Immortal Technique is the stage name of Felipe Andres Coronel, a Peruvian-American rapper and urban activist born in 1978 in Lima. He is raised in Harlem, New York, after his family emigrates there in 1980 to escape internal conflict in Peru.

Style and themes

His lyrics focus on controversial issues in global politics and draw heavily on socialist commentary. Recurring subjects include class hierarchy, poverty, religion, government and institutional racism. He is associated with conscious hip hop, East Coast hip hop, gangsta rap, hardcore hip hop and political hip hop.

Early life

Coronel is African-Peruvian. As a teenager, he is arrested multiple times. He attends Hunter College High School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. After enrolling at Pennsylvania State University, he is arrested and charged in connection with an altercation between students, and he spends a year in prison. After parole, he studies political science at Baruch College for two semesters at his father’s insistence.

Underground reputation and early releases

He develops his rapping skills in prison and later works in restaurants in New York while competing in freestyle battles. Success in underground rap competitions such as Rocksteady Anniversary and Braggin Rites builds his reputation as a battle MC. In 2001, he releases his first album, Revolutionary Vol. 1, without record-label help or distribution, funding it from money earned in battle rap. The album includes “Dance With The Devil”. It is later reissued by Viper Records in 2004 and Babygrande Records in 2005 for wider release.

Recognition and later work

In November 2002, he appears in The Source’s “Unsigned Hype” column. In September 2003, he receives the magazine’s “Hip Hop Quotable” for “Industrial Revolution” from Revolutionary Vol. 2, making him the only rapper to receive that honour while unsigned. He releases Revolutionary Vol. 2 in 2003. “Point of No Return” from that album is used as Rashad Evans’ entrance theme at UFC 88.

Further projects and activism

Between 2005 and 2007, he works on The Middle Passage and The 3rd World, intended as follow-ups to Revolutionary Vol. 2 and the closing chapters of the series. He also appears on film and video game soundtracks. Alongside touring, he visits prisons to speak to young people, works with immigrant-rights activists, raises money for children’s hospitals overseas, invests in farmland in Latin America, and creates a writing grant programme for high school students.

Independence and output

He states a desire to keep control of his production and argues in his music that record companies profit more than artists from mass music marketing. He says he has sold close to 200,000 units across his three official releases.