This is old, back in 2003, but I just really like it... and for those who havent read it, its a good read so just check it out... This is the reason I fuckin love this dude....
--------Tech N9ne--------
Closing his eyes and moving methodically to the music - his music - Kansas City superstar Tech N9ne silently mouths the rhythm and rhyme that's sending his new release "Slacker" to the top of the charts overseas. Inspiring his current tour in Australia. And calling for a long-awaited move to the West Coast.
"It's spreading like a virus, and that's what we planned," the 31-year-old Blue Springs rapper says, flashing a smile. "It's beautiful."
Beautiful is how "Slacker" secured a Top 20 hot spot in Australia, selling 5,000 singles in its first two weeks. And beautiful is selling out shows from Columbia to Colorado.
"Everywhere we went there were Tech N9ne fans," he says. "That's absolute power to me - to move a sea of people through song.
"Music is a beautiful thing to do. When everything else is down, music lifts you up. Nothing beats that. But performing it - people coming to see just you - that's rare, and that's what been happening to me. They come there to see me."
Sold out shows here, sold out shows overseas - Tech fidgets in his chair, excited by the momentum, the frenzy his second CD - "Absolute Power" - has created since its early fall release.
"I'm going to come back one of the Backstreet Boys or something," he says, laughing.
Not that he looks like a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Backstreet Boy. His signature two-toned red and black afro sticks straight up from his head, that is often painted red and silver. His compact body swims in an oversized Red Sox jersey and a black Tech N9ne jacket. He is a familiar face in Westport. His van a staple in the streets.
But it hasn't always been that way. Tech pushed into the Kansas City rap scene 10 years ago, struggling to break out from stifling record labels that didn't understand his style, talent and personality.
"People who make it out of here are soldiers," he says. "I've been kicked down so many times, it'll make you want to say, boow."
But Tech didn't give up.
"We never stopped pushing and giving them beautiful music," he explains.
Hooking up with Strange Music - led by Blue Springs resident Travis O'Guin - finally gave Tech the opportunity to be himself and not an industry puppet, inspiring his controversial F--- the Industry campaign.
"When you see this, that's me," Tech says. "I'm not trying to be anybody else. I speak, and I tell my own story. I give them mine, and if me's not good enough, I'm in trouble, and it's working because I can't be anyone else."
Garnering attention from MTV and other big-name musicians, FTI is an attack on an industry Tech claims monopolizes radio and video play, as well as jacking up CD prices and forbidding CD burning, file sharing and downloading.
"The radio game is really hard to play," says O'Guin. If you're not one of the five majors, it's really hard to get into the radio game. It's organized payola. People used to go to jail for that, and now days this is just a system in place, and a lot of people are upset about it.
"We can either sit here and bow down and kiss their ass and do everything, or say we tried to play your game, but since you wouldn't let us in and everything ..."
So Strange Music puts Tech's two CDs - Anghellic and Absolute Power - online. It's free to download. And much to the industry's chagrin, giving away the CD is increasing actual sales.
"Hey, we have beautiful music, and a lot of these record labels, they know a lot of their artists are bull****, they know if you sample music and only one or two songs, you won't buy it.
"I give them quality music. I don't half-ass on any songs, and the fans recognize that."
Tech added a seven-minute DVD with seven new songs to his album, encouraging fans to go out and buy the album after listening to it on the Internet. Sales continue to rise.
A third CD - "Ever Ready the Religion" - is on Tech's agenda, but only after he finishes touring with "Absolute Power." And that could be a while.
"After ÔAbsolute Power,' we'll be ever-ready to blow, or we'll already be there, and the religion is the belief, the belief in Tech N9ne," Tech explains.
And with the song "I'm a Player" already making waves, Tech is ready. Moving to Los Angeles is the next step.
"Kansas City is a beautiful place to raise a family," Tech says. "But now, availability is the key word - to be where everything is happening."
And his kids - 8-year-old Alyia, 3-year-old Reign and 2-year-old Dontez - are excited to hit the Hollywood glamour.
