Immortal Technique in the belly of the beast

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY

Immortal Technique’s critique of the major-label decision-makers that keep rappers like Mims on the charts while essentially ignoring the whole lineup of the Rock the Bells festival goes like this: “There’s a market for everything, man. There’s a market for pet psychologists. There’s a market for twisted shit-fetish videos, for nipple rings, for river dancing, for chocolate-covered roaches—but you can’t find one for cultured hardcore reality in hip-hop? People like you . . . you the fuckin’ machine.”

He fits right in at Rock the Bells, the annual hip-hop festival bringing together a group of artists that, with the exception of Rage Against the Machine and, to a lesser (and less relevant) extent, Cypress Hill, could truthfully belt out Chuck D’s declaration: “Radio! Suckas never play me!”

The tour is now a (corporate-sponsored) success—though it might be 15 years late for most of the acts, who still get reviewed in the shadows of their past even when they’ve put out a solid new record. But for Immortal Technique, it’s a chance to bring his vitriolic explanations of government string-pulling behind street-level ills to a novice audience. It’s not quite a journey into the belly of the beast, but it’s a concentrated and possibly fresh—and hopefully fertile—crowd for the famously independent rapper.

The cargo-shorted masses are probably irritating Immortal Technique on some level, and one doubts his command to “Turn off the news and read!” at the end of his media-bashing song “4th Branch” (the best since P.E.’s “Don’t Believe the Hype”) was meant to congratulate kids whose concept of consciousness stops at skimming Chomsky at the campus Starbucks. But it should be interesting to see how they react. These days, you’ve got to play with Rage Against the Machine if you actually want anyone to hear you rage against the machine.

IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE WITH RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, WU-TANG CLAN, CYPRESS HILL, AND MANY MORE GLEN HELEN PAVILION | 2575 GLEN HELEN PARKWAY | DEVORE 92407 | SAT 11 AM | $77-122 | ALL AGES | VISIT WEBSITE FOR COMPLETE LINEUP AND INFORMATION | ROCKTHEBELLS.NET

Tags: immortal technique, mims, rock the bells, wu tang clan