Occupy Wallstreet - Political rapper Immortal Technique speaks

[Kenshin]

Immortal Technique is an amazing political activist and political rapper, check out what he has to say on Occupy Wall street, police brutality and the government.

Revolution here to stay! Immortal Technique full OWS interview

[James Moriarty]

Loved it.  You might also enjoy this:

http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2011/10/11/ok-fine-a-point-by-point-refutation-of-david-brookss-hateful-and-idiotic-occupy-wall-street-column

It's a little polemic, but then, so is the opposition.  I hope that this movement sparks something real here.  Cynicism is tempting, but I think I'll cast my lots with hope.

I think I'll be in NYC in a few weeks -- I hope this is still going on and I can participate.

-Moriarty

[gaggedLouise]

Very cool, lucid interview and he makes essential points about the situation (though he's slightly vague about how far he would see these people as legally justified if some of them occasionally took up violent methods; there's little doubt he'd see some such violence as morally justified, as a reaction against a possible hardening of the methods of the police, but so far it hasn't got there). Now after all he is not their spokesman and this is a fluid situstion, so it's not something he can be taken to account for.

It's nice to hear he's been following this, he's one of the more committed political rappers of his generation. I heard his Freedom of Speech single some years ago during the Bush era, a track that sampled Disney's "Pinocchio" - if you speak a lie your nose starts growing long - over pounding, dancing rhymes about political cover-up and propaganda in the media, and I thought it was simply awesome. Hope he makes an entire album about this unrest and need for real change, it could become as much of a classic as Gil Scott-Heron's Winter in America. We'd also like to see him tour in Europe, I'm sure he would sell out many clubs over here.

[Jude]

I love it when he starts talking about sleeper cells.

People are taking this interview seriously?

[Trieste]

From the replies above you, I would say yes, Jude, so your response is somewhat toeing the troll line. Just FYI.

[Brandon]

I always support the expression of anyones freedom of speech though the movement that happened in Portland was largely fragmented. Many people there for many different reasons and I suspect thats how it is across our nation. Its good to see people coming together under a worthy cause though, I hope the movement really goes somewhere positive

[Vekseid]

That's more a reflection of just how thoroughly the left has been destroyed in this country. It doesn't exist as a single, united movement. You have the Green Party, social libertarians, various form of anarchists, socialists, etc. What is pretty clear is that a backlash against corporate greed certainly has overwhelming popular support in the United States, but a clear-cut, equitable, permanent solution to the problem has not been widely expressed. When that happens, I imagine something akin to a new Bill of Rights could be fairly quick in materializing.

Until OWS started to build a sustained presence in multiple cities, the actual left may as well have not existed. And yet, people aren't afraid of advocating socialism anymore. A century ago, these sorts of protests gained military responses, sometimes against the families of protesters rather than protesters themselves, and handing out communist pamphlets could get you arrested.

[Oniya]

Less than a century - more like half of one, isn't it?  HUAC lasted until 1975.

[Hemingway]

This guy ... is good at communicating his thoughts. I'm impressed.

[Callie Del Noire]

Less than a century - more like half of one, isn't it?  HUAC lasted until 1975.

Some of the actors, writers and others weren't employed till the 80s. Those of them who didn't commit suicide or drink themselves to death.

[Oniya]

*nods*  Exactly my point.  For many people (most?) a century is a freaking long time.  Half a century is within most people's lifetime.

[Callie Del Noire]

There are still people who could be effected by J. Edgar Hoover's files if they were to appear today. Former Presidents. Congressmen/Senators, prestigious families.

LOTS of people. Rumor was it took over a MONTH to removed the files from his home, and there is a good amount of evidence that not all of his files were destroyed.

[MasterMischief]

Wait.  I thought Obama was a communist.

It's hard to see the forest for the hyperbole.   :-)