Q&A: Rapper Tech N9ne
by Serene Dominic - May. 18, 2009 02:51 PM
Special to The Arizona Republic
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy." Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne is living both ends of this truism. Calling in from a very plush tour bus (formerly owned by Three Doors Down), he's perhaps the most successful independent rapper in the game today.
His last album "Killer," whose cover art parodied Michael Jackson's "Thriller," put him over the career milestone of one million Tech N9ne CDs sold, all without the help of an industry that even at this late date doesn't want to accept a Black man with a partially White-painted face, unless you want to count Michael Jackson's vitiligo.
Tech's latest album, "Sickology 101," is a collaboration album including some regulars from his Strange Music stable (Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, Big Scoob) and new names (Potluck, Messy Marv, Chino XL and Crooked I). The sickness in the title refers to ill rhymes and sick subject matter. Anyone who comes to this album hoping for a rap examination of our failing health care system will just have to wait until someone goes edutainment crazy.
Question: You announced "Sickology 101" when we spoke last year. Was "Sickology" always going to be a collaborations album?
Answer: I always do an appetizer before I do my solo record. Like last time, I did "MLK" before I did "Killer." So now "Sickology" comes out before "K.O.D.," which comes out on October 27. I'm writing that one as we speak.
Q: You're also running a contest to see if fans can figure out what "K.O.D." stands for. I'm going to throw my hat into the ring and guess right now. Is it "Kill On Demand"?
A: No! (ha ha) No way. I can't tell you. Actually, a couple of people on this tour guessed it but I won't tell them they got it.
Q: So then it's possible I guessed correctly but you're going to make me wait 'til October to find out if I'm right.
A: Ha! Ha! That's right! I wouldn't tell you if you got it. But that ain't it.
Q: Fair enough. On the song "Midwest Choppers," you claim to have searched the world for the fastest, sickest rappers. Does Strange Music get demos from all parts of the globe? From Denmark? Australia?
A: We've done music from Turkey. That fast rap. We've done Denmark, Australia, everywhere
Q: Do they rap in their native languages?
A: They do. Maybe I should look for choppers overseas. But the ones over here are the shiznizzle.
Q: On this collaboration record, who is the rapper that keeps you the most on your toes? That you have to sweat to keep up with?
A: Let's see, on this record . . . (pause) Tech N9ne? (laughs)
Q: That's because you have to keep surpassing yourself . . .
A: Some of the stuff I do is hard for me to say. When I do "Red Nose" onstage every night, that's a hard song. To do all that onstage and stay on beat for me is a challenge.
(Here Tech N9ne demonstrates his wordplay, which he does frequently in conversation so you know there's no separation between what the artist raps and what the man lives. Even doing the rap at half speed the words come almost faster than the brain can process them).
Q: That song "Red Nose" is a great way to put in perspective how the industry, particularly radio and TV, isn't giving Tech N9ne any play. But you're doing so well as an independent, why even make the point? You really don't need them.
A: It's my heart on that track. It's everything I ever wanted to say about this industry. The "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" comparison to me is perfect because I never get called to play my music for any award shows. You'd think they'd have an independent section on some of these awards, the Grammys or what have you. Billboard. They just call all the major cats. And I'm like, "Damn, they don't want me to play any reindeer games."
Q: You would think at a point now when radio and TV are losing people to other alternatives like cable and satellite and the Internet, they would take a chance on maybe being right once in a while.
A: We're doing so well, it's like we don't really need assistance anymore. We're in our own world man, and our world is working perfectly. I don't know if I want to let anything in from the outside world. Of course I'd like to be on television. That's how the world will get to know you. Of course it would be wonderful to hear Tech N9ne on the radio, a bit of realism, something raw and not fabricated. But we're leery now. "Do we want this?"
Q: You'd be a natural for television.
A: That's what I mean. I'm a spectacle. Just look at that album cover. Who wouldn't want to see something like that on television? And hear me be me. I'm here talking to you from my tour bus. This isn't rehearsed. This is me. This is my life.
Q: Last tour, I got to see your tour bus and vidcast from it.
(http://killingtimeproductions.com/content/serene/index10.php)
It was Hannah Montana's old tour bus. Have you upgraded? What are you riding now? The Jonas Brothers' previous bus?
A: This one is brand new. The people that had it before us was Three Doors Down. These are all condo bunks so I can fit three girls in here if I wanted to.
Q: In the song "Sickology," Chino XL worked in that line about having punch lines like Chris Brown. This stuff is pretty up to the minute.
A: We did the album in a month. Chino did that line as it came out in the news. He's a poet, man. You can't get nothin' past Chino and he ain't gonna hold nothin' back. I sent the beat out to him the week it happened and it was perfect.
Q: I love the fact that you've got someone here rhyming Barack Obama with Jeffrey Dahmer. Are you getting any flack for that?
A: (laughs) Who said that on my stuff? I can't even say that!
Q: I like what you do on "Poh Me Anutha." I'm so sick of songs about bein' "in da club" all the time and you just do a song that sidesteps the club to go drinking in a bar.
A: How many people do you know that just go to a bar. It don't have to be a club. Lately I prefer a bar. Because me going to a club is like me going to an autograph signing.
Q: Because they have the VIP section. They want to make a big deal of you being there
A: I gotta take a million pictures. Which is cool but when you go to a club, you just want to sit in a corner. I want to be where it's dark. I get to watch everybody dance and drink my drink. When you put your life out like that, it's a wonderful thing but you've got to be ready for pictures and sign a million breasts.
