of rage, and eventually that rage led him to prison. He was incarcerated for a year during his college years for assault related offenses. While he was in prison, he honed his rapping skills, and when he was paroled in nineteen ninety nine, he took up freestyle rap battling. He became a champion in
the underground New York City battling scene. Just two years later, he released his first album, Revolutionary Volume One, which launched him to fame, eventually collaborating with famous artists such as Dead Prez, Most Deaf and Chuck d of Public Enemy, but his brutal song Dance with the Devil is what he mostly became known for.
He started hanging out selling bags in the projects, checking the young chicks looking for more.
Recently, Mortal Technique has turned to philanthropy activism, but he also continues writing music with his trademark focus on Harlem, our favorite neighborhood. I sat down with Immortal Technique in twenty nineteen to hear about his life and how he used his rage to get to where he is now. As fans hold their breath for the release of his first album in over ten years, we thought the time was right to bring that conversation back to you today. Just a heads up. In this interview there will be
some discussions about rape and sexual violence. So, Felippe, you were born in Peru. Where in Peru?
I was born in ros Pittelmilita de Lima.
And what area of Lima.
I lived in a place called sam martin Bors. I have a house there now. It's very much like Harlem in the sense that it was, you know, a dilapidated neighborhood for years, even though it has its originations in a very very upscale area. Right fifty eighty years ago,
and then it turned into a slum. And it's funny because you know, my father, who grew up in Peru, who thought he would live his whole life there, experienced you know, five thousand percent inflation in a year, a virtual civil war between you know, MAOIs gorillas and a CIA backed paramilitaries, and in order to find peace and quiet, he moved to Harlem in the nineteen eighties. And that's the life I began to live. I'm on the border of Bolivia, work for pennies, treated like a slave. The
poker fields have to be very discovered. Of my people is starving, broken and sweaty, and treatment about the revolution, looking that ma machete. As a youth, I would go back there whenever. My parents. We wouldn't buy like fancy things, you know what I mean. We didn't have the newest toys or something like that. If we got them, we got them off secondhand. And my clothes all came from
a church. Everything that we had was saving up to go home to see my family and to make sure that we maintained that cultural connection, because I think it was it was very important for my parents to make me understand what it meant to be here and to have those opportunities. It definitely was an eye opener in the sense that it exposed poverty to me in a way I had never seen it. In America, you live with the illusion of a safety net, right, the illusion
of the safety net. You're gonna have Medicare, you got social Security, all these things are gonna take care of you. And I think out in Bedu, it was more like you're swimming in the ocean alone and you realize that you're swimming in the ocean alone.
At what point did you, as Philippe, as a young person, did you begin to kind of process, well, there's this reality, but then there's the illusion, because so much of your work as an artist, as a musician is about kind of pulling back the cover.
In terms of the world itself. I think my father was one of the first best teachers I had, Like he was recruited out of the Peruvian military to be at Columbia University. But it wasn't until I started actually studying human beings that I came to certain realizations about the society that we live in. It wasn't an epiphany that I came to these realizations. I think it was more of a slow burn of realizing that they were
just one other layer, one other thing. You know, I'm a person who's visibly Latino, but you know, my mom's father is black originally his families from the Caribbean. So I grew up with a very, very different idea of African Indigenous Latino relations. You know, in many ways, I witnessed a lot of people, both especially Puerto Ricans and Dominicans that I grew up with friends of mine that
were in total denial of their African ancestry. And I'm looking at them and I'm like, dude, you're blacker than Pepper, and you're talking about how you're not black. You're calling people Brieto and all these other names, and you're talking about your mom. You know that, right, just like the Spanish ex terminating tin News, raping the black and Indian women, creating lazihos support.
Your parents had a lot of hopes, maybe about the illusion of the United States. You're actually going to at that time, You're going to one of the best public schools in New York City.
