Immortal Technique: The 3rd World

{For all music related posts, please see .Evolving.Music}

Well, I've been talking for months now about the upcoming Immortal Technique CD, and have dedicated a number of posts to the subject matter. Yesterday, the album came out and we now have a full review. I'm thankful to say that the album lives up to the considerable expectations.

We've previously reviewed the original press release cuts from this album. You can read the initial review here.

You can read Evolving Music's exclusive interview with Immortal Technique here.

The hype and expectations surrounding the release of Immortal Technique's new album have been extreme. Suffice it to say that upon the release of some of the demo tracks last month, that hype grew, and the feeling surrounding the album was that it was going to be an excellent addition to Tech's discography, as well as provide an extreme jumping off point for underground hip-hop and global awareness. Upon listening to this album a few times all the way through, I can say that its strength and vision match the hype.

The album kicks off with the "Death March Intro," a dark and forceful pounding beat backing a vicious 2 minute verse. Where other rappers are content to put a brief intro at the beginning of the album, a skit is standard, Immortal Technique hammers the first track to set the stage for what's to come. The intro is followed up by "That's What It Is" which utilizes explosion-like bass sounds in the background and scratching throughout. Tech on here spits about the current state of things within the hip-hop industry and world at large. He rips fake vegetarians and Aryans and talks about his growth as an artist both in content and sound. This moves into "Golpe de Estado," a slow, trudging beat that utilizes the parade march song from Godfather II as Tech, Temperamento and Veneno lace the track with verses in Spanish. While I can't understand much of what's said in this song, the beat and the forcefulness of the lyrics make it enjoyable.

"Harlem Renaissance" showcases the initial strength mentioned in the original album review...Tech's ability to stay on point and keep his flow tight over music that sounds unconventional on a Tech album. It also shows the type of boost in production evident throughout the album. The moving beat, hand claps and overlaid strings take a small bit of the bite out of Tech's flow, and to good effect. The song's backing is musically inspiring, and Tech over the top finds just the right balance between his more relaxed flow and the battle tenor he takes into other tracks.

This is followed by what I view as the weakest track on the album, "Lick Shots," and amazingly, it's not because it's a bad track. The verses, with guest spots from Chino XL and Crooked.I are incredibly solid. The only problem with the track is the repetitive nature of the chorus and the fact that it sounds too fake for Tech. The chanting of "Lick Shots for the Revolution" is tiresome by the end of the track, but again, this weakness only further accentuates how strong the verses are. On other tracks it's easy for Tech to overshadow his guest stars, but here their verses are just as strong and make for a track that's great to listen to even if the chorus falls short.

The first beats of "The 3rd World," while retaining the ragga-street melody style of tracks like "Peruvian Cocaine," employs a thump and kick beat that's harder and more fleshed out than Tech listeners are used to hearing. His mastery of lyrics, both in how he fuses lines and words together while never losing sight of his content, is again in full display here with lines like, "from where the bombs that they used to drop on Vietnam/Still has children born deformed 8 months before they're born."

This is followed by "Hollywood Drive By" which utilizes a much more mainstream musical backing to accentuate Tech's flow about blowing up the traditional industry. This is a great example of the irony and intelligence Immortal Technique employs. It'd be easy to rap about taking over the industry and taking down the major labels in typical fashion, but by lacing the stronger than industry standard lyrics over a West Coast style backing that you'd find on the radio, Tech brings to your attention that it doesn't matter how bouncy the beat is if you're not rapping intelligently over it. On the advance tracks I was sent, one of them was a radio edit of a freestyle Tech had done a few years ago called "Watch Out." Amazingly, even though it was an edited version, I absolutely loved the song. Here, "Watch Out" gets a revamped sound. Some of the lyrics have been tweaked, but more importantly, the flow has been re-recorded and sounds incredibly sharp over a beat that samples from the Apocalypse sounding symphony from the central battle scene in Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. The combination makes this track fire and perhaps my favorite on the disc.

For the rest of this post, follow this link to the full review.