West Coast Rydaz: So it's been four years since Absolute Power....
Tech N9ne: Four years brother!
West Coast Rydaz: Why did it take so long to release a new album?
Tech N9ne: I'll tell you exactly why it took so long man. because since 2002 we been touring like madmen dogg. Know what I'm sizzlin? Doing all these shows like we do, we tour like a rock band. Im talking about we just came back from Copenhagen, Denmark doing the festival with Tool, Kanye West, Bob Dylan and Guns and Roses, George Clinton. Just over there like crazy! We just got off 10 dates with DMX and Bone. It just keeps going. All year round! Me and Paul Wall, Fire and Ice tour. You never know, me and Chingy and the Ying Yang Twins out in Salt Lake City, and then we hit this other one. It's just a neverending story. It's wonderful but at the same time it's hard to do an album in between all these shows. We stay on the road man! It took us a while. On the westcoast we had to go to enterprise and do like 6 songs. In the midwest we had to come back to Kansas City and do 6 more songs. Just doing them pieces. I try to show my fans as much love as I can because they ain't gotta give a damn about who the hell I am. They pay to hear my life, cause I write my life homie. They give a damn to come pay their hard earned money and see me at shows, to buy my CD's, so I show em even more love to come to they town. Like why would you be in Casper Wyoming? Cause yall buy my albums, why wouldn't I thank you for it? That's what I do man. It's hard to do albums while you doing that.
Tech N9ne: It took a while and I guess it was meant to happen cause I made a masterpiece brother. THis is a big statement I'm about to make. This album is my best work ever, that's big to say next to AngHellic and Absolute Power.
West Coast Rydaz: So this is a double disc?
Tech N9ne: Yes it is, its 20 songs on Everready and then it's 14 on the next disc. It's like we got alot to say man.
West Coast Rydaz: Were you sitting on too many tracks that you liked, you couldn't just narrow it down to 1 cd?
Tech N9ne: Naw man, this is the thing. You got some artists that do 50 to 60 songs and just choose 12 or 15 out of those. I write my life so I never trash anything I write for my album. When I chose a beat, I gotta feel it 100%, I just don't do music. Like that's cool I could make that a hit. Naw I don't do that, I write my life. So everything we write, we gonna use! When I'm writing this other chapter in my life -- like the last chapter was Absolute Power --- and this is another chapter in my life, where things have progressed for Tech N9ne. Therefore I'm gonna write it a different way. It's gonna be different beats. So I don't just do 30 songs and choose 12 dude. If I write 18, I'm gonna use those 18. That's what I had to say to the rest of the people.
West Coast Rydaz: Sounds like it's gonna be worth the wait then, 2 discs!
Tech N9ne: I just can't wait till it go out to press and you get it man. I want you to call me back and say Tech fuck that, yeah that's dope. I wanna know the real because I feel like I do my albums the way I wanna hear em as a fan. I listen to it all the way through. You know how you used to listen to the NWA albums all the way through man? The Public Enemy, DOC, all the way through, or the Eric B and Rakim, the BDP? I'm talking about like that homie. I'm an old school head. I don't wanna just have 3 songs that's a hit on there and that's what you bought it for. I want you to live with this.
West Coast Rydaz: Something you can bump for your whole life huh?
Tech N9ne: Definitely. I could go back to Absolute Power right now, do the same thing. It's a journey. I take pride in putting those albums together. Mood music, it's a roller coaster ride. I coulda called this one, "One Big Clusterfuck" I would've.
West Coast Rydaz: Talk about who is featured on it, and who did production on it?
Tech N9ne: We got E-40 on a song called Jellysickle. My bay area homeboys. Brotha Lynch came through on a song called "My World." He murdered it! When you hear this Brotha Lynch verse...as a matter of fact we on the other line with him right now. He's talking to Travis about hooking up with us. He's on the phone with Siccmade right now, that's crazy. He came through man, and when you hear My World you gonna say damn! My World was originally slated for Brotha Lynch, Eminem, and myself. Within the 6 months it took Brotha Lynch to do it -- it took him 6 months because he was going through some legal thing out there in Sac. Within that 6 months Em lost his wife through divorce and then he lost his best man through death so you gotta feel him. I talked to Kon Artist, like I'm trying to get at Em. He's like we ain't talked to him in 3 months, we don't know where he's at. Paul Rosenburg the whole thing. In Em's place on My World, I put one of my younger homeboys by the name of Dilema. I wanted three lyrical killers on this song, Dilemma was the only other one that I knew. It was between Dilemma and DMX. I put Dilemma in the middle and he murdered it. I gave him his name when he was 14. He's from KCK, I'm from Kansas City, Missouri. He's across the water, Kansas City, Kansas. Dorothy and Toto style. He's hardcode with it.
West Coast Rydaz: Now that you brought up DMX, Is there collaborations with DMX and Bone in the works?
Tech N9ne: Not yet but that was the formal introduction when we did these shows. We just got off them, it was 10. You know how people get a perception of people and be like yeah dude is lost and a demon. The first time I met DMX backstage, the very first show that we did, I didn't see a demon, I saw an angel. That dude got no malicious intent in his eyes. If he got a problem with you, you ain't right. The eyes are the window to the soul. I read em, I could see a demon from a mile away but that wasn't it bro. We kicked it like donkeys, we even said prayers with him before his shows, it was wonderful. He invited us to his house in Arizona. It's about to go down, real recognize real or like I say right recognize right.
West Coast Rydaz: The problems between you and Don Juan, is that situation still the same, is there any chance for a reconciliation or are you just moving forward?
Tech N9ne: Quote me right when I say this, God forgives all. I Know that I'm an angel/demon, so it's like I'm not ready for reconciliation right now, at all. But God forgives all man. If I wanna walk in those footsteps in any way, I'm gonna have to give that dude a hug. But for now I'm cool. I don't see him, I don't talk to him. We did wonderful music. Hopefully he get right within himself because God does forgive all and I got a heart of all. It's nothing. I'm just doing my thing and keep him over there. Out of everybody that was in my past, that's the one nigga I don't wanna see. Me and Diamond got physical. He snuck up behind me at the screening of Tupac Resurrection. Stole on me in the back of my head. My bodygaurd pulled out a gun, I'm like no no no, that's Diamond. Diamond was like my brother but money and fame and all that can make dudes fall apart. Quote me when I say, I still love Diamond. We had problems, physical problems. Me and Don Juan ain't have no physical problems. I'd rather see Diamond over Don Juan was shady. Don Juan wanted to hide stuff from me, I don't appreciate it and I take it personal.
