Why is Immortal Technique’s Revolutionary, Vol. 1 on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Smart, blistering underground hip hop with ultra-tight flow.
Some stats & info about Immortal Technique – Revolutionary, Vol. 1
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rap, Hip Hop, Underground Hip Hop, East Coast Rap, Political Rap, Hardcore Rap
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Revolutionary, Vol. 1 released? 2001
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #975 out of 1,000
Immortal Technique’s Revolutionary, Vol. 1 on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.
What does Immortal Technique’s Revolutionary, Vol. 1mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
When I throw on the first track, “Creation & Destruction,” it occurs to me that this is reasonable example of a song that will tell you whether or not you’re into underground hip hop.
I very much am, so I’m all in from beat one.
Of course, the not so little secret here is that this is superior underground hip hop. The bare bones production sets an intriguing hip hop backbeat, but it’s Immortal Technique (also known as artist Felipe Coronel) that shows off a crisp, intelligent, and aggressive flow that makes you sit up and give this music all of your attention.
Spoiler alert that there is R rated lyrics abounding here. I’m taking note of the musical experience itself and not specifically to the political and other intent of the lyrics. Honestly, I’m not really sure what kind of “revolution” that Immortal Technique is espousing; a musical one, perhaps, based on the clever microphone and sickle (playing off the former Soviet Union’s infamous hammer and sickle symbol) displayed on the album cover.
“Dance with the Devil” is my favorite track on the album, which deploys a pretty and somewhat melancholy piano riff. The first few minutes are pretty great, but then goes next level with a wonderful Wu-Tang-like transition into a string arrangement and a slightly faster beat.
“No Me Importa” leverages a Latin jazz lounge backdrop – sampling the outstanding “Comin’ Home Baby” by Herbie Mann, in fact – while once again allowing Immortal Technique to do his immortal technical thing.
This album also sounds like
I think there’s certainly some homage to the Wu-Tang Clan and Nas here, while also touching on other unique underground hip hop artists such as Brother Ali and CunninLynguists.
Pop culture stuff that’s somehow related to Immortal Technique’s Revolutionary, Vol. 1
The album’s microphone and sickle shtick reminds me that I follow a Twitter feed called Soviet Visuals, which includes all kinds of propaganda posters, art work, photographs, and video from the Soviet era.
Here’s a few examples.