That's the reason my parents stayed in the city. They were originally going to move to Canada for the free healthcare, and I got into I was living in Harlem and I got into Hunter.
So when you say Hunter, that's Hunter College High School, which is this public school in New York City. It's very high performing. You can test into it, so you have to be super bright to get in. And speaking of Hunter College High School, we've got to bring up somebody who has also been on Latino USA a couple of times, Lean Manuel Miranda. You know, the accusation is that you were actually a bully to Lean Manuel, that you he says you terrorized kids and that you even threw him in a trash can.
Well, his rapper name is Immortal Technique. He's one of the most sort of politically ideological. He really made sort of an incredible life for himself as a rapper. Right, he was a school bully and he terrorized kids. He throw them in the garbage. I got thrown in the garbage by him.
Isn't that interesting? And yeah, he was a really angry kid. And how are you and lean Manuel? How is that?
No? We talked and he was like, Yo, I'm sorry about the way the story came out. I mean to say that you were like the most wicked person in the world. And obviously, you know, you change as an individual since then, and we have been on good terms. You know, I've never had like an outstanding issue because of that particular interview. It was more about what other people have brought into the conversation, because, to be honest, he wasn't the only one that got thrown in the
trash can. There were dozens of people thrown in the trash can. I was a definite, definite violent person, and I think that the contrast came because I was expected to be a certain way at school, and then when I left school, a lot of the kids from school didn't have to deal with the same repercussions and same issues that I had to. It's like cambodiatic killing fields uptown. We live in distress and hang the flag upside down the sound of conservative politicians on television. People in the
hood are blinds, so they tell us to listen. They vote for us to go to war instantly, but none of their JITs serving the infantry to all just stacked against us like a casino. Think about it, most of
the army is black and Latino. The rage and anger that I experienced as a kid was from living in that dual life, you know what I mean, from going to a good school with a bunch of people who you know, maybe sometimes would have a gratitude problem, and then me going home to Harlem, which was just totally different. Like with Harlem, I reminded people in nineteen eighty eight eighty seven, it was.
Tough, yo, it was tough.
I mean, my brother's out Paul of me came home one day and a dude no lie in front of my building down on the street corner, knocked his air conditioner out and it hit a lady in the head, and he pulled out a rifle and just started firing at people. I never discussed these things. Other kids maybe had therapy to talk about it. I didn't have no therapy, So I maybe a lot of the things that I had seen and witnessed really kind of changed stuff. Like
a lot of kids. Sure you lived in New York, but you didn't see the same things that I saw.
What's the problem. So at one time you were asked about the bullying and the violence, and you said, quote, I guess at seventeen, it was hard for me to see that the person I was really fighting was myself.
I chose violence to be the tool of deconstructing other people's issues, and it led to creating more issues to myself. So every time someone thought just because he's smart, he soft, I reminded them every day that I would hurt them in some way. Like everything about me was structured to fight with people. To be honest, While I imagine that I liked that, at the time, really inside of me, I didn't like that. It wasn't something that I enjoyed. It was something that I saw as a necessity. It's
touch and go. It's not like I was just a purely wicked kid.
So the rage actually lends you in prison? Is it in prison where you basically decide that that's where you want to move into rap? Or how is it that you decide rap is the place where you're going to find your expression.
I think one of the things about prison isn't that it decided to make me choose rap as a career. I chose rap in prison as a form of meditation, as a form of finding peace. I was thrown in the hole one time. For people who don't know what that is. That solitary ca infinement where you basically live in and exist in a very dark space. Native American cat named Judge. He came by my cell and he shoved a piece of paper and like a half broken pencil in the cell and he was like, Yo, man,
don't go crazy in there. And I really, man, you know, if there's a person out there who I owe, you know what I mean to pay their rent, it's definitely Judge, because man, that piece of paper was covered with so many writing it looked like like I only had one piece of paper to write on. So it was like I wrote on all the lines that I wrote on the sides, and I wrote on the other sides, I wrote on the back, I wrote on the outside lines.