But God forgives all bro, and I just ain't ready to see him right now. I done seen Diamond in the street, since then. LIke wassup nigga, keep going. So I don't know why I feel like that about Juan man, it just something. He's a church boy too that's what makes it so bad. Not church boy saying he soft, I mean he was raised in the church, played drums in the church, played piano, his family is religious just like mine. He shouldn't have been that shady. I don't know if he is that right now, casue I ain't seen him or talked to him in years. But the last time I talked to him I was in LA. It had to be around the Absolute Power time, It was around the I'mma Playa time. They called up to the office cause I had found out that Diamond and them had done a video about me called You Soft. They got a nigga in there with red hair and they beatin him up. So I took it personal, I called they mamas house lookin for em, I'm a real man dude. I ain't a big dude, I ain't a tough guy, but I'm a man. So I'm callin around, lookin for them talkin to they grandmas like how you doin, this is Tech. "Oh Tech I ain't heard from you in years!" I know I'm lookin for Diamond, they heard me and I guess they got the message. They called back and I told them I didn't like it. I told Diamond, I saw the video. He's like what you think about it? I told him I aint like it. Cause you got little niggas in there that ain't got nothing to do with it. This a family fued. Don Juan is the only one said that he apologize back in the day. I guess right then I should've said, I forgive you bro. But I didn't. He did say I'm sorry though, I just remembered. But I ain't ready dude. I got alot of love in my heart, I just don't wanna be around anybody shady. I'm too nice of a person for that. I don't wanna have satan take over me and me do something stupid and have to be away from my kids life. It's personal cause we grew up together. I hope one day I can see him and give him a handshake and a hug and be like wassup nigga keep on movin, it's nothing. I'm sure, that's what kind of dude I am.
West Coast Rydaz: Your featured on San Quinn's upcoming album "From A Boy To A Man"..
Tech N9ne: No doubt man! It's a song called "Rap Music Is All We Got!" You heard it yet?
West Coast Rydaz: Naw Kenny from Done Deal was telling me about it.
Tech N9ne: Man! I'mma tell you, fresh out of the hospital I was sick, coughing! I had laryngitis and everything and I still came through the studio for em! It turned out real nice. I was like Quinn man, if I sound horrible just stop me. But I'm serious, I really wanna do this for you because you been trying to get me in the studio for a minute. Came through man! "Rap Music is All We Got...Rap Music Is All We Got!" [singing] It was alright man! He's a stand up cat. Powerful ass voice, I dig Quinn.
West Coast Rydaz: That's the voice of Frisco right there.
Tech N9ne: Yeah real dudes in the bay. I swear to god I ain't met one nigga in the bay that's shady to me. Niggas be trying to say that Mac Minister is shady. Man when he was around me with Yuk he was the coolest cat, he was laughing the whole time. I think game recognize game. If a nigga don't sense no punk, he ain't gonna treat nobody like a punk. Yukmouth showed me love the first day I met him. Made me an original honorary member of the Regime. I'm first infantry since 1997. I was out there in LA, Yuk met me at Quincy Jones house, they was doing Lunitik Muzik for the Luniz. Heard me rap and said, I'm bout to start this thing called The Regime, I want you to be a part of it. I been down ever since! E-40, toured with him back in the early 90s, him and Lynch Hung, and Mac Mall, Mr. Doctor, Loki and everybody out there. The whole Click. Mugzi, Suga T, all them. I been knowing them for years! And 40 came through at the height of his career and did this free, Jellysickla man. Lynch Hung my brother homie. Ya know! I'm talking about Jayo Felony, my brother. I mean come on man! I ain't never met nobody from the bay that showed me any kind of malicious intent. It's crazy.
West Coast Rydaz: What's the status with you in The Regime? Yuk was saying something about you moving to LA and knock that out a few years ago? Your still one of the main members..
Tech N9ne: No doubt, I'mma tell you. It's impossible to get 2 bosses at the same spot at the same time. When I'm on tour over here and Yuk is overseas doing his thing in New Zealand and everything he does, it's hard for me to get there. So when you hear these mixtapes and you don't hear me it's not because I'm not a part of it - cause I'm a main part of it. Yuk made sure that I was up in there no matter what. I felt so bad that I couldn't be there, cause I'm on tour all the time so on that last mixtape I gave him my first single before it dropped. I'm talking about Jellysickle was a gem for my album, I gave it to Yuk out of love brother. This is yours. He can have anything I got. Everytime I do shows in Cali, he's like Tech man everybody like why Tech ain't involed, why Tech ain't involved. I'm like I know baby, I got you. So I told him if you ever need me to do anything, send the track to Travis and he will make sure I get it and I'll pay studio myself and do the verses. I wanna show him as much love as I can cause he didn't have to show me the love that he did bro. Making me a part of Regime, putting me on his albums. You know he ain't been on one of my albums yet, because we always hustlin and bustlin. He always like Tech man I gotta be on this album. I'm like don't worry! And then time will elapse and he still ain't been on one of my albums and that's my brother! So that's something we as Strange Music just gonna have to slow down for a minute, after Everready come out. Izms is coming out shortly after that. It's an extension of Everready. I'm gonna do a Jellysickle Remix with Yukmouth, Pitbull, Paul Wall. We got a cat from Portland, Oregon DJ Chill. We just gonna do it big! When I do something with Yuk I want it to be huge, like if I do a song with Pharrell. I feel like I owe him.
West Coast Rydaz: I had heard some inside news that you and Quinn might be working on more stuff, maybe even a compilation. Is that still a possibility?
Tech N9ne: They said something to me about and I said I'm down like four flat tires without a spare holmes! I told em, whatever yall need homie, let's do a compilation. Just send it here and I'm there. I know he had just put out a new album and stuff like that, I ain't waiting impatiently but I'm waiting.
West Coast Rydaz: Talk about the whole KC and Bay thing that the media blew up. Being from Kansas City what do you have to say about that issue?
