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Technique’ to a revolution

Photo & story by Dawn Madura
dmadura@mscd.edu

What had looked like a crowd composed of mostly white Boulder students waiting for a pep-rally to begin transformed the second the lights lowered and Immortal Technique took the stage March 14 at the Fox Theatre in Boulder.

As he opened with an a cappella rendition of “The 4th Branch,” the energy rose and sizzled through the venue. Clenched fists began punching holes in the electrified air and bodies compressed into one tight army in front of the emcee.

Immortal Technique’s performance is an attack. Rage seems to fester in his feet and explode through his mouth, just barely restrained by the precision of his seething verbal delivery. Tech uses hip-hop as a weapon, but this is no carpet-bombing, no vaguely defined angst or antiauthoritarian rant. Tech’s rhymes are intense, Chomsky-esque social and political critiques.

Of Afro-Peruvian descent but raised in Harlem, N.Y., Felipe Coronel’s credibility transcends the streets and ventures into darker places. Gentrification, racism, rape, human rights, globalization, religion and poverty smolder among Tech’s long list of targets. His messages discredit politicians, expose hypocrisy and examine human nature in two or three loaded lines. As overwhelming and infuriating as his rhymes can be, Tech balances his criticisms with solutions. Through his own activism, Tech searches for answers to the questions his music asks. Through his music, Tech urges his listeners to read and become informed.

Immortal Technique’s performance threw the crowd into raucous frenzy, stopping between songs for monologues few can pull off. His stage presence was reminiscent of KRS-One, commanding rapt attention from the crowd, broken only by the scattered calls of “Viva la Revolución!”

During one such speech, Tech discussed the revolutionary nature of hip-hop music, saying that corporate rap is a direct strike against the true potential of the art form. He said that once a group signs on to a major record label, all potential power to impact American culture is stifled. Although Immortal Technique has been offered deals with at least one major record label, he remains independent, a choice he discusses in his song “Freedom of Speech.”