This thing was like the Holy Grail. And get caught in a hustle to let him know that I died while I fought in a struggle from the hood rats, the rich kids, lost in the bubble spray painted on the street set in the subway. So I used to.
Coming up on Latino, USA, we talk about Immortal Technique's first album and this song that launched his career, Stay with Us.
One night more than a Self, And then I saw the way they portrayed us that everyone else that coached us the whole see the worse than ourselves. Glad that, in fact, the whole time you are heart and ourselves.
I used one night, One night, Hey We're back, And when we left off, Immortal Technique was telling us about how he got into rap. We're gonna pick up now with his first album and the infamous song Dance with the Devil. Justa heads up in this section of the conversation,
we're gonna be talking about rape and sexual violence. You released Revolutionary Volume one that was your first album in two thousand and one, and on that album is basically the song that launched your career, Dance with the Devil, which I was listening to it this morning in preparation again. Just yeah no, and I'm sitting here like.
They drove around a project slow while it was raining, smoking Blunt's, drinking and joking for entertainment until they saw a woman on a street walking along three in the morning, coming back from work on their way home, and so they quietly shot out the car and followed her walking through the projects. The darkness swallowed her. They wrapped the shirt around their head and knocked the roll to the floor.
This is it, kid, What was it about to Dance with the Devil that you think launched your career?
Essentially, I could give you a million different answers, but I'm gonna give you the ugliest one. Everybody either knows someone or has been sexually assaulted themselves, And I think the song came at a time when people were trying to kind of weed through a new generation of hip hop during the two thousand era and looking for who had kind of substance in the music. We never had
a song about rape ever in hip hop. Ever, we've probably discussed that it's been thrown around, but a song in which we showed how that really means you're raping yourself, you're destroying yourself. And then the underlying themes of its sister, which are that all human beings that are alive right now have to be related. And I wanted that point to resonate in the people's minds when they were out there listening to that music. I'm pull in and I
can't surve back. Right before he pulled it and the end of the life, he thought about the Copaine with the platum ice, and he felt strong standing along with his new brothers. Cocked it to a head and pulled back the shirt cover. But what he saw made him start to cringe and stutter because he was staring into the eyes of his own mother. She looked back. The benchmark of Western society that people base all of European
civilization on monarchies, is Rome. And when you look at Rome as a society, you say, where did Rome begin? We see that the beginning of Roman society begins with an act called the rape of the Sabines. And I think that's a part of all of our genetic memory. I think every single little human being who's living right now is a product of rape at some particular point, and they've just never dealt with that. The trauma exists within them as a genetic memory. Some of them have
that in their bloodstream, more recent than others. When you look at it, it's incredibly humbling as a man to realize that I stand upon the achievements of murderers and rapists to claim the position of power that I have in this society. You could be standing right next to you and you wouldn't know the devil pros inside the hearts of the selfish white, brown, yellow, and black color. That's not restricted what.
Comes up for you as you're processing that song.
I mean, it's a difficult thing to talk about only because there are women in my family and people I've known my whole life that have been survivors of rape. And you know, obviously it's it's not my choice whether I share their story. It's not my place without their permission. But I felt like I wanted to draw some idea towards the disgusting nature of what it is and how it actually has a huge place in our human society.
It's really tough to hear that. And so when I've been able to listen to, for example, your love song, you never know, people.
Like you set out so paraut to be a problem with the bronsuse de bo.
Which I just love because you know, you talk about taking your love whether to the Metropolitan Museum about or to Mussel del Barrio, you know, and seriously, just hearing that in a rap song, that's a love song. That's a side of you, you know, the gentle kind of romantic side.
