This afternoon, rapper and revolutionary Immortal Technique supplied HipHopDX with his recent letter to followers and interested parties, confirming his plans to build an orphanage and clinic in Kabul, Afghanistan. The letter is posted below:

I made the people of the world a promise. Not the music world, not the subdivision of Hip Hop, not the 4th Branch, and not the 3rd World underground. I made the world a promise. I told people that on June 24ththe
Green Light would be given. I know that people who believe in
Revolution are naturally cynical. They expect their leaders to be
flawless and almost take pride in finding the subtle or blatantly
obvious hypocrisy in those they idolize. That is why I never wanted to
be worshipped or followed blindly.
I know it is hard to trust anyone and anything in this
life, you feel better when you don’t because you feel like you are no
longer as vulnerable. But I am a man of my word and I have never let
other people’s insecurities and self-image dictate my course of action.
I gave my word that there would be a serious mission on June 24th.
Some of you just thought that was just the release of an album, which
it is partly. But it is really so much more than that for me and for
the eternal struggle.
The time has come for me to announce the first stage
of “Project Green Light.” It is the first stage of one of many projects
but an important one that I will dedicate myself to completing. I am
always contacted by different organizations who reach out to me
personally and ask me to fight along side with them in their struggle.
I have done so with immigrant groups, youth detention centers, with
those organizing against police brutality, gang workshops, funding
children’s hospitals in Palestine and of course our fight to try and
preserve the South Central Farm. So once again I am here to answer the
call of my brothers and sisters, whether it comes from across the
street or across the ocean.
I have decided to partner with a Non–Profit Human Rights Organization called Omeid International. (www.omeid.org)
We will come together to build an orphanage/ clinic/ school in Kabul,
Afghanistan for children who have been left without families because of
the wars and diseases that have ravaged the land. It will be called
“The Amin Institute.”
– The
orphanage section will house 20 children at first, from toddlers to
ages 10, while the clinic will service the impoverished community
surrounding it.
– There
will be caregivers there, widows, dedicated people that have witnessed
the violence that has consumed the country since the Russian Invasion
first hand.
– There
will also be a school the serves the area and will teach K through 5 to
the children with certified teachers from here and Afghanistan. And we
will also
have the children work with therapists
and psychologists to aid their undiagnosed post traumatic disorder that
in many cases rivals that of veteran infantry troops.

In every city in America we see homeless people. We have become numb
and desensitized to it, as if it was an acceptable normality. We have
standards around the world about using certain gasses or bombs on
people and yet we have no standard, no right to NOT facing starvation
or poverty. But if you travel to Africa, South America, South East Asia
or The Middle East you will find something we are not used to seeing in
America. Homeless children. The children in Afghanistan face
starvation, death from disease being drafted into warring factions, and
the disgusting child prostitution rings and human traffic of modern day
slavery. I cannot change this throughout the world overnight, or I
would, but I feel as if we have a good chance to start a small project
in Afghanistan that we can build on. I pledge myself to this cause, to
this Revolution.
Pledge 1: I will participate in a gigantic Hip Hop
fundraiser for the orphanage / clinic/ school to be known as ‘The Amin
Institute’. I will reach out to those from New York, Atlanta, Chicago,
LA, the Bay and anywhere else that Hip Hop has Underground and
Mainstream Support so people that I hear talk the talk can join me in
this fight to raise the funds and awareness necessary to complete the
first phase of this program.
Pledge 2: “Amin” the name of the institute literally
means “trustworthy” in Arabic. It is an important word because it was
one of the early nicknames of The Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him)
even before he fathered Islam. I know people are scared to believe in
anything as I said before, and regrettably there have been so many
charlatans scamming their own people over the years. Therefore to show
all that I am working closely and that I fully trust the partners that
I have formed at Omeid International. I will pledge $10,000 of my own
money into a foundation to support the cause.
Pledge 3: We all have a destiny and I will see mine
fulfilled. I will succeed or die trying. And that will come as my
vision for this mission is completed. So, I pledge to personally travel
to Afghanistan and see the completion of the project that I have
decided to dedicate my time and effort to. Omeid after all, is the
Farsi word for hope.
This is not a Middle Eastern issue. It is
not a Muslim issue. It is a Human Rights issue. And that is why I chose
people who came to me with a blueprint, proposal and a passionate
desire for real change. We throw that word around a lot, “change” and
yet the war hasn’t ended…IT has just changed. There has always been an
ulterior motive to our involvement anywhere as a nation and so OUR
response to that will be motivated by selfless Revolutionary action. It
will inter-relate our struggles because I have decided to also create a
forum here on my networking site, so that you can all participate in
Revolutionary action. This is after all something that will BEGIN in
Afghanistan but spread all over the world as different stages are
completed. People from all over the globe have been activated and are
in motion.
To some people this music is just entertainment, and
even if it is that for many people, entertainment can inspire, it can
brighten people, and it can feed their imagination. It can also pacify,
it can placate and distract, it can shadow and mask real problems
around us that we cannot see. But for me this is not about
entertainment, it never has been it has always been a mechanism for
delivering so much more. Hopefully by this time next year there will be
a child in Afghanistan who knows NOTHING about Rap who doesn’t even
know what an Immortal Technique is, and the money I have made off this
music will be giving them a place to live and a chance to learn and
rebuild their own nation instead of paying some US corporation
trillions of tax payer dollars to do so after we destroyed it. Unless
you’re brain dead and completely lost on the meaning of what our
people’s spirit truly is there is no way shape or form to deny no
matter what your taste in music is…THAT is Hip Hop. More so because I’m
not a Hollywood actor making millions getting tax breaks, this was done
with Underground Hip Hop money. That, in itself, is Revolutionary. This
is not making music but it is an integral part of the struggle and one
that must never be forgotten. It’s the foundation of the culture that
we owe our identity to.
I thank you for listening and I hope you will spread the word, support “The 3rd World” and of course donate to the cause at www.omeid.org so
that we may expedite the coming of our combined strength. If I can
succeed here it is a great sign, a sign that I can go to the most
violent and distraught place in the world and triumph. That means that
everywhere else I go, the Caribbean, Africa, South East Asia, Latin
America and anywhere here in the states, that we can succeed.
Con Amor de Revolucion.
Immortal Technique
P.S.
I
am not as worthy as those that have come before me, but greater men
have achieved less and smarter men have accomplished nothing. I am no
longer a Revolutionary Apprentice but a Young full fledged
Revolutionary working towards maturing and strengthening his ideas.
Learning from his failures and building on his success. There have been
many rebels, leaders, and prophets that came before me and there will
be others that come after me. None of these men were perfect, as they
were human and man is naturally imperfect. But as they lived and died
for what they believed in I will devote myself to the causes and the
fights that I pick, not to champion religion or national pride, I seek
no rewards or trophies that I leave to you, for me the fight is all.
Read. Read. Read.”

Immortal Technique‘s The 3rd World is in stores today.