Immortal Technique‘s
latest LP, The 3rd World is finally
close to its release date. The album, which has been highly anticipated by Tech fans for about 5
years, is set to hit store shelves Tuesday, June 24. With that on the way,
I.T. is using his promotion time to
send a message to young folks about democracy.
Technique and Fat Beats are on a mission to get more young people voting. That
will be the message at the record release party for the new album, which will
be held in New York’s famed Fat Beats
store. Owner and founder of Fat Beats,
Joseph Abajian and the emcee decided to include a voter registration booth
at the event, which should see a good turnout of young people.
In a statement, Abajian explained
the reasoning for the decision to have this message at this event.
“The original intent of hip-hop was
to lead a more informed, righteous life by getting kids out of gangs and
educating them. Back in the day, we had Melle
Mel and Public Enemy to hold the
torch, but nowadays, Tech is one of
the last standing emcees who talks about politics in his rhymes. We need to
wake up the hip-hop generation, who has been blinded by bling, money, and women.”
Technique expanded on this by adding
the motto that one can do things locally to create a global effect.
“Even though democracy can be
circumvented (and it traditionally has been) it is important for us to remember
that voting is just one aspect of it, voting 25 times every century is
only a part of democracy, what holds a society together are the institutions
that it sets up. Those will outlast any regime and echo throughout
history. Voting is important because all politics is local and what we do
locally can be seen nationally, and then…globally.”
3rd World will be out Tuesday, June
24 featuring guest spots from Chino XL,
Ras Kass, Crooked I and others. The release party/voting
registration begins midnight tonight.
