Immortal Technique Quotes

It's not like America's view of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle is going to change. There are some things that are going to change and some things that are not going to change.

You will learn a lesson repeated through history, that no matter what you think, occupation is not victory!

I see the world for what it is, beyond the white and the black.

The purpose of life is a life with a purpose. So I’d rather die for a cause, than live a life that is worthless.

My revolution is born out of love for my people, not out of hatred for others.

Ignorance is venomous and it murders the soul, spreading like a virus, running rampant, out of control.

There was a lot of rebelliousness, without focus, in my younger years. And even when people ask me, "Oh you went to prison and you went to college for a couple years?" I'm like "Yeah, I learned more in prison than I think I ever learned in college." That's the sad truth.

The way music reflects real life, the way that painstakingly, over the years, what I have said is really a metaphor for what's happening to America. It used to be about, or tried to be at the very beginning, about what was right. It has stopped being what was right for America; it started being about what was right for companies that are in control.

Scary rock n' roll bands had all the devilish imagery. But at the same time, it's not because they were devil worshippers, they were saying that society is run by devils. It was human society that created these things, they become the devils. This is what you worship. This money is what you worship. This idea is what you worship.

I'm not trying to sell pipe dreams to people. I'm not giving them some fake utopia. I'm not telling them it's easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it. But you don't fight the fights you can win, you fight the fights that need fighting. That's the most important part.

I think that as much as any leader is marketed we have to learn that unless we inject ourselves specifically and link our revolution to the economic struggle of our people and address those specific issues then we're never really going to have control of what happens.

You don't have to either choose to save the world or become a sellout. I say to people, "Listen dude, how can you save the world if you can't even save yourself? Why don't you try to affect one person's life who's in your life, and that would be historic."

A pretty face can capture my attention but only a beautiful mind can hold it.

when God said "let there be light" I turned it the f-k off.

I've had lots of discussions with my Muslim brothers and sisters who have said to me, "Christianity is a white man's religion" But I'm like, "how is that possible when Christianity went into Africa before it ever went into central Europe?" Even the first people to become a Christian nation were not Romans, they weren't the Byzantines either, they weren't the Greeks... the first people to claim a Christian empire were the Armenians.

There is no excuse for a billion dollar industry to have somebody who's pushing papers on an administrative level - which is still very important in terms of getting projects done - it's imbalanced and completely illogical and example of how badly this art form has been rapped... for them niggas to have health care benefits but for themselves to share in no part to that? It's very telling about the climate of the music industry.

The interesting thing about that is one of the greatest critics of socialism and leftwing writings was Robert Michels who wrote a series of essays called "The Iron Law of Oligarchy" and in these essays he discusses how no matter what sorts of freedoms are advertised or put into a society structure, that all societies, all form of governments - whether they be a Roman republic, whether they be a democracy, whether they be a Russian communist system, whatever, a tribe... a tribal council - all of the continuously, throughout the ages, have all converted back into an oligarchy.

The kingdoms of Africa and Mesopotamia, machine gunning your body with depleted uranium, this is the age of microchips and titanium, the dark side of the moon, and contact with aliens.

As much as racism bleeds America, we need to understand that classism is the real issue.

A man who walks with God, can walk anywhere. Hence, I fear nothing.

A lot of individuals I've met that I've done a song or two with. But to be honest I'm not incredibly familiar with the scene. I mean, I'm more familiar with people coming from other countries like Latin-American MCs and African rappers... that type of stuff I'm really starting to get a hold on.

I think that learning to read between the lines of traditional media is one way to stay informed, and also realizing that eventually you're going to have to cross-reference all sorts of different information coming from different sources.

Using some economic issues to make one group of people, regardless of race or religion, the scapegoat for all the problems of the country is just the stupidest, and yet, the most creative propaganda scheme that you can come up with.

Art has to be, you know, trade itself, conform to the old strict guidelines set forth by how it was going to act in the future.

