Immortal Technique Opens Up About His Relationship With Lin-Manuel Miranda and High School Bullying (Exclusive)

Immortal Technique has responded to Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda's story about being bullied by the rapper back in high school. If you missed the initial news, Miranda stopped by Marc Maron's garage for an episode of "WTF" and revealed that the rapper bullied him at Hunter College High School in New York, going so far as to throw him in a trash can.

Now, the rapper has shared his side of the story. "It was a story about personal growth and redemption, and people twisted it into us being long-time adversaries," Immortal told Complex over email. "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."

It turns out the two are even friends now, which is why Immortal almost responded to the entire story in a less serious way. However, the pair share a deeper bond for important issues and it seems that bond inspired Immortal to respond to the headlines in a different way. "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."

Immortal also decided to take a deep turn and be sure to tell Complex that he is not proud of his actions when he was younger. "I want to be very clear with my supporters, I wasn’t just a bully as a kid, I was a criminal. I lived a very violent life," he explained. "I did way worse things that I don’t choose to glorify—things worse than harassing kids and put them in trash cans." He also understands that despite his change, people will always see him as he 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."

You can read Immortal Tech's full statement to Complex below.