"She's a superstar - she can't wait to go to LA," Tech says about his daughter Reign. "She keeps saying, ÔI'm going to be a star daddy.'"
But her daddy is already a Kansas City star - a regular politician and partier everywhere from schools to strip clubs.
"You can't launch a big ass campaign at home, you have to go out here - kiss hands and kiss babies," Tech says.
During the day, Tech might stop by Grain Valley High School to sign autographs. That night, he's at Satin Dolls, where his autograph is on the door.
"I party 24-7," he says, popping an Ice Breaker mint. "I'm just a party animal, hippy-cat, free love - let's do it, let's kick it."
While the fan fare is crazy here - teens drive by his Blue Springs home blaring his album and stealing his mail - nothing compares to the British rappers who faked passports and bank accounts to reach Tech in the U.S. When they were busted by a maid for their phony documents, they explained that recording with Tech - a huge star in Great Britain - would secure their shots at a record deal.
"Hopefully, when they get out we can meet on some legal grounds and do something beautiful," he says. "It's bad, but I tell my people this is the life we chose.
"The kind of superstar I'm talking about being, it's going to be worse."
Shooting straight up to superstar status isn't shadowing Tech's devotion to other musicians, though. In fact, he's trying to pull them up with him.
Kansas City artists like Big Chris Calico and Kutt - as well as Vertigo, featured in The X's January issue - take the stage at Tech N9ne concerts.
"The fans are feeling me, so I find people equally as talented and say let's do this," Tech says, palms open and out. "It helps ... we all feed our children."
A brotherly arm around other rappers, Tech is free with advice.
"It's real simple, man - I always say, do what you feel, do what you know, try to put together the best product you can find. You have to find the most beautiful beats."
And Tech passes along advice he received from Quincy Jones - who calls Tech the "Michael Jackson of rap."
"Be you, rap what you know, and do what you feel, and people will forever feel you," Tech relates. "That's what I do - I give them my life.
"I speak from here," he says, pointing to his heart. "It comes like running water."
--------Tech N9ne--------
Closing his eyes and moving methodically to the music - his music - Kansas City superstar Tech N9ne silently mouths the rhythm and rhyme that's sending his new release "Slacker" to the top of the charts overseas. Inspiring his current tour in Australia. And calling for a long-awaited move to the West Coast.
"It's spreading like a virus, and that's what we planned," the 31-year-old Blue Springs rapper says, flashing a smile. "It's beautiful."
Beautiful is how "Slacker" secured a Top 20 hot spot in Australia, selling 5,000 singles in its first two weeks. And beautiful is selling out shows from Columbia to Colorado.
"Everywhere we went there were Tech N9ne fans," he says. "That's absolute power to me - to move a sea of people through song.
"Music is a beautiful thing to do. When everything else is down, music lifts you up. Nothing beats that. But performing it - people coming to see just you - that's rare, and that's what been happening to me. They come there to see me."
Sold out shows here, sold out shows overseas - Tech fidgets in his chair, excited by the momentum, the frenzy his second CD - "Absolute Power" - has created since its early fall release.
"I'm going to come back one of the Backstreet Boys or something," he says, laughing.
Not that he looks like a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Backstreet Boy. His signature two-toned red and black afro sticks straight up from his head, that is often painted red and silver. His compact body swims in an oversized Red Sox jersey and a black Tech N9ne jacket. He is a familiar face in Westport. His van a staple in the streets.
But it hasn't always been that way. Tech pushed into the Kansas City rap scene 10 years ago, struggling to break out from stifling record labels that didn't understand his style, talent and personality.
"People who make it out of here are soldiers," he says. "I've been kicked down so many times, it'll make you want to say, boow."
But Tech didn't give up.
"We never stopped pushing and giving them beautiful music," he explains.
Hooking up with Strange Music - led by Blue Springs resident Travis O'Guin - finally gave Tech the opportunity to be himself and not an industry puppet, inspiring his controversial F--- the Industry campaign.
