Coordinates | 52°30′″N44°27′″N |
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Name | Immortal Technique |
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Background | solo_singer |
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Born | February 19, 1978 Lima, Lima Province, Peru |
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Birth name | Felipe Andres Coronel |
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Origin | Harlem, New York, United States |
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Genre | Hip hop |
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Occupation | Rapper |
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Years active | 2000–present|label Viper Records |
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Associated acts | Akir, Diabolic, Lowkey, Chino XL, DJ Green Lantern, La Coka Nostra, Jean Grae, Rockin' Squat, Mos Def , Dead Prez , Ras Kass , Krs-One , Reppin MG |
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Website | myspace.com/immortaltechnique
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Felipe Andres Coronel (born February 19, 1978), better known by the stage name Immortal Technique, is an American rapper of Afro-Peruvian descent as well as an urban activist. He was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Harlem, New York. Most of his lyrics focus on controversial issues in global politics. The views expressed in his lyrics are largely commentary on issues such as class struggle, poverty, religion, government and institutional racism.
Immortal Technique has voiced a desire to retain control over his production, and has stated in his music that record companies, not artists themselves, profit the most from mass production and marketing of music. He claimed in an interview to have sold close to 200,000 copies of his three official releases.
Biography
Early life
Coronel is
African-Peruvian and was born in 1978 in a military hospital in
Lima. His family emigrated in 1980 to Harlem to escape the ongoing
internal conflict in Peru. During his teenage years he was arrested multiple times due in part to what he has said was "selfish and childish" behavior. He attended
Hunter College High School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Shortly after enrolling in
Pennsylvania State University, he was arrested and charged with assault-related offenses due to his involvement in an altercation between fellow students, the charges stemming from this incident led to him being incarcerated for a year. After being paroled, he took
political science classes at
Baruch College in
New York City for two semesters at the behest of his father, who allowed Coronel to live with him on the condition that he go to school. Honing his rapping skills in jail, and unable to find decent wage-paying employment after his release, Coronel began selling his music on the streets of New York while
battling with
MCs whenever the opportunity arose. This, coupled with his victories in numerous
freestyle rap competitions of the New York underground hip hop scene such as Rocksteady Anniversary, Braggin Rites and others, led to his reputation as a ferocious Battle MC.
Revolutionary Vol.1 and Vol.2
In 2001 , Immortal Technique released his first album ''
Revolutionary Vol. 1'' without the help of a record label or distribution, instead using money earned from his rap battle triumphs. ''Revolutionary Vol. 1'' also contained the underground classic ''Dance With The Devil''. In November 2002, he was listed by ''
The Source'' in its "
Unsigned Hype" column, highlighting artists that are not signed to a record label. The following year, in September 2003, he received the coveted "Hip Hop Quotable" in ''The Source'' for a song entitled "Industrial Revolution" from his second album. Immortal Technique is the only rapper in history to have a "Hip Hop Quotable" while being unsigned. He released his second album ''
Revolutionary Vol. 2'' in 2003. In 2004, Viper Records and, in 2005,
Babygrande Records re-released Immortal Technique's debut, ''Revolutionary Vol. 1'', to make it available to a wider audience. "Point of No Return" from ''Revolutionary Vol 2'' was used as the entrance theme for
Rashad Evans during the
UFC 88 Main Event between
Chuck Liddell and Rashad Evans.
Revolutionary Vol.3 and The Middle Passage
Between 2005 and 2007 Immortal Technique began working on ''The Middle Passage'' and ''
The 3rd World'', the two albums that would serve a follow up to ''
Revolutionary Vol. 2'' and complete the series. He was also featured on several movie soundtracks and video game soundtracks, all the while touring relentlessly and becoming heavily involved in visiting prisons to speak to youth and working with immigrant rights activists and raising tens of thousands of dollars for children’s hospitals overseas. He invested his money not in items that are usually associated with fame but rather in large pieces of farmland in
Latin America. He created a writing grant program for high school students as well.
