Immortal Technique on Lin-Manuel Miranda Bullying Story: “Learn From My Mistakes Kids. Protect Those Who Need Help”

On a recent episode of the “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed that his high school bully was the rapper Immortal Technique. “He was our school bully. He terrorized kids, he threw them in the garbage,” Miranda said. “I got thrown in the garbage by him.” Since then, somebody started a Change.org petition to “Get Immortal Technique to Throw Lin-Manuel Miranda in the trash can again.” Tech has now responded to the campaign, tweeting, “Whoever made this. Pls take it down. He wasn’t dissing me, it was a story about personable growth & media twisted it.” He added, “Much Love & Respect for my brother & his beautiful family.” See Immortal Technique’s comments below.

Immortal Technique also issued a long statement. Read it below:

The other day, in response a to a slew of articles that came out about my young life, Lin Manuel Miranda and many others were gracious enough to point out the changes I have made and the humanitarian actions I have been a part of since high school. After listening to the podcast that all of this originated from, we both found the click-bait headlines misleading. It was a story about personal growth and redemption, and people twisted it into us being long-time adversaries. 

 

We have always been very proud of each others’ success, and we even joked about these articles with each other on Twitter over the weekend. To this day I’m appreciative to say that we are friends, we are both staunch supporters of immigrant rights, and we will continue the fight against bigotry in our respective ways. I guess I could’ve taken the humorous route and said something like “And you thought it was hard for YOU to get tickets to Hamilton.” I just thought, that without a larger context, something could be lost in all this friendly exchange. I wouldn’t want my supporters to get the impression that anyone was trying to normalize childish bullying, especially coming from someone who now fights for others.

 

People have told me that back in high school they saw me as both a reckless antagonist and a well-meaning vigilante. I protected the people close to me from kids in school and fought hard against outside groups looking to herb kids. But I also had very little patience with many of the kids who went there, and I even took my anger out on those who were trying to help me. I rarely stopped to think about what that person was going through. I thought by showing strength and power, people would fear me and therefore respect me. As a result I’m sorry to say that I hurt some of the people I should have been protecting. I ended up exacerbating a lot of my problems. And I guess at 17 it was hard for me to see that the person I was really fighting was myself.

 

I want to be very clear with my supporters, I wasn’t just a bully in as a kid, I was a criminal. I lived a very violent life. I did way worse things that I don’t choose to glorify — things worse than harassing kids and put them in trash cans. I robbed, I stole, I sold drugs, I ran with gangs. I have never hidden this part of myself. In a way growing out of that, helps me relate to the kids out there, sometimes a lot more than people who never experienced these things. But I can’t excuse my behavior by simply claiming I lived in a non-gentrified NYC.

 

As adults we like to think that children are going to come to us with all of their problems. The sad reality is that they often don’t. I used to see violence as the answer to all my problems with someone else. The sad reality is that when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. I understand that there are some people who will never see me as anything more than the angry young person I was 20 years ago. I think that’s unfortunate, however as an adult I have to accept that and hope that at least some of them will look at my life’s work since then and understand that a real change is possible.

Pitchfork recently reached out to Immortal Technique’s reps for further comment, but they said they could not contact him, as he was busy working on his next record, The Middle Passage–his first LP since 2008’s The 3rd World. He recently offered an update on his Facebook, stating that it should be out in the second quarter of 2017, and adding, “It’s been a long time…I shouldn’t have left you, without a strong rhyme to step to.” Pitchfork has once again reached out to Tech’s reps for more information.

Whoever made this. Pls take it down. He wasn’t dissing me, it was a story about personable growth & media twisted it https://t.co/A6GPL9yB8A

— IG: TechImmortal (@ImmortalTech) November 18, 2016

Don’t fall for the clickbait headline,
Nothing but love for @ImmortalTech, a voice for the voiceless in his music, always.
Pa’lante ‘mano.

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) November 15, 2016

Much Love & Respect for my brother & his beautiful family. I’m proud to fight for something nowadays, rather than fighting for no reason. https://t.co/WYsTFZjJQe

— IG: TechImmortal (@ImmortalTech) November 18, 2016

@DonnieSasso @Change Yeah it’s a shame that people twisted it an made it seem like we hated each other. I was a different person back then.

— IG: TechImmortal (@ImmortalTech) November 18, 2016

@DonnieSasso @Change I mean damn Donnie. You knew me before I went to prison. I was a reckless kid. Now we fight for our genre, not BS…lol

— IG: TechImmortal (@ImmortalTech) November 18, 2016

He played one of the leads in a play called “Test-Pilot” And I played one of the leads in a play called “The Waiting Room” by Loren Hammonds https://t.co/pZCdnKu9YW

— IG: TechImmortal (@ImmortalTech) November 18, 2016

We have way too many people trying to demonize us these days. Eyes on the prize! Learn from my mistakes kids. Protect those who need help. https://t.co/90YAeGzmy5

— IG: TechImmortal (@ImmortalTech) November 18, 2016

Thank you hermano! You’re a class act https://t.co/WwNBdBb5Gs

— IG: TechImmortal (@ImmortalTech) November 18, 2016

Listen to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new song with Nas, Dave East, and Aloe Blacc from the Hamilton Mixtape:

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