Tech N9ne: It's horrible! You cannot come to Kansas City and not hear Mac Dre playing in the club. I don't know if people know this but Kansas City is the bay. If you ever been here, you would understand. Everybody gets hyphy. Kansas City ain't LA, it ain't New York, it ain't down south, Kansas City is the bay man! Everybody, Thizz Ent, I'm in the club and everybody's putting up the T's. That's why Luni Coleone can come here and stay. That's why C-Bo was down here all the time. That's why Killa Tay was down here, that's why E-40 used to come down here all the time! It's because it's so much love for the bay and Kansas City now, the fans are what fucked it up. It was a deal gone bad. Not no drug deal gone bad, from what I understand somebody wanted Dre to do a show for Halloween. One show with Sideways. He was like okay I'll pay you this to do my place tomorrow. Something went wrong after he took the money I guess, they came after him, casualties of war. It's crazy and right at the height of his [career]. And it hurt because I had to get the backlash. I met him for the first time! At Satin Dolls before this happened. He was like I been looking for you man! He taller than me so I'm looking up to him. He's like I was looking for you through Yuk, I'm trying to do something. I'm like whatever you need brother! He was a pleasant cat and everything.
On Halloween I was doing a show in Salt Lake City, Utah. Shock G showed out the back door. Shock, we kicked it years ago. I'm like let that nigga in! Shock, after my show came on stage while I was on there and started staying rhymes and everybody was going crazy on Halloween. The next morning we had to hear that shit about Dre. I'm like damn! It hurt because it made the bay area think that Kansas City was hating. Yall killed one of our greats we gonna kill one of your greats. It's like damn man. I had to go out there and talk to 40 and 40 was like man if you hear anybody trippin' you get with me. I talked to Yuk, Doobie and all them know who did it? He like yeah man they know it aint no beef or nothing like that, they know exactly who it is. The real niggas knew! That was just the fans who tried to make it into something. I even had Tech N9ne vans out there and on Cinco De Mayo San Jose they said that my dude Dave had to get out and rough some mothafuckas up because they was trying to tip over the van like "Tech N9ne killed Mac Dre!" That was the fans just saying that! They don't know that this is my family! My Regime family. Thizz Ent family. It hurt me. So I talked to Big Von out there on the radio. He's like Tech man, we gonna play Jellysickle, Kansas City King and the Ambassador of the Bay, to let people know it ain't no beef, it's just the fans trying to blow it into something. They love Mac Dre here and they love him everywhere else. I just hate that the nigga had to go right now when it was about to be a mega star! I hate taking about it cause it hurts. Ignorant ass people try to turn it into something and say Fat Tone did it, he had to die behind it. All these people is my family dude. Mac Minister is my family through the Regime. Fat Tone is my family, nigga I been knowing him since I was 14! He was the opposite side, blue and everything, but I woulda died for that died, killed for him, whatever. These are my family members, both sides! That collided. It was crazy bro. I loved both of em. Still do. And miss the hell outta Mac Dre, wish I could've did something with him bro. He was a talented dude. Anybody that can have that affect on so many people so quick.
Around that time they tried to cancel all my shows in Sac, I'm like wow! When I was in Santa Cruz they said man some Vallejo niggas talking about coming down and lighting you up. I'm like man, whatever! I did they show, my Federation niggas was there, kicking it like donkeys. Had bitches all in the hotel kickin it partying for Dre. The real niggas knew that it wasn't nobody, had nothing to do with Tech N9ne, had nothing to do with Rich The Factor, had nothing to do with Fat Tone. It's just the way it happened. I say on my first song on my album Everready. "Back on cause this is for Fat Tone, and Mac Dre, all of the soldiers who got gone on that day." Casualties of rap music and the streets, rap music is from the streets so we gonna have stuff like that happen. The fans blew it up into something it wasn't. It wasn't no Kansas City Bay Area rivalry. Never man. That was something else. If that was the case I would've been gone by now baby. Kansas City is rough but them Bay Area niggas ain't playing either. I spent time out there, I know killas out there.
We told Yuk whenever they come to Kansas City come through us. They got them niggas in KCK! You can't do that man. Them niggas ain't got nothing they waiting for niggas to come over there. They don't even like us! [laughs] We city slickers, across the water. Back in the day we used to say Kansas City, Kansas niggas don't like Missouri niggas cause we go over there and take they bitches! Whenever I'm doing shows with ICP and Kottonmouth Kings we be over there in Kansas City, KCK, we come out every window is broken. Niggas stealing shit, going crazy. My girl got her Louis Voitton purse that I bought her stolen. Plus the 800 that was in it.
But I told Yuk when yall on the road get with us. I guarantee if Mac Dre was with us, he'd still be here. Cause we do our business right, we ain't on no sideways nigga shit. I just wish we could turn back the hands of time, do the show, get paid, fuck bitches, go back home. That's the cycle.
West Coast Rydaz: So there you have it, any artists reading/listening to this, holla at Strange Music if you wanna get a performance done right in KC.
Tech N9ne: No doubt holla at Strange Music. 816 229-4700. Don't run with these sideways niggas. It's some promoters that's cool. My boy Fat Boy, down with Southside Posse, they doing it big with Money G. But anybody else, I don't know you, I don't care. Niggas like that end up killing moguls like Mac Dre and we need those niggas! His music gonna live on, you can't go nowhere and not hear it. Thizzle Dance. S-T-U-P-I-D. Everywhere! Especially in Kansas City, to this day. And they be throwing up the Ts at me! You think I didn't see the T's in Denmark! I seen em. Breaks my heart man, sincerity. I'm not talking about something thats gonna save my ass. Naw it's my family. We be hearing it spread out to all creeds. I'm talking about Bend, Oregon. Nigga I ain't know where the hell that was! All I know is Portland, Oregon. Bend, a gang of bitches! All creeds! Thizzed out. Bumpin Mac Dre. Wonderful man, I wish he was here to see it. I wish I was here so I can do something and say I did shit with Pac, Eminem, KRS One, E-40, Bone Thugs, Twista, come on man! I wanted to be able to say I did that with Mac Dre and we kicked it like donkeys. Cause I am Malcom X nigga. I almost died in 99 for taking 15 X pills. You hear T9X, "he popped, trapped in a psychos body, he popped, 15 hits of X in one night, lick big tits had sex with some dyke." That was back then! Now I'm talking about back then black folks wasn't doing X. Cats was tellin me, that's white folks! We smoke weed! We don't do that. Nigga Mac Dre infected this whole nation.
West Coast Rydaz: X was just apart of raves back then huh...
Tech N9ne: Yeah! I Was the black dude with red hair. I been raving, thug raving since 98. Totally! Poppin em! I had to calm down cause I almost died in 99. Dre got the hoods infected! Niggas is thizzin everyday! That's power. I know it ain't positive, but we kick it!
