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Immortal Technique Bullied Lin-Manuel Miranda, But Today They’re Cool

With the major success of his Broadway music Hamilton and a second mixtape well on the way (it’s looking to drop next month according to Billboard), man of many titles (actor, composer, rapper, writer) Lin-Manuel Miranda is in high demand. He’s been doing the press tours as of late, with one of his stops being Marc Maron’s acclaimed WTF podcast.

While the conversation was naturally centred on Hamilton and the success of the musical, there was a brief mention of rapper Immortal Technique (who just a short while ago gave his thoughts on Kanye’s YEEZUS collection) which has been making headlines and heads spin. While Miranda himself was undoubtedly gracious throughout the discussion and tweeted to ignore the click-bait headlines, it seemed as though the two share a less than amicable past when discussions turned their time in high-school together at around the 39-minute mark in the interview.

According to the playwright, Immortal Technique was in fact the bully of his high school who enjoyed, rather unceremoniously, throwing other kids into the garbage. . “He terrorized kids, he threw them in the garbage. I got thrown in the garbage by him… He got a part senior year [in the school play] and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m in a f–king play with the dude that scares the shit out of all my friends.”

However, Miranda was sure to preface his comments with nothing but admiration for the man his high school bully grew up to become. Long-gone are the rapper’s days of dumpster tossing and he has gone on to become an incredible social activist whose music deals with everything from classism and institutional racism to religion and imperialism. “He’s one of the most political, ideological [MCs]. He really made an incredible life for himself as a rapper… He was a really angry kid and it’s been wonderful to watch him grow up and find a political outlet for that anger.”

 

Image: Billboard