| Revolutionary Vol. 2 | ||||
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| Studio album by Immortal Technique | ||||
| Released | November 18, 2003 | |||
| Recorded | 2002−2003 | |||
| Genre | Hip hop Underground hip hop Political hip hop |
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| Length | 67:46 | |||
| Label | Viper Records | |||
| Producer | SouthPaw, Metaphysics, Danja Mowf, Domingo, 44 Caliber, Omen | |||
| Professional reviews | ||||
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| Immortal Technique chronology | ||||
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Revolutionary Vol. 2 is the second album released by rapper Immortal Technique and is a follow-up to his debut album, Revolutionary Vol. 1.
Revolutionary Vol. 2 attacks the United States government, especially the Bush Administration.
In an attempt to reveal the hypocrisy of American jingoism, Technique makes a large number of historical and contemporary references: to slavery; the genocide of North America's indigenous peoples; Project MKULTRA; the Patriot Act; the War on Terror; Acid rain; American companies with Nazi ties; the Catholic Church's platform of non-involvement during the The Holocaust; the Church calling Muhammad a "terrorist"; the supply of chemical weapons to Saddamn Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War; the conviction of the US by the International Criminal Court for sponsoring terrorism in the case of the Contras in Nicaragua; the death of progressive Senator Paul Wellstone in 2002; the Jenin massacre; US imperialism in oil-producing nations; the occupation of Palestine; and media censorship and racism under the tagline "Fair and Balanced."
Perhaps the album's most memorable line is, "Turn off the news and read nigger, read."
Immortal Technique claimed in an interview to have sold more than 85,000 copies.[1]
The CD included Immortal Technique's phone number.
The album features Mumia Abu-Jamal, who introduces the album and also provides a speech about hip hop's relationship to Homeland security.
Contents |
In "The Point of No Return", Immortal Technique discusses the origin of Latinos, "just like the Spanish exterminating Taínos, raping the black and Indian women..." and mentions the Templar Knights taking Jerusalem and figuring out what was buried under Solomon's Temple. He raps about Mary Magdalene giving birth to the children of Jesus and about the depleted uranium scandal.
He quotes Scarface and New Jack City in "Peruvian Cocaine", describing the journey that cocaine takes as it reaches American cities. Each MC featured on the track takes on the role of a character involved in the drug flow, including a Coca field worker, a Peruvian drug kingpin, a corrupt leader of Peru, an American CIA Agent, an American drug dealer, a corrupt policeman, and a prisoner incarcerated for drug trafficking. First, a worker describes the slave-like conditions endured by Latin Americans working on coca plantations. The next voice is a cocaine boss with substantial political power, and the next a government official who says, "The Central Intelligence Agency takes weight faithfully." The next voice, a CIA official, asks his wife, "Would you mind if I told you that I had two governments overthrown to keep our son enrolled in a private school and to keep our tummies swollen?", then says, "Of course this country's running coke [...] The CIA conducts the flow for these young hustlers that lust for dough."
Technique's views expressed on the track 'Peruvian Cocaine' appear to be drawn from the evidence of government involvement in cocaine-trafficking in the Iran-Contra affair. After their Congressional funding was cut off due to human rights abuses, US intelligence agencies trafficked cocaine in order to fund the counter-revolutionary project of arming the Contras in Nicaragua, who were fighting against the socialist Sandinista government in power in the 1980s. The CIA connection with the Somoza family, who were ousted by the Sandinistas in 1979, and Rick Ross was exposed by journalist Gary Webb in 1996. Webb argues that through Rick Ross, the CIA caused the crack explosion in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
This story, along with the mainstream media's vilification campaign against Webb, is told at length in the book Whiteout: The CIA Drugs and the Press.
One of the more graphic songs on the album, "Obnoxious," contains some of the most offensive subject matter. "I'm going to prank call (1-800) cop shot just for kicks, payback for every time that they called me a spic, and Puerto Rican chicks tell me that I fuck like I'm loco, and Dominican women call me the rompe toto". Along with its humor and vulgarity, the song is politicly charged and attacks multiple angles of popular culture. The song was noted in several magazines as one of the most downloaded hip hop songs on the Internet in 2004, only beaten out by Eminem and The Neptunes.
"The Cause of Death" suggests that the United States government was responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks. Immortal Technique also discusses the seven-headed dragon of the Book of Revelation, rapping that he will reveal "George Bush and Bin Laden as two separate parts of the same seven headed dragon". In the song he is also mentioning that the United States government is related to the Illuminati and the New World Order.
In "You Never Know", Immortal Technique laments a missed opportunity at love as well as huge tragedy which he experienced personally, with Jean Grae singing the chorus.
"Harlem Streets", "Leaving The Past", and "You Never Know" are known for using a spanish guitar
"Sierra Maestra" was the only instrumental track, with a Latin sound to it.
revolutionary volume 3