...
Vel Bakardy
Everybody in Kansas City knows that Vel Bakardy was one of the first rappers to emerge from Kansas City. Along with Ki Roma, along with Jay Lee, along with Jock Mack and Icy Rock and Innovative Black Funk. And along with Cut Fast, all those people and Vel Bakardy was doin it. I was a dancer back then. All my niggaz went to go dance for MC Hammer, but I stayed because I had more music in my bones. Tech N9ne emerges on the scene in the early nineties, I wrote my first rhyme in ’85 when I was in seventh grade. In ’91 I met Icy Rock and we started doin it professionally. We got our first deal in ’93 on Perspective. I was the one everyone was lookin at, Vel Bakardy had faded out. But he faded back in at the end of ’94 cause he got a record deal with American West, Rick Rubin’s label. And it was beautiful. He had an album called Genuine Lika Hits. I went and bought that shit. It was tight. Then one of my niggaz from Pure Dope Posse called me, said "you listenin to that Vel Bakardy shit? You hear that song…" I don’t’ remember what song it was, but when I turned it on the muthafucka was talkin shit about me. We had a crew called Nut House and we were doin crazy shit and he said some shit about Nut House. Why would he say that? And at that time my baby’s mama was rappin with him, a chick named Agony. She was with Nut House, we fucked around, she got pregnant…and she was hangin around Vel a lot so some people were sayin that’s Vel’s baby. I already had a woman who was pregnant at the time, so I was like "we can’t be together." Then she started doin shit with Vel Bakardy. She had a right to talk shit about me because I didn’t wanna be with her. But then he joined her sayin shit about me. I called dude to see what was up. He’s like, I wasn’t talkin about you. Bullshit! He didn’t admit it, so I let it go. Then me and him did a song with the Veteran Click, it was bringin us back together after he dogged me.
After we were released from Perspective, I started doin music with Midwest Side—that’s Diamond Shields and Don Juan—we did a nice single and that shit blew the fuck up in Kansas City. Then in ’97 we got with QD3, Quincy Jones. Me and Don Juan drove out to LA and stayed with QD3, started doin music. Right before I left some niggaz broke into my nigga Big Scoob’s house while he was with his family and at gunpoint stole his money and shit. That night he called me and I slept on Scoob’s couch that night with an AK just in case they came back. After that morning I told Big Scoob, "I’m on my way to LA, I want you to come with me." Scoob’s like, "Fuck that, we gonna stay here and get these niggaz who did this in front of my kids." I begged him to come with me and Don Juan. I told him we need to do a group, 57th Street Rogue Dogs. I wanted him to start doin music, but Scoob was like, "No I don’t know about that." When I moved out to LA them niggaz—Big Scoob, T-Will, Amjar Bakari—started sending me music. They sent me "Up In Here" and they sent me "City of the Scandalous". And it was beautiful, it was like nigga was gonna get back home and we were gonna do big music.
When I got back home, me and the Rogue Dogs started on the album. We did "Let’s Get Fucked Up", "It’s Goin Down" and all that shit. Then—all this ties into Vel Bakardy—because we used to work at a studio called West End and my boy Kev (rest his soul), him and his brother did beautiful music for me, the Rogue Dog’s and Don Juan. He made this bangin beat that became "Let’s Get Fucked Up". We put that together and it was beautiful. Vel Bakardy got a listen to it and he paged me, he’s like "Nigga, I heard you got a song like my ‘Bom Bom’. What’s up? You ain’t supposed to be bitin shit." I’m not knowin what he’s talkin about, but apparently he had a song that sounded kinda like that. I guess our producer had heard it and redid it in a different way. It made us look bad. I got another message right after that, "I’m gonna kill you nigga! You bit my—and I’m gonna get you…" So me, Scoob and all the Rogue Dogs go down to this bar in the Plaza in Kansas City and we get drunk as a muthafucka. Then we get a page that comes from Done Dealer’s house of the Veteran Click, and it had Vel Bakardy’s code on it, so we fly to Done Dealer’s house, bang on all the doors, nobody answers the door. I never got to the nigga that time, but I tell his homeboy to tell Vel I’m trippin. He knows I’m lookin for him so he calls my house, like what’s wrong. "You left that muthafuckin message on my shit sayin you gonna kill me." He’s like "I was just playin." Nigga don’t play like that. I blew it off. But I run into the niggaz a couple weeks later at a party, we slap hands and then bump our heads real heard. Then he says to me, "I’m gonna tell you why we can’t fuck around and do music because you worship Satan and I worship the Lord." I said, "Nigga you stupid. Fuck you!"
Before that he used to always want to battle me and I wouldn’t do it. In a battle he would win, cause he’s witty and he’s a freestyler. Me, I’m not like that. I took too many drugs to think quick. Makin songs and rhymin, he can’t fuck with me, but on a freestyle tip he’s the one. He’s a funny cat, he’s a cartoon character. The nigga started trippin with me because I wouldn’t battle him. He wanted his spot back. He wants people to know that he’s the nigga that started it in Kansas City. All I gotta say to that is, Nigga do the hits and maybe muthafuckas will listen to your shit. The song "Cracker" he did for the Murder Dog Kansas City compilation is the best song he ever did. I think it’s the funniest shit ever. He’s sayin I’m a White muthafucka just because I hooked with Travis O’Guin and started makin shit happen. Niggaz always say White people come to Tech shows, but if they fuckin got outta the hood for a minute and they’d see that 90% of the consumers are White muthafuckas. So it’s a blessin. It starts in the hood and then when it stretches outside the hood that’s a beautiful thing. That means you’re makin money. You’re bringin money back to your people. But they turned it against me sayin I’m a cracker because White people come to my shows. You ask Dr. Dre, you ask 50 Cent, ask Jay-Z, when they go out to do their shows who do they see in the audience? It’s more White muthafuckas than anything. Because your shit crosses over once it makes it outside the hood. That’s a good thing. Niggaz don’t know that because they’re stuck in the fuckin hood. The only muthafuckas that are buyin their shit are their homeboys. But the homeboys, the Latino muthafuckas, the Chinese muthafuckas, White muthafuckas, Native American muthafuckas, everybody is buyin Tech N9ne. Because Tech N9ne is everything, Tech N9ne is every niggaz in one. It’s not just one section. But I’ll be the first to say "Cracker" was a pretty good goddamn song.
...