West Coast Rydaz: Like a morning coffee, pop a thizz.
Tech N9ne: Yeah! I love it. Anybody that can spread love like that man, you gotta adore em. It ain't no rivalry, that's street shit.
West Coast Rydaz: What are your feelings toward rap artists always being the scapegoat for negative things being done by the fans of the music? Often times Rock singers include content that's just as negative and violent, but they never seem to be targeted like that...
Tech N9ne: The thing is, rap music is street music. It's from the streets. When you get shit from the streets there's gonna be poverty. When there's poverty there's gonna be crime. So you gonna get niggas in the business that's coming from a life of crime. You don't see Axl Rose or Trent Reznor getting into it, battling over records. This shit is from the street. So they gonna always point the finger at us cause this is the black market. In the mainstream scale. They always talk that shit like oh it's because of this, he was listening to Tech N9ne Trapped in a Psycho's Body when he murdered...You be like, you know what, we been watching the Lone Ranger since we were little. Tonto and Lone Ranger shooting niggas. If you wanna go to cartoons, Yosemite Sam busting at niggas with gages. Like programming us. Then you got Arnold Schwartzenneger, the Terminator! We watching him killing mothafuckas. He's doing what the mothafuckas in Colombine did! Going through places just bustin on mothafuckas. That looks more like Terminator than a nigga on the street! They blame it on rap music because we from the street, and they young, it's the black market. TV is the biggest form of constant bombardment, they got us fucked up. The movies are the biggest form of constant bombardment to the brain. I been listenign to Slipknot and System of a Down for years. "If your 555 I'm 666". I don't believe I'm 666 but I love that music. I love Slipknot. That don't mean I'm gonna go hang myself. I'mma tell you, it all starts in the home. If the parents are not there to corall they god damn kids, they gonna explode and they gonna lash out. My kids ain't about to do that. I been coralling em since they were born. They listen to my music, they listen to Eminem, they listen to the cuss words, but they know not to say them cuss words cause I taught em. Corall your kids or they will explode on everybody. These mothafuckas got no control over they children, try to put it on music now it's your fault you bitch ass mothafucka!
I'm a parent, got 3 kids, 11, 12, and 7 and they wonderful. In this fucked up world they are wonderful. They know what not to do, wrong and right, no in between. Colombine, it ain't no reason they was practicing shooting in they garage and they parents didn't know it! Punk ass parents. Don't know what to do with they children, sittin back smokin weed behind they back. Faggots and shit. I ain't got nothing against the gay community but I'm talkin about these young mothafuckas is fuckin on each other and suckin on each other and then go shoot up a school! No parental guidance bro. It starts in the home. They cannot blame it on music. I took my kids to go see FInal Destination, I took them to go see Dawn of the Dead. The new one with Ving Rhames was real graphic at the beginning! All the blood...my kids were like daddy this is horrible! But they know! Right and wrong! I teach them, I don't hold them back from nothing. Just like the private school thing, they say the private school girls are nastiest because they try to shelter them! You tell the kids no, don't do this, you can't go to this dance, they gonna sneak out and do it! That's why they end up pregnant first. You gotta open, this is the key. You gotta be open with your children just like you talking to grown ups. There's a fine line, you don't wanna talk to your kid like get the fuck outta here you mothafucka! No, but you talk to them and teach them like adults. Like baby you can't use your loud voice when yourinside. We already got that bad stereotype that black people can't be quiet in closed in places. Teach them little things so they will remember when they're older. These parents always wanna point the finger at mothafuckas that's trying to get up out the ghetto. They have no back bone so they kids fuck up and they blame us. Fuck you!
I can't wait till they get me on TV. I got alot to say. And I'm speaking freely now, profanity and everything but they get me on camera, I can talk to you like an intelligent person and I won't have to say one cuss word and let you know what the hell I'm thinking. So whenever they come at me sideways, Nation of Islam always taught me to back up what you say. So if I say something about my music and 10 years later I say something different, they gonna be able to say 'Ah, you contradicting yourself.' It ain't gonna be able to be like that. I was raised a Christian, my mama married a Muslim when I was 12, so when I was 17 I ran away from home. But I learned alot. I try to put alot of that on my kids. I might be slightly crazy, a big clusterfuck because of the way I was raised, but I learned alot! My family loved me. My stepfather taught me alot even though I thought he was against me. But he was a hardcore Muslim, didn't want me fucking with white girls and shit like that. But the only thing he had twisted was that God don't want nobody to hate nobody, he created everybody equal. That's what I always knew, man seperated us. Hatred. A baby is not born with hatred, it's taught it. That's why they shoot up schools, fly into buildings with planes, blow up buildings in Oklahoma. Because they ain't had no parental guidance, it ain't no god damn music. It ain't no Marylin Manson or Eminem.
West Coast Rydaz: The Red hair, paint, robes, is that a correct representation of Aaron Yates or is Tech N9ne a whole different persona?
Tech N9ne: Let me tell you this. I tell people all the time, I ain't about no gimmicks or nothing like that. I think The red hair was due to the drugs. [laughs] I started doing ecstacy real big around that time back in the late 90s. I dig what that did for me. I just cut all my hair off two months ago, I look like a normal dude now. American Psycho all the way because you don't know that clown is within me. Let me tell you. Those images that you see is what's inside my head. That's how I best describe the beast in me. Comes as something that's supposed to be pleasant but really aint, that's the clown. The spikes were my crown because I always thought I was a king. That's what my name means - high exalted. Aaron. High priest. My auntie named me that. All these images - the king, the clown, and the G are part of me. I'm not one dimensional, I'm three dimensional. But I think the red hair came from all those raves and all those drugs and it pushed me to do something. That red being my block 57th St. Road dawgs Villain blood gang. Red being my favorite color. But if I wasn't on so many drugs, the acid, the GHB at the time doing hella X and shrooms all in one night, I think that pushed me to say I'mma do this.
