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Bigmouth strikes again

“My message is popular because of the honesty behind it — plain and simple. You have to ask yourself at what point does it stop being rhetoric and become truth? Is every Obama speech rhetoric just because it goes on for 45 minutes? Were Martin Luther King’s speeches rhetoric? I’m not comparing myself to these people in any way, but I am saying that the message I have relies heavily on historical facts and truth.”

Short of the Marines invading Harlem, no political or brute force is going to stop or censor Technique. Despite his half-decade disc hiatus, his new mixtape, The Third World, is subterranean hip-hop’s most eagerly awaited product so far this year. Mixed and largely produced by Eminem and Nas affiliate Green Lantern, the release is poised to inspire both existing diehards and anyone else who loathes Lil Jon and John McCain in equal measure. It’s a ludicrous speed leap to suggest that The Third World and Technique’s upcoming Middle Passage will check gentrification, resurrect Paul Wellstone, free Mumia, or turn tides in hip-hop. But should that last actually happen, major-label mules know where not to turn.

“People want to forget that hip-hop was born in that militant era. The artists themselves are brainwashed into thinking that’s not a viable solution — until they wake up and realize that they’ve been fucked and left by the industry too. Only then do they get it into their head that this is fucked up. Too little, too late, homes. You should have come and helped us out when it was obvious to everyone but you, but you were blinded by your own selfishness and greed. That’s a by-product of being successful and thinking that nobody is responsible for your success but yourself. I owe everything that I have to my supporters, my discipline, and the team that helped me complete this vision.”

IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE | UnderGroundHiphop.com store, 234 Huntington Ave, Boston | June 27 at 6pm | free | 617.262.0200