Collaborations
The summer of 2005 saw the release of "Bin Laden", a vinyl single 12" featuring
Mos Def and
DJ Green Lantern. The single also contained a remix of the song featured
Chuck D of
Public Enemy and
KRS-One. In early 2006, the song "Impeach the President", featuring
Dead Prez and Saigon turned up in the mixtape "Alive on Arrival"
DJ Green Lantern. This is a simple version of The Honeydrippers, 1973, in which Immortal Technique urged fans to organize a vote of censure against George W. Bush. In April 2009, a new song leaked on the internet named "Democratie Fasciste (Article 4)" by Brazilian-French rapper
Rockin' Squat which featured Immortal Technique. The official release of the song and Rockin' Squat's album ''Confessions D'un Enfant Du Siècle Volume 2'' was on May 12, 2009. The instrumental from the song was sampled from Wendy Rene's "After Laughter". The song expresses the inequalities of the
Third World and revolutionary events throughout history against tyranny and oppression. The song contains lyrics in English (Immortal Technique), French (Rockin' Squat) and brief shout outs in Spanish (Immortal Technique). This song is Immortal Technique's first official international collaboration. In early 2009, it was announced that there would be a collaboration between Technique and
UK underground artist
Lowkey, on a single called "Voices of the Voiceless". On September 11, 2009, a "snippet" of the song was released on
YouTube. The preview was released ahead of its September 21 launch on
iTunes, as part of a
web-campaign that included updates, promotion and links on forums,
E-Magazines and several
social networking sites. The song's lyrics cover a broad range of issues that are familiar to listeners of both artists –
racism,
world revolution,
war,
socialism,
government control,
rape,
famine,
colonialism,
Classism,
self-determination and the
war in Iraq.
Charitable work
In June 2008, Immortal Technique partnered with Omeid International, a Non–Profit Human Rights Organization, to lend his support. He dubbed the work as "The Green Light Project". With the profits of ''
The 3rd World'' album, Immortal Technique traveled to
Kabul,
Afghanistan to help Omeid build an orphanage without any corporate or external funding. The orphanage, having been successfully established, currently houses over 20 orphaned children from Kabul.
''This Revolution''
Immortal Technique appeared as himself in a
docudrama film entitled ''
This Revolution'', which was recorded during the 2004
Republican National Convention in New York. The tape contains the protests surrounding the convention in the form of a documentary. It also featured Viper Records affiliates
Akir and producer SouthPaw in roles.
Since then Immortal Technique has taken control of Viper Records and has signed a distribution deal with Babygrande Records / E1 Entertainment to vent to their next album. SouthPaw has managed to establish himself as A&R; of Viper Records.
Discography
Albums
{|class="wikitable"
!align=center rowspan=2|Year
!align=center rowspan=2|Title
!align=center colspan=2|Peak chart positions
|-
!align=center width=45|
US
!align=center width=45|
USRap
|-
|align=center|2001
|
''Revolutionary Vol. 1''
Release Date: September 14, 2001
Label: Viper (1)
Format: CD, digital download
|align=center|—
|align=center|—
|-
|align=center|2003
|
''Revolutionary Vol. 2''
Release Date: November 18, 2003
Label: Viper (104)
Format: CD, digital download, LP
|align=center|—
|align=center|—
|-
|align=center|2008
|
''The 3rd World'' (with
DJ Green Lantern)
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Label: Viper (8)
Format: CD, digital download
|align=center|99
|align=center|12
|-
|align=center|TBA
|
''The Middle Passage''
Release Date: TBA
Label: Viper
Format: CD, digital download
|align=center|TBA
|align=center|TBA
|-
| align="center" colspan="11" style="font-size:90%" | "—" indicates that album did not chart.
|-
|}
Singles
{|class="wikitable"
!align=center rowspan=2|Year
!align=center rowspan=2|Title
!align=center colspan=1|Peak chart positions
!align=center rowspan=2|Album
|-
!align=center width=25|
US R&B; Sales
|-
|align=center|2001
|align=left|"Dance With the Devil"
|align=center|(
Citation needed)
|align=left rowspan=1|''Revolutionary Vol. 1''
|-
|align=center|2003
|align=left|"The Cause of Death"
|align=center|(
Citation needed)
|align=left rowspan=3|''Revolutionary Vol. 2''
|-
|align=center|2003
|align=left|"Industrial Revolution"
|align=center|63
|-
|align=center|2004
|align=left|"The Point of No Return"
|align=center|57
|-
|align=center|2004
|align=left|"Bin Laden"
|align=center|?
|align=left|Single only
|-
|align=center|2005
|align=left|"Caught in a Hustle"
|align=center|?
|align=left|''
BAADASSSSS!'' soundtrack
|}
References
External links
Viper Records website
Immortal Technique's Twitter
Unofficial forums
Category:1978 births
Category:Living people
Category:American music industry executives
Category:American people convicted of assault
Category:American socialists
Category:Baruch College alumni
Category:Hispanic and Latino American rappers
Category:Pennsylvania State University alumni
Category:People from Harlem
Category:People from Manhattan
Category:People from Lima
Category:Peruvian emigrants to the United States
Category:Peruvian exiles
Category:Peruvian people of Black African descent
Category:Rappers from New York City
Category:Underground rappers
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