As a black man, that's gonna look crazy as a mothafucka to your people! It scared my people away from me. After AngHellic my people didn't buy my albums no more. It hurt me! I had alot of beautiful music but my imagery scared them. But I never changed it at all. The only reason I cut my hair off is because I'm touring so much, a nigga don't know how to take care of bleached hair on the road! I can't afford no bitch to come with me and help me yet! My shit was falling out and it starting to look stupid. So I had to cut it all off from the beginning. If I would've known how many numbers and pussy you get with your hair like that, I would've cut it a long time ago! When you see me you gonna be like damn, he don't even look like Tech N9ne no more. Man the clown is on the inside, American Psycho style. So this is what I came up with, a serial killer has to have some kind of draw to get a bitch in his house. I can't walk up in there with them red spikes and expect a bitch to go home with me. But now that I was forced to cut it, I'm known that it's more women! They say I put the pussy on a pedestal like the 40 Year Old Virgin, I love it! I feel like the female species is the best thing that ever happened to us as males. A serial killer has to have some kind of draw. Charles Manson played the guitar, gotta have some kind of good look to you. So I tell Travis, don't be scared that my hair is gone, my fans still gonna love me. But this is a way I can get more females to come to us! Females buy them albums bro! It's Amercan Psycho style, I'm appealing to these bitches and I get them in here and then we scare the shit outta them! When you see the album it looks normal on the front now when you open it you got the king, the clown, and the G - like this is the same nigga? Hell yeah baby this is what's inside me.
I would never take back the red hair, I still paint my face. Whatever I feel that night before I go on stage - If I did shrooms and I feel spun the next night, I put SPUN on my forehead. I still paint my face cause the clown is still apart of me. THe king is high exalted, feel like ain't nothing above him. The rules don't apply to him. The clown is the extreme party animal, consequence is nothing. Whether it be the abundant use of drugs, or the sexual use of women. And the G, understands family values, like being on the road and not being able to be there for your little girls birthday or sons, it hurts em. I'm three dimensional, that's me. Aaron Yates. The King, the Clown, and the G. NO gimmicks. I'm just letting people know this sick image is what I see in my head when I think of a beast. I made a beast of myself over the years. I lost my wife because of it, but still best of friends. I get to go out to LA to see my children, ain't seen em in months. But I lost my family, what I was working for due to me becoming a beast and being gone on the road for so long. My kids love me to death, but my wife feel like I'm a stranger when I come home. But now me and my wife been seperated for like 2 years and now she wants me to meet some dude she met. It's backlash I get for becoming the beast, but I like it! At the same time, I lost what was so dear to me. But God loves me because he still gives me a glimpse of what I could have. I could go back to my house in Sherman Oaks, California and sleep in the same bed with my wife. We don't touch, we ain't touched in 5 years since I had that affair with that stripper bitch and she told on me and everything. But we been brothers and sisters ever since. We can still go to Magic Mountain and eat and laugh, and when I'm sitting there I'm like damn, I'm a beast but I gotta have some kind of angel in me to be able to have these angels and this piece of my life.
West Coast Rydaz: A few years ago you were pushing the FTI line...Fuck The Industry, you released the entire Absolute Power album for free download to prove that fans would still support you if they liked the music. What is the status of this whole movement? What are your current feelings on the industry.
Tech N9ne: I totally feel the same way. I still feel like the Industry is a bunch of fucking punks. The reason why, it's the same I woulda told you back then. Because I feel like these record execs don't wanna take a chance with this shit. You got some that do. But you got Russell Simmons that will take a chance, you got Clive Davis that will take a chance, you think he woulda ever thought that if he took a chance he could make all this money off Kenny G, a whiteboy with curly hair blowing a god damn horn? Nah, he took a chance! Music is supposed to inspire, Lauryn Hill said that. What that means is when we do this and our thing, it's supposed to inspire the next mothafucka to do something greater. Kanye West said when he heard "Xxplosive" (Dr. Dre) it made him do that beat for Jay-Z, Scarface and all that inspired him to do a beat similar to it and get in that circle. Next thing you know he done elevated to another level. That's what music is about. If Young Jeezy come out, don't make 10 more fucking Young Jeezys! You almost gotta feel em, the record companies cause they wanna do what's hot right now to get they money. It's all about the money. But don't be a fucking punk and not wanna take a chance with new artists. It's niggas out here that really have new shit and the world has to hear it! If I gotta do it being the Vice President of Strange Music I'm gonna do that shit dogg. Cause I'm gonna always elevate. If I hear something Jay-Z, or Eminem, or Busta do it's gonna provoke me to do something harder! The industry is punks cause they wanna make a million Young Jeezys, it's supposed to be Young Jeezy, boom! Let him have his thing. Young Joc, let him have his thing. But you ain't supposed to duplicate these mothafuckas cause that's what everybody's listening to. Take it to another level. I love Outkast god damnit, cause they don't give a fuck. It's about expressing yourself. Look at Cee-Lo man! You gotta be proud of that brother. You gotta be proud of Gnarls Barkley, he finally getting what he fuckin deserve! I loved Goodie Mob, but this is what that nigga is supposed to be doing. I love to see that. A nigga that was just expressing himself, fuck you nigga I'm St. Elsewhere! Would it be so hard for you to come visit me here? I'm somewhere out there! Wonderful. We listen to music and it's supposed to make us wanna do something greater. That's what the industry don't do. FTI for life dogg. We gonna become the industry and if we get our fuckin hands on the wheel that controls everything, you gonna see innovative shit.
West Coast Rydaz: What is next after this "Everready" album? You gonna keep going active....putting out any of your artists?
Tech N9ne: We gonna do Everready, November 7th. That's gonna be my biggest album ever. We got Alpha Dog the movie coming out January. That's a Nick Cassavetes movie. He's a director that did John Q, he did Face Off. He's a big time director. This is a true story about this dude Jesse James Hollywood who got this other dude killed. [Nick] called me cause he bought Absolute Power just on a fluke and listened to it and loved it and had me do the music for the god damn movie. I'm underground and I get to do a movie that got Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, Emil Hearst, Courtney Cox, everybody is in this god damn movie! And he chose Tech N9ne to do the god damn music! It's gonna be so big for me dogg. I got all kind of Tech music in there.
