After almost 4 years in the waiting, the Harlem based rapper Immortal Technique (aka Felipe Coronel) has combined forces with DJ Green Lantern to present his new mixtape album/project with all new original cuts, blended and chopped up. Fans will not be disappointed with this effort which is being kept quiet until the New York release party on the 24th June. Fans have been waiting patiently for another album and during discussions Technique did mention that he was still working on the long awaited Revolutionary Volume 3 and the Middle Passage, with over 25 songs already recorded for them. Amongst other things Technique is also working on producing a DVD documentary and has launched an essay writing competition for American High School students about the 3rd World to try to encourage literacy and interest into topics deeper than the traditional Bling-Bling hip hop culture that is currently being produced.

On Tuesday 3rd June, I attended what was being expected to be an Album playback and press release for “the 3rd World” album but was disappointed on arrival to find that none of his album material was to be heard. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was actually a Question and Answer session at a packed out University Lecture Theatre in the prestigious SOAS University in Central London.
Technique could quite easily have been a university lecturer or teacher, rather than a rapper, as he proved himself to be an incredibly articulate and charismatic speaker producing an array of excellent and perfect responses to almost two hours of questions and discussion. However, Technique didn’t forget to inject a bit of humour and remind us of his Harlem origins. The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) was the perfect setting for the discussion which included ideals, challenges, views and opinions. Amongst things discussed were oppression, political terrorism, religious terrorism, human rights, homeless children in the west compared to the 3rd World, the Middle East, Latin America, Communism, Socialism, Ethnic Cleansing, Democracy, poverty, racism and the duality of hip hop as both an entertaining feel good party atmosphere and as an art form and platform for educating people about the world, socio-economics and politics.

Tuesdays discussion was quiet a contrast to the concert of Wednesday night, which took place at the underground venue called the Coronet in Elephant and Castle, where a packed out audience were presented to an array of Techniques songs from Revolutionary Volume 1 and 2 as well as other material and snippets from the forthcoming 3rd World album. Techniques Revolutionary hip hop and charismatic style and charm were once again shown through his cultured lyricism and talking to the crowd. This was truly an underground hip hop event full of lyricism and a jumping crowd as Immortal Technique kept the heads entertained. Skinnyman showed promise as he warmed up for technique and got the crowd going while telling us about his upcoming new album and his Smoking Ban tour.

The 3rd World is the first single Immortal Technique is releasing from the album with its striking beats and very catchy percussions providing the basis for Technique to flow his socio-economic views and politics with occasional helpings of religious, political and social references to pop culture, the media and modern news. His flows are tight and as always Technique shows us that he is still as revolutionary as ever while maintaining that he still has both “the message and the music”…
The other song from his new album that I have heard was Payback in which Technique and Ras kass express their views on the American government in razor sharp lyrical prowess over a catchy melody and heavy beats. June 24th should be eagerly awaited if the album is anything like we are being led to believe…(Harvey Singh)

The 3rd World Mixtape is released 24th June 2008