People can “wear many hats” and so we find that Immortal Technique is not only a rapper but has evolved into a political activist and social commentator. In this interview with RussiaToday he appears as an articulate activist instead of an angry rapper whose uncompromising passion can easily be interpreted as intimidating aggression. His musical anthology thus far is dominated by the theme of social revolution and protest against what he would describe as the corrupt dictatorial power structure(s) that keep the majority of the worlds’ population poor and oppressed (it is possibly encapsulated by this song The “Third World”).

The interview covers many topics that we have touched on here before such as; the power of capitalism, the importance of maintaining an interest and participating in politics, safeguarding democracy from dictators like Chavez, how his music’s lyrics should be interpreted, Marxism and even the misappropriation of religion.  The interview ends with him talking about his charity work in Afghanistan; where he has used proceeds from his last album to build a school and an orphanage.

We welcome your opinions on his music and views as well as some of our previous posts in the comments section(s). There’s a music video of his to a song called The Poverty of Philosophy over the jump.
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Michael Moore is an accomplished thought provoking shock jock and his new offering is no exception from the looks of the previews.  This time he has capitalism in his sights and particularly takes issue with the free market’s lack of compassion for the less fortunate and inherent exploitative tendency. Specifically the growing gap between the haves and the have nots which is being made even more prominent by the global recession. In light of widespread economic downturn; Moore’s points are bound to capture the attention of the masses especially when he uses emotive evidence (such as the statistic that the richest 1% of Americans have more than the bottom 95% combined) to challenge capitalism morally. These points also directly tie into the ongoing firery U.S. healthcare debate and outrage about large banker bonuses that reward financial speculation (which the G20 have coincidentally just agreed on). However when inevitably challenged about an alternative, Michael Moore can only suggest democratic capitalism…

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If one thinks about the last few months, it is difficult not to consider the fact the possibility that one of the principle claims that Karl Marx made about capitalism has again proved to contain more than an element of truth. People are losing their jobs and savings. Whilst a student, one had to be careful in citing Marx (and especially some of the his followers) for fear of being ridiculed as some sort of out-dated hippy with no idea about the real world of economics

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