Poverty makes people do reckless things, but [the rich] do worse to protect their [interests]

Doubt that there could ever be...a more wicked MC. 'Cuz AIDS infested child molesters aren't sicker than me.

My first Hip Hop concert was at the Apollo at the age of 12. Southpaw's father was interviewing Queen Latifah and Treach as well as many others. The place was so packed no one could move but I got to be backstage with the video equipment and so I saw the show from a great place.

We have to create the ability to police our own communities instead of leaving it in the hands of a system that has never understood us, tried to marginalize and politically assassinate all of our leaders whenever they came to challenge the status quo.

I don't need to put jewels on to make myself feel important. I'd rather drop them for the benefit of less fortunate people. I don't need to put gold on my body, and I'm not criticizing people who do, but for me, I'd rather be around my family and see them be happy because that's worth more to me than gold.

It doesn't matter what race you are. It doesn't matter what religion you are. I always tell people: If you want to be a part of hip-hop, you just need to have a heart. You need to have the courage to tell the truth.

Rich people, they stay out of jail not just because they have more money but because they grew up in a culture where they're educated by people to say, "I don't have to talk to the cops. If I get arrested, I'm not going to say a word to them. I'm just going to wait until my family lawyer gets here".

Only a f-kin imbecile would think they un-correctable, cause you're susceptible to becoming more than a spectacle.

The Government covers their own ass from things they fail to do to protect its own people from corporations that control the government, which is the reason we don't have checks and balances in this country. They checked how much balance they needed to influence congress and all the other branches of government in some way, shape, or form, and cash is king.

I feel my body weakening but my spirit is fine, ready to go to war with devils at the drop of a dime

If you don't have self-respect, if you don't have dignity, if you don't have some true knowledge of self and who you are, and where you're coming from, then you're absolutely lost.

I have favourite songs for different things. The diversity of it is the strength.

We're more Christian than the Pope. And, I mean, that's not our religion. We pray to the Gods of our conquerors... all black and brown people.

I would say that everyone that you see who is successful in the mainstream, at the top of Billboard, who has a Top 40 hit... at some point, unless they're a complete fabrication of the industry with no identity of their own and a carbon copy clone of someone else, they in themselves started out being underground.

I spend a lot of time out there. I've got a lot of family that lives in Inglewood and surrounding areas. So I'm right in the hood, every time I go there I go see my peoples. I rep real hard for the people that I see that are the counterparts of what I'm trying to do out here, out there.

In a world of regret, sacrifice and hardship, laughter and music are medicine.

Write it down and remember that we never gave in, the mind of a child is where the revolution begins, so if the solution has never been to look in yourself, how is it that you expect to find it anywhere else

Plastic metaphors and carbon copy similes that aren't going to do anything for anybody and it doesn't showcase creativity; it showcases the fact that the soul of the music has been compromised to control the industry.

I would love for [Jesus] to come back because I would love for him to face what is happening and to really have some sort of perspective. In that same respect, I'm sure that Prophet Muhammad would be disgusted by what some people use his name to justify.

Unfortunately, as inspiring as people find Barack Obama, change can be interpreted in so many different ways. I think he might do a great deal of good things for social programs here in America and as well, as much as people want to characterize anybody who's a leader and try and sell that, and market it and characterize them in a good way or a bad way, I think it's very telling about the system that we have when we come to the realization that the war is not going to end.

The mind of a child is where the Revolution begins.

People are educated into the fact that as a people we stand a better chance of knowing how to work the law if we know the history of the law and the history of our people's relationship with it.

Your mind is your weapon. Load your weapon.

People were like, "Someone who made a song like this, there has to be more to them. I'm interested in hearing how they would describe something else." So my flow has matured, my voice has matured, the content has gotten more descriptive but at the same time we still talk about a violent reality that exists in the world which is why this is a supplement to the Revolutionary series and it's not a part of it but it's the same Immortal Technique.