Immortal Technique & DJ Green Lantern sat down with Rhapsody to speak on their colloab album ‘The 3rd World’.
Immortal Technique On Green’s Role In the album
Green basically came in and blended up tracks that we put together like a mixtape. But conceptually, I had started doing the tracks a minute ago. Between Green Lantern and Southpaw, my engineer and producer, they did the production for over half the album. Green brought me “The 3rd World” beat and then “Harlem Renaissance.” Originally, I was planning to hold them off for Revolutionary Volume 3. But I decided the tracks are really good, so we should just do our best to facilitate this project.
On when Green first heard Technique’s music
I think it was some pieces off Revolutionary and probably “Dance with the Devil” — you know, older joints. I gotta thank Mos Def. The whole concept for the “Bin Laden” song, which is the reason [Immortal and I] ended up connecting, is based on an a cappella freestyle that I got from Mos Def, where he said, “Bin Laden didn’t blow up the projects, it was you n*gg*, tell the truth n*gg*,” and then never said anything political for the rest of the freestyle. I was like, “Damn that’s a hook!” But he was really b*llsh*tt*n’ off the top. So, I was like, “I need somebody to go in on this topic who’s going to do it justice.” I just sat there for a second and said, “Ooh him. He’s crazy, yes. He’s just the type of lunatic I need.” [Laughs.] I think that’s a classic record. I introduced Tech at the Highline Ballroom [in New York] and the crowd was incredible. I said, “I’m not going to bring this next artist out until you finish his line.” I was like, “Bin Laden didn’t blow up the projects,” and 2500-3000 people in there were screaming, “It was you! Tell the truth!”
Immortal Technique On The Rick Ross Situation
I was actually supposed to do a song with Rick Ross back in the day. My n*gg* DJ 2Nen is cool with him and his peoples. I can’t judge a man and to keep it real, I despise when the media asks me to do so even indirectly because there is only one way that really comes across, like some “1996 VIBE magazine” sh*t. Just because you had a day job doesn’t mean that you weren’t living some sort of illegal life. There are criminals in college, on Wall Street, in government, on the police force, in law, and definitely in the music business, especially the underground. People are quick to judge and it puts [the judged] in an incredibly difficult position to justify a life they obviously no longer live when incriminating information surfaces. But no one should ever hate on a man for having a job.
Read the rest of this great interview HERE