So on my roster after Everready you gonna get Critical Bill, it's the first rock band we signed to Strange Music from Detroit, Michigan. Shortly after that it's Scatterman and Snugg Brim, my gangsta mothafuckin niggas. They putting out they album called Word On The Street. Shortly after that it's gonna be Kutt Calhoun, a second album called Feature Presentation. Then its gonna be PDM. Project Dead Man. Signed them a couple years ago outta Saginau, Michigan. This is for the Juggalos, the darker side of music. Alot of ICP fans are fans of them, so they're coming out. Shortly after that big Krizz Calico finally get to do his first album, "The Funkra". Then shortly after that me and Krizz are gonna do a venture into rock shit called Kabosh. When you put the kabosh on something it's when you put a halt to it. If a bitch is talking shit it's like I put the kabosh on that bitch last night. Everything stops after Kabosh. It's so much stuff we about to do man. After that I'm gonna do another album called Izms, I don't really see nothing more until it hit me. I write as my life progresses and right now I'm just going. I'm gonna ride the Everready wave. Like the battery, meaning it's stronger than ever. Keep going even though I keep getting knocked down. 9 Lives baby! If you look at the Everready symbol, it's a 9 with a cat jumping through the loop of the 9 with a lightning bolt tail. I was like hell naw this is a message from God! I'm calling my album Everready but I did it wit 2 r's instead of one. I subtitled it The Religion. Meanin something to be worshiped or praised. This shit will be worshiped and praised!
West Coast Rydaz: So no more for year hiatuses?
Tech N9ne: Hell naw cause the bigger we get, the better our touring is gonna be. It's like doing 56 city tours and then right after that doing another 40 city tour. It's like the bigger we get - we gonna do 22 dates in these big ass arenas. Then we gonna do an album, then we gonna do a tour again. We stay on so much cause we gotta feed our family bro, and this is the way we do it. So I stay out there for the love of my family. I send all that money to my wife in LA, or my baby mama here in Kansas City. So it's like I gotta stay on the road to take care of them. The fans make it possible for me to buy them the best clothing. The fans make it possible for me to have them in the best schools. And I say this in every interview because I want the world to know, you got these punk ass rappers that the fans run up to, the don't know when they gonna see you again. That's why whenever Eminem said "at least have the decency, when you see me eating with my daughter not come and speak to me." I understand what he's talking about, I love Em. But alot of these rappers, and these fans don't know the next time they gonna see you! So they gonna take advantage, whether you in the bathroom, this is a fluke! Tech N9ne is passing through Denver, Colorado airport, you think they ain't gonna stop me? They don't know when they gonna see me again. Alot of these rappers turn people away like nah I don't sign autographs. They the reason why you can live in this god damn house. These people are the reason why your kids are spoiled like a mothafucka! They are the reason I can take my children to Magic Mountain or Knottsberry farm. My fans are the ones who put that in my pocket so I got to show them love! Alot of these rappers need to wake the fuck up and get off they high horse and know that you ain't shit without these fans!
That's truly how I feel at 34 years old. I'm about to be 35 November 8th man. I feel like I'm 18, I fuck these bitches like I'm 18. But my heart man, I recognize what's real and what's right. Some of these mothafuckas live on the street and still got your album. Nigga you better fuckin sign they shit and not charge them 5 dollars. I should start tellin the fans, you should start smackin these niggas with guns when they say no. I bet you they will sign it then.
I only got one more thing to say. I want to tell anybody that's listening to me right now. I want this to be quoted correctly. It's two words I always say to people. Celebrate Life. No matter how fucked up you think, or you can't pay your bills, you gotta find some way to celebrate life. If you just feel how you feel on the inside, it's alot of shit I ain't accomplished yet that I wanna do for my children. If I died right now Fernando, I would say I'm happy with the person I am on the inside. I might not be happy with the rest of my life or the way shit's going, but I'm happy with the way I am. I could die and say I got a good heart. Celebrate Life because people are trying to blow this mothafucka up! Over money. Celebrate Life as much as you can because you don't wanna have to die and say damn, I didn't feel right, I didn't do what I wanted to. Celebrate Life, those two words mean everything. Tell all these mothafuckas to celebrate life, from Tech N9ne to the rest of the world.
Tech N9ne: Four years brother!
West Coast Rydaz: Why did it take so long to release a new album?
Tech N9ne: I'll tell you exactly why it took so long man. because since 2002 we been touring like madmen dogg. Know what I'm sizzlin? Doing all these shows like we do, we tour like a rock band. Im talking about we just came back from Copenhagen, Denmark doing the festival with Tool, Kanye West, Bob Dylan and Guns and Roses, George Clinton. Just over there like crazy! We just got off 10 dates with DMX and Bone. It just keeps going. All year round! Me and Paul Wall, Fire and Ice tour. You never know, me and Chingy and the Ying Yang Twins out in Salt Lake City, and then we hit this other one. It's just a neverending story. It's wonderful but at the same time it's hard to do an album in between all these shows. We stay on the road man! It took us a while. On the westcoast we had to go to enterprise and do like 6 songs. In the midwest we had to come back to Kansas City and do 6 more songs. Just doing them pieces. I try to show my fans as much love as I can because they ain't gotta give a damn about who the hell I am. They pay to hear my life, cause I write my life homie. They give a damn to come pay their hard earned money and see me at shows, to buy my CD's, so I show em even more love to come to they town. Like why would you be in Casper Wyoming? Cause yall buy my albums, why wouldn't I thank you for it? That's what I do man. It's hard to do albums while you doing that.
Tech N9ne: It took a while and I guess it was meant to happen cause I made a masterpiece brother. THis is a big statement I'm about to make. This album is my best work ever, that's big to say next to AngHellic and Absolute Power.
West Coast Rydaz: So this is a double disc?
Tech N9ne: Yes it is, its 20 songs on Everready and then it's 14 on the next disc. It's like we got alot to say man.
West Coast Rydaz: Were you sitting on too many tracks that you liked, you couldn't just narrow it down to 1 cd?
Tech N9ne: Naw man, this is the thing. You got some artists that do 50 to 60 songs and just choose 12 or 15 out of those. I write my life so I never trash anything I write for my album. When I chose a beat, I gotta feel it 100%, I just don't do music. Like that's cool I could make that a hit. Naw I don't do that, I write my life. So everything we write, we gonna use! When I'm writing this other chapter in my life -- like the last chapter was Absolute Power --- and this is another chapter in my life, where things have progressed for Tech N9ne. Therefore I'm gonna write it a different way. It's gonna be different beats. So I don't just do 30 songs and choose 12 dude. If I write 18, I'm gonna use those 18. That's what I had to say to the rest of the people.
West Coast Rydaz: Sounds like it's gonna be worth the wait then, 2 discs!
