Earlier this week, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed that his high school bully was rapper Immortal Technique, saying, "He terrorized kids, he threw them in the garbage. I got thrown in the garbage by him." Now, Immortal Technique has responded, explaining his point of view on the situation.
In a statement to Complex, Tech said, "It was a story about personal growth and redemption, and people twisted it into us being long-time adversaries." He added that the two are friends today, explaining, "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."
After remaining relatively quiet about the matter until now, Tech continued, "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."
Continuing to explain that people have told him they saw him as "both a reckless antagonist and a well-meaning vigilante" in high school, Tech says he's "sorry that he hurt some of the people [he] should have been protecting." Then he added that his violent activity wasn't limited to bullying as a kid, and that he was a criminal who got mixed up with gangs and selling drugs—a fact he has never hidden.
He concluded, "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."
Read his full statement below.
The other day, in response 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 clickbait headlines misleading. It was a story about personal growth and redemption, and people twisted it into us being long-time adversaries.
