Immortal Technique

3rd World

2008 · Koch · Lima, Peru

Artist
Immortal Technique
Title
3rd World
Release
The 3rd World
Year
2008
Label
Koch
Format
Mixtape
Language
English
Country
Lima, Peru
Genre
Hip Hop · East Coast Hip Hop · Political Hip Hop
Primary theme
Post-War

Annotation

"The 3rd World" "I’m from where the gold and diamonds are ripped from the earth / Right next to the slave castles where the water is cursed / From where police brutality is not half as nice / It makes the hood in America look like paradise / Compared to the AIDS-infested Caribbean slum / African streets where the passport's an American gun / From where they massacre people and try to keep it quiet / And spend the next 25 years tryin' to deny it / I’m from where they cut your hands off if you make a fist / And niggas grow coca, 'cause the job market doesn’t exist / Except slave labor, modern-day company store / And peacekeepers don’t ever ever ever come here no more / From where the bombs that they used to drop on Vietnam / Still has children born deformed, eight months before they gone"

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Rap / Hip Hop Songs

East Coast Hip Hop / Political Hip Hop artist, born Felipe Coronel on 19 February 1978 in Lima, Peru. His family moved to New York in 1980, and he is currently based in Manhattan, New York, USA. Several of his songs referenced the Vietnam War: "Obnoxious" (2003), "The 3rd World" (2008), "Hollywood Drive By" (2008), and "In the Trenches" (2011).This mixtape (Koch Records) featured two references to the Vietnam War. Firstly, the song "Hollywood Drive By", which used Vietnam as a comparison for alleged government lies: "like government officials trying to justify Vietnam". Secondly, the song "The 3rd World" - an outdated term for developing countries, that originated during the Cold War in the 1950s - the artist discussed his home area, describing it as being worse than the US: "from where police brutality is not half as nice, it makes the hood in America look like paradise". He used Vietnam as a metaphor for a war zone: "from where the bombs that they used to drop on Vietnam".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

About the artist

East Coast Hip Hop / Political Hip Hop artist, born Felipe Coronel on 19 February 1978 in Lima, Peru. His family moved to New York in 1980, and he is currently based in Manhattan, New York, USA.

Themes

Police Brutality · Poverty · Vietnam Analogy

In collections

Rap / Hip Hop Songs