Tech N9ne: I just can't wait till it go out to press and you get it man. I want you to call me back and say Tech fuck that, yeah that's dope. I wanna know the real because I feel like I do my albums the way I wanna hear em as a fan. I listen to it all the way through. You know how you used to listen to the NWA albums all the way through man? The Public Enemy, DOC, all the way through, or the Eric B and Rakim, the BDP? I'm talking about like that homie. I'm an old school head. I don't wanna just have 3 songs that's a hit on there and that's what you bought it for. I want you to live with this.
West Coast Rydaz: Something you can bump for your whole life huh?
Tech N9ne: Definitely. I could go back to Absolute Power right now, do the same thing. It's a journey. I take pride in putting those albums together. Mood music, it's a roller coaster ride. I coulda called this one, "One Big Clusterfuck" I would've.
West Coast Rydaz: Talk about who is featured on it, and who did production on it?
Tech N9ne: We got E-40 on a song called Jellysickle. My bay area homeboys. Brotha Lynch came through on a song called "My World." He murdered it! When you hear this Brotha Lynch verse...as a matter of fact we on the other line with him right now. He's talking to Travis about hooking up with us. He's on the phone with Siccmade right now, that's crazy. He came through man, and when you hear My World you gonna say damn! My World was originally slated for Brotha Lynch, Eminem, and myself. Within the 6 months it took Brotha Lynch to do it -- it took him 6 months because he was going through some legal thing out there in Sac. Within that 6 months Em lost his wife through divorce and then he lost his best man through death so you gotta feel him. I talked to Kon Artist, like I'm trying to get at Em. He's like we ain't talked to him in 3 months, we don't know where he's at. Paul Rosenburg the whole thing. In Em's place on My World, I put one of my younger homeboys by the name of Dilema. I wanted three lyrical killers on this song, Dilemma was the only other one that I knew. It was between Dilemma and DMX. I put Dilemma in the middle and he murdered it. I gave him his name when he was 14. He's from KCK, I'm from Kansas City, Missouri. He's across the water, Kansas City, Kansas. Dorothy and Toto style. He's hardcode with it.
West Coast Rydaz: Now that you brought up DMX, Is there collaborations with DMX and Bone in the works?
Tech N9ne: Not yet but that was the formal introduction when we did these shows. We just got off them, it was 10. You know how people get a perception of people and be like yeah dude is lost and a demon. The first time I met DMX backstage, the very first show that we did, I didn't see a demon, I saw an angel. That dude got no malicious intent in his eyes. If he got a problem with you, you ain't right. The eyes are the window to the soul. I read em, I could see a demon from a mile away but that wasn't it bro. We kicked it like donkeys, we even said prayers with him before his shows, it was wonderful. He invited us to his house in Arizona. It's about to go down, real recognize real or like I say right recognize right.
West Coast Rydaz: The problems between you and Don Juan, is that situation still the same, is there any chance for a reconciliation or are you just moving forward?
Tech N9ne: Quote me right when I say this, God forgives all. I Know that I'm an angel/demon, so it's like I'm not ready for reconciliation right now, at all. But God forgives all man. If I wanna walk in those footsteps in any way, I'm gonna have to give that dude a hug. But for now I'm cool. I don't see him, I don't talk to him. We did wonderful music. Hopefully he get right within himself because God does forgive all and I got a heart of all. It's nothing. I'm just doing my thing and keep him over there. Out of everybody that was in my past, that's the one nigga I don't wanna see. Me and Diamond got physical. He snuck up behind me at the screening of Tupac Resurrection. Stole on me in the back of my head. My bodygaurd pulled out a gun, I'm like no no no, that's Diamond. Diamond was like my brother but money and fame and all that can make dudes fall apart. Quote me when I say, I still love Diamond. We had problems, physical problems. Me and Don Juan ain't have no physical problems. I'd rather see Diamond over Don Juan was shady. Don Juan wanted to hide stuff from me, I don't appreciate it and I take it personal.
But God forgives all bro, and I just ain't ready to see him right now. I done seen Diamond in the street, since then. LIke wassup nigga, keep going. So I don't know why I feel like that about Juan man, it just something. He's a church boy too that's what makes it so bad. Not church boy saying he soft, I mean he was raised in the church, played drums in the church, played piano, his family is religious just like mine. He shouldn't have been that shady. I don't know if he is that right now, casue I ain't seen him or talked to him in years. But the last time I talked to him I was in LA. It had to be around the Absolute Power time, It was around the I'mma Playa time. They called up to the office cause I had found out that Diamond and them had done a video about me called You Soft. They got a nigga in there with red hair and they beatin him up. So I took it personal, I called they mamas house lookin for em, I'm a real man dude. I ain't a big dude, I ain't a tough guy, but I'm a man. So I'm callin around, lookin for them talkin to they grandmas like how you doin, this is Tech. "Oh Tech I ain't heard from you in years!" I know I'm lookin for Diamond, they heard me and I guess they got the message. They called back and I told them I didn't like it. I told Diamond, I saw the video. He's like what you think about it? I told him I aint like it. Cause you got little niggas in there that ain't got nothing to do with it. This a family fued. Don Juan is the only one said that he apologize back in the day. I guess right then I should've said, I forgive you bro. But I didn't. He did say I'm sorry though, I just remembered. But I ain't ready dude. I got alot of love in my heart, I just don't wanna be around anybody shady. I'm too nice of a person for that. I don't wanna have satan take over me and me do something stupid and have to be away from my kids life. It's personal cause we grew up together. I hope one day I can see him and give him a handshake and a hug and be like wassup nigga keep on movin, it's nothing. I'm sure, that's what kind of dude I am.
West Coast Rydaz: Your featured on San Quinn's upcoming album "From A Boy To A Man"..
Tech N9ne: No doubt man! It's a song called "Rap Music Is All We Got!" You heard it yet?
West Coast Rydaz: Naw Kenny from Done Deal was telling me about it.
Tech N9ne: Man! I'mma tell you, fresh out of the hospital I was sick, coughing! I had laryngitis and everything and I still came through the studio for em! It turned out real nice. I was like Quinn man, if I sound horrible just stop me. But I'm serious, I really wanna do this for you because you been trying to get me in the studio for a minute. Came through man! "Rap Music is All We Got...Rap Music Is All We Got!" [singing] It was alright man! He's a stand up cat. Powerful ass voice, I dig Quinn.
West Coast Rydaz: That's the voice of Frisco right there.
