Harlem-based rapper Immortal Technique has always bucked the system – he’s turned down record contracts to have complete control of his musical output; he’s fearlessly recorded overtly political tracks “Bin Laden” and “Impeach the President” in a paranoid, post 9-11 world; and he’s released an almost 10-minute-long, gritty, urban rise-and-fall narrative set to a Beethoven piano riff (the epic “Dance With the Devil”).
On his new record, The 3RD World, he returns with his signature blend of sociopolitical fire-branded lyrics and stripped-down beats. Â DJ Green Lantern adds some production flair not found on Revolutionary Vols. 1 and 2, but his work is never ostentatious, letting Immortal’s words remain front and center.
“Locked and loaded / muthafucka, you should know it†is how he finishes “Death March,†the first track, inciting all the revolutionaries to buck the system with him or die in lockstep.  And for the next fifteen songs, he proceeds to spit hollow-point rhymes that enter your skull innocuously but leave gaping exit wounds as your grey matter breaks them down.
They are ruthless in the images they paint, unrelenting in the subject matter they touch upon.  Other rappers put on a persona, try to sound angry.  This man has real baggage. Not a Louis Vuitton matching set; this is the beat-up leather trunk that brings three generations into America, looking for opportunity, only to find exploitation.  This man sounds straight pissed.