"When you see this, that's me," Tech says. "I'm not trying to be anybody else. I speak, and I tell my own story. I give them mine, and if me's not good enough, I'm in trouble, and it's working because I can't be anyone else."
Garnering attention from MTV and other big-name musicians, FTI is an attack on an industry Tech claims monopolizes radio and video play, as well as jacking up CD prices and forbidding CD burning, file sharing and downloading.
"The radio game is really hard to play," says O'Guin. If you're not one of the five majors, it's really hard to get into the radio game. It's organized payola. People used to go to jail for that, and now days this is just a system in place, and a lot of people are upset about it.
"We can either sit here and bow down and kiss their ass and do everything, or say we tried to play your game, but since you wouldn't let us in and everything ..."
So Strange Music puts Tech's two CDs - Anghellic and Absolute Power - online. It's free to download. And much to the industry's chagrin, giving away the CD is increasing actual sales.
"Hey, we have beautiful music, and a lot of these record labels, they know a lot of their artists are bull****, they know if you sample music and only one or two songs, you won't buy it.
"I give them quality music. I don't half-ass on any songs, and the fans recognize that."
Tech added a seven-minute DVD with seven new songs to his album, encouraging fans to go out and buy the album after listening to it on the Internet. Sales continue to rise.
A third CD - "Ever Ready the Religion" - is on Tech's agenda, but only after he finishes touring with "Absolute Power." And that could be a while.
"After ÔAbsolute Power,' we'll be ever-ready to blow, or we'll already be there, and the religion is the belief, the belief in Tech N9ne," Tech explains.
And with the song "I'm a Player" already making waves, Tech is ready. Moving to Los Angeles is the next step.
"Kansas City is a beautiful place to raise a family," Tech says. "But now, availability is the key word - to be where everything is happening."
And his kids - 8-year-old Alyia, 3-year-old Reign and 2-year-old Dontez - are excited to hit the Hollywood glamour.
"She's a superstar - she can't wait to go to LA," Tech says about his daughter Reign. "She keeps saying, ÔI'm going to be a star daddy.'"
But her daddy is already a Kansas City star - a regular politician and partier everywhere from schools to strip clubs.
"You can't launch a big ass campaign at home, you have to go out here - kiss hands and kiss babies," Tech says.
During the day, Tech might stop by Grain Valley High School to sign autographs. That night, he's at Satin Dolls, where his autograph is on the door.
"I party 24-7," he says, popping an Ice Breaker mint. "I'm just a party animal, hippy-cat, free love - let's do it, let's kick it."
While the fan fare is crazy here - teens drive by his Blue Springs home blaring his album and stealing his mail - nothing compares to the British rappers who faked passports and bank accounts to reach Tech in the U.S. When they were busted by a maid for their phony documents, they explained that recording with Tech - a huge star in Great Britain - would secure their shots at a record deal.
"Hopefully, when they get out we can meet on some legal grounds and do something beautiful," he says. "It's bad, but I tell my people this is the life we chose.
"The kind of superstar I'm talking about being, it's going to be worse."
Shooting straight up to superstar status isn't shadowing Tech's devotion to other musicians, though. In fact, he's trying to pull them up with him.
Kansas City artists like Big Chris Calico and Kutt - as well as Vertigo, featured in The X's January issue - take the stage at Tech N9ne concerts.
"The fans are feeling me, so I find people equally as talented and say let's do this," Tech says, palms open and out. "It helps ... we all feed our children."
A brotherly arm around other rappers, Tech is free with advice.
"It's real simple, man - I always say, do what you feel, do what you know, try to put together the best product you can find. You have to find the most beautiful beats."
And Tech passes along advice he received from Quincy Jones - who calls Tech the "Michael Jackson of rap."
"Be you, rap what you know, and do what you feel, and people will forever feel you," Tech relates. "That's what I do - I give them my life.
"I speak from here," he says, pointing to his heart. "It comes like running water."