There is a romantic side, Yeah, I remember the I think I've written a lot of interesting tweets. I think one of the ones that went the most viral is I don't know how many thousands it had, but I I wrote something and I said, you know, if I really like her, I might buy her flowers. I said, but if I love her, I'll write her a story. After all, What good are flowers when you can create
a universe just for her. Writing brought me out of misery and pain, you know, like a lot of Volume one that you hear is a lot of rage and anger. But that's anger and rage that's taken out of me. You know, sometimes if I really love somebody, I would write something for them, something that would help them heal, something that would put their problems, whatever it is that
I know about them, into the proper perspective. Little credit cards, game and jewelry stealing, crack selling, lick a store Robin.
So, in twenty eleven, you released rich Man's World. You know, in a lot of ways, it feels like you were kind of expecting a Donald Trump to appear on the scene before a lot of other people were.
I mean, I put out a lot of messages in the music some people that some people at first accused me of being a conspiracy theorist. But here's an interesting thing. What were my big conspiracies on Revolutionary Volume two that the Iraq War was based off lies. I then brought up that the government was listening to all your emails and tapping your phone, and people said, that's absurd technique. You live, you live in nineteen eighty four, that's never
gonna happen. And look what happened. So the idea that the demagogue at Gaudio would come in isn't something that is part of the radical imagination of someone who lives in the never ending story. It's something that was eventually going to happen here in the United States because they don't want my dirty laundry. And when I fight it, forget my lawyers excited, because what good is the law if you can't rewrite it. I got seat eight traders, dictators,
Yad was the blowers in hats hurt. Indeed, all of this money from out there, A lot.
Of Latinos and Latinas immigrants are waking up and they're feeling powerless, angry, filled with rage, confused, sometimes hopeless. How are you translating those emotions into your art right now?
One of the things I started doing is I started working with various human rights organizations. That's something that has always given me a really grounded sense of peace. One of them, of course, was the Border Angels, the people that leave water drops and food drops for those people walking through the desert. And the other was a group that I feel doesn't receive enough attention as well. It's called the Green Card Veterans, and these are people who,
some of them served in multiple theaters of war. I think people need to realize a lot of these individuals have been deported or are fighting deportation.
Is there any of your writings recently that you can share with us about those issues about the creed.
Yeah, there's actually a song I have. I can't spit it right now because I know my producer listen. I mean, we've kept this under wrap so hard.
One line, one line, A great hustler.
I love you, you got a good hustle.
No, I think that what we're.
Talking about is a song that describes the uh. We touched on it earlier, the depression and the suicide of people who have gone to war. And part of that was talking about this particular issue.
So what is immortal technique processing now as a musician, as an American? Where is it coming together for you? My son? Of course, who was your biggest fan, was like, how come he hasn't.
Written No, no, no, no, I've written plenty of stuff. I just haven't I haven't released it, and there's a lot of reasons for that.
Okay. So the question of your many many many fans, you know that, the question is your dad, your mom. We want to know when's the next tech song that we can Okay.
I actually do have a couple of features coming out, which are just songs that I'm on for other people's projects. And then in terms of the record that I have, I'm closer than I've.
Ever been and we're looking forward to hearing it too. Thank you so much, Immortal Technique, Felippe Coronelle, thank you so much for all of your work.
Thank you very much for having me here. The middle Passage coming soon, sp and a building I do Mecca, Harlem Brooklyn you already.
Know Harlem and that that was Rapper Immortal Technique. Our episode was produced by Maggie Friedlin, who was edited by Marlon Bishop and mixed by Stephanie Lebau. The Latino USA team includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Renaldo Leanos, Junior, Andrea Lopez Grussado, Luis Bluna, Frori, Mard Marquez, Marta Martinez, Nor Saudi and Nancy Frujillo. Benilee Ramirez is our co executive producer I'm Your Host and also co executive producer
Mario Josa. Join us again on our next episode. In the meantime, We'll see you on all of our social media Lteva, Yes Bye.
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Heising Simons Foundoundation Unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities. More at hsfoundation dot org.
We could go on for a while, but wherever