SOURCE: http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/music/articles/2009/05/18/20090518techn9ne.html
by Serene Dominic - May. 18, 2009 02:51 PM
Special to The Arizona Republic
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy." Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne is living both ends of this truism. Calling in from a very plush tour bus (formerly owned by Three Doors Down), he's perhaps the most successful independent rapper in the game today.
His last album "Killer," whose cover art parodied Michael Jackson's "Thriller," put him over the career milestone of one million Tech N9ne CDs sold, all without the help of an industry that even at this late date doesn't want to accept a Black man with a partially White-painted face, unless you want to count Michael Jackson's vitiligo.
Tech's latest album, "Sickology 101," is a collaboration album including some regulars from his Strange Music stable (Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, Big Scoob) and new names (Potluck, Messy Marv, Chino XL and Crooked I). The sickness in the title refers to ill rhymes and sick subject matter. Anyone who comes to this album hoping for a rap examination of our failing health care system will just have to wait until someone goes edutainment crazy.
Question: You announced "Sickology 101" when we spoke last year. Was "Sickology" always going to be a collaborations album?
Answer: I always do an appetizer before I do my solo record. Like last time, I did "MLK" before I did "Killer." So now "Sickology" comes out before "K.O.D.," which comes out on October 27. I'm writing that one as we speak.
Q: You're also running a contest to see if fans can figure out what "K.O.D." stands for. I'm going to throw my hat into the ring and guess right now. Is it "Kill On Demand"?
A: No! (ha ha) No way. I can't tell you. Actually, a couple of people on this tour guessed it but I won't tell them they got it.
Q: So then it's possible I guessed correctly but you're going to make me wait 'til October to find out if I'm right.
A: Ha! Ha! That's right! I wouldn't tell you if you got it. But that ain't it.
Q: Fair enough. On the song "Midwest Choppers," you claim to have searched the world for the fastest, sickest rappers. Does Strange Music get demos from all parts of the globe? From Denmark? Australia?
A: We've done music from Turkey. That fast rap. We've done Denmark, Australia, everywhere
Q: Do they rap in their native languages?
A: They do. Maybe I should look for choppers overseas. But the ones over here are the shiznizzle.
Q: On this collaboration record, who is the rapper that keeps you the most on your toes? That you have to sweat to keep up with?
A: Let's see, on this record . . . (pause) Tech N9ne? (laughs)
Q: That's because you have to keep surpassing yourself . . .
A: Some of the stuff I do is hard for me to say. When I do "Red Nose" onstage every night, that's a hard song. To do all that onstage and stay on beat for me is a challenge.
(Here Tech N9ne demonstrates his wordplay, which he does frequently in conversation so you know there's no separation between what the artist raps and what the man lives. Even doing the rap at half speed the words come almost faster than the brain can process them).
Q: That song "Red Nose" is a great way to put in perspective how the industry, particularly radio and TV, isn't giving Tech N9ne any play. But you're doing so well as an independent, why even make the point? You really don't need them.
A: It's my heart on that track. It's everything I ever wanted to say about this industry. The "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" comparison to me is perfect because I never get called to play my music for any award shows. You'd think they'd have an independent section on some of these awards, the Grammys or what have you. Billboard. They just call all the major cats. And I'm like, "Damn, they don't want me to play any reindeer games."
Q: You would think at a point now when radio and TV are losing people to other alternatives like cable and satellite and the Internet, they would take a chance on maybe being right once in a while.
A: We're doing so well, it's like we don't really need assistance anymore. We're in our own world man, and our world is working perfectly. I don't know if I want to let anything in from the outside world. Of course I'd like to be on television. That's how the world will get to know you. Of course it would be wonderful to hear Tech N9ne on the radio, a bit of realism, something raw and not fabricated. But we're leery now. "Do we want this?"
Q: You'd be a natural for television.
A: That's what I mean. I'm a spectacle. Just look at that album cover. Who wouldn't want to see something like that on television? And hear me be me. I'm here talking to you from my tour bus. This isn't rehearsed. This is me. This is my life.
Q: Last tour, I got to see your tour bus and vidcast from it.
(http://killingtimeproductions.com/content/serene/index10.php)
It was Hannah Montana's old tour bus. Have you upgraded? What are you riding now? The Jonas Brothers' previous bus?
A: This one is brand new. The people that had it before us was Three Doors Down. These are all condo bunks so I can fit three girls in here if I wanted to.
Q: In the song "Sickology," Chino XL worked in that line about having punch lines like Chris Brown. This stuff is pretty up to the minute.
A: We did the album in a month. Chino did that line as it came out in the news. He's a poet, man. You can't get nothin' past Chino and he ain't gonna hold nothin' back. I sent the beat out to him the week it happened and it was perfect.
Q: I love the fact that you've got someone here rhyming Barack Obama with Jeffrey Dahmer. Are you getting any flack for that?
A: (laughs) Who said that on my stuff? I can't even say that!
Q: I like what you do on "Poh Me Anutha." I'm so sick of songs about bein' "in da club" all the time and you just do a song that sidesteps the club to go drinking in a bar.
A: How many people do you know that just go to a bar. It don't have to be a club. Lately I prefer a bar. Because me going to a club is like me going to an autograph signing.
Q: Because they have the VIP section. They want to make a big deal of you being there
A: I gotta take a million pictures. Which is cool but when you go to a club, you just want to sit in a corner. I want to be where it's dark. I get to watch everybody dance and drink my drink. When you put your life out like that, it's a wonderful thing but you've got to be ready for pictures and sign a million breasts.
SOURCE: http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/music/articles/2009/05/18/20090518techn9ne.html