Tech N9ne: Yeah real dudes in the bay. I swear to god I ain't met one nigga in the bay that's shady to me. Niggas be trying to say that Mac Minister is shady. Man when he was around me with Yuk he was the coolest cat, he was laughing the whole time. I think game recognize game. If a nigga don't sense no punk, he ain't gonna treat nobody like a punk. Yukmouth showed me love the first day I met him. Made me an original honorary member of the Regime. I'm first infantry since 1997. I was out there in LA, Yuk met me at Quincy Jones house, they was doing Lunitik Muzik for the Luniz. Heard me rap and said, I'm bout to start this thing called The Regime, I want you to be a part of it. I been down ever since! E-40, toured with him back in the early 90s, him and Lynch Hung, and Mac Mall, Mr. Doctor, Loki and everybody out there. The whole Click. Mugzi, Suga T, all them. I been knowing them for years! And 40 came through at the height of his career and did this free, Jellysickla man. Lynch Hung my brother homie. Ya know! I'm talking about Jayo Felony, my brother. I mean come on man! I ain't never met nobody from the bay that showed me any kind of malicious intent. It's crazy.
West Coast Rydaz: What's the status with you in The Regime? Yuk was saying something about you moving to LA and knock that out a few years ago? Your still one of the main members..
Tech N9ne: No doubt, I'mma tell you. It's impossible to get 2 bosses at the same spot at the same time. When I'm on tour over here and Yuk is overseas doing his thing in New Zealand and everything he does, it's hard for me to get there. So when you hear these mixtapes and you don't hear me it's not because I'm not a part of it - cause I'm a main part of it. Yuk made sure that I was up in there no matter what. I felt so bad that I couldn't be there, cause I'm on tour all the time so on that last mixtape I gave him my first single before it dropped. I'm talking about Jellysickle was a gem for my album, I gave it to Yuk out of love brother. This is yours. He can have anything I got. Everytime I do shows in Cali, he's like Tech man everybody like why Tech ain't involed, why Tech ain't involved. I'm like I know baby, I got you. So I told him if you ever need me to do anything, send the track to Travis and he will make sure I get it and I'll pay studio myself and do the verses. I wanna show him as much love as I can cause he didn't have to show me the love that he did bro. Making me a part of Regime, putting me on his albums. You know he ain't been on one of my albums yet, because we always hustlin and bustlin. He always like Tech man I gotta be on this album. I'm like don't worry! And then time will elapse and he still ain't been on one of my albums and that's my brother! So that's something we as Strange Music just gonna have to slow down for a minute, after Everready come out. Izms is coming out shortly after that. It's an extension of Everready. I'm gonna do a Jellysickle Remix with Yukmouth, Pitbull, Paul Wall. We got a cat from Portland, Oregon DJ Chill. We just gonna do it big! When I do something with Yuk I want it to be huge, like if I do a song with Pharrell. I feel like I owe him.
West Coast Rydaz: I had heard some inside news that you and Quinn might be working on more stuff, maybe even a compilation. Is that still a possibility?
Tech N9ne: They said something to me about and I said I'm down like four flat tires without a spare holmes! I told em, whatever yall need homie, let's do a compilation. Just send it here and I'm there. I know he had just put out a new album and stuff like that, I ain't waiting impatiently but I'm waiting.
West Coast Rydaz: Talk about the whole KC and Bay thing that the media blew up. Being from Kansas City what do you have to say about that issue?
Tech N9ne: It's horrible! You cannot come to Kansas City and not hear Mac Dre playing in the club. I don't know if people know this but Kansas City is the bay. If you ever been here, you would understand. Everybody gets hyphy. Kansas City ain't LA, it ain't New York, it ain't down south, Kansas City is the bay man! Everybody, Thizz Ent, I'm in the club and everybody's putting up the T's. That's why Luni Coleone can come here and stay. That's why C-Bo was down here all the time. That's why Killa Tay was down here, that's why E-40 used to come down here all the time! It's because it's so much love for the bay and Kansas City now, the fans are what fucked it up. It was a deal gone bad. Not no drug deal gone bad, from what I understand somebody wanted Dre to do a show for Halloween. One show with Sideways. He was like okay I'll pay you this to do my place tomorrow. Something went wrong after he took the money I guess, they came after him, casualties of war. It's crazy and right at the height of his [career]. And it hurt because I had to get the backlash. I met him for the first time! At Satin Dolls before this happened. He was like I been looking for you man! He taller than me so I'm looking up to him. He's like I was looking for you through Yuk, I'm trying to do something. I'm like whatever you need brother! He was a pleasant cat and everything.
On Halloween I was doing a show in Salt Lake City, Utah. Shock G showed out the back door. Shock, we kicked it years ago. I'm like let that nigga in! Shock, after my show came on stage while I was on there and started staying rhymes and everybody was going crazy on Halloween. The next morning we had to hear that shit about Dre. I'm like damn! It hurt because it made the bay area think that Kansas City was hating. Yall killed one of our greats we gonna kill one of your greats. It's like damn man. I had to go out there and talk to 40 and 40 was like man if you hear anybody trippin' you get with me. I talked to Yuk, Doobie and all them know who did it? He like yeah man they know it aint no beef or nothing like that, they know exactly who it is. The real niggas knew! That was just the fans who tried to make it into something. I even had Tech N9ne vans out there and on Cinco De Mayo San Jose they said that my dude Dave had to get out and rough some mothafuckas up because they was trying to tip over the van like "Tech N9ne killed Mac Dre!" That was the fans just saying that! They don't know that this is my family! My Regime family. Thizz Ent family. It hurt me. So I talked to Big Von out there on the radio. He's like Tech man, we gonna play Jellysickle, Kansas City King and the Ambassador of the Bay, to let people know it ain't no beef, it's just the fans trying to blow it into something. They love Mac Dre here and they love him everywhere else. I just hate that the nigga had to go right now when it was about to be a mega star! I hate taking about it cause it hurts. Ignorant ass people try to turn it into something and say Fat Tone did it, he had to die behind it. All these people is my family dude. Mac Minister is my family through the Regime. Fat Tone is my family, nigga I been knowing him since I was 14! He was the opposite side, blue and everything, but I woulda died for that died, killed for him, whatever. These are my family members, both sides! That collided. It was crazy bro. I loved both of em. Still do. And miss the hell outta Mac Dre, wish I could've did something with him bro. He was a talented dude. Anybody that can have that affect on so many people so quick.
Around that time they tried to cancel all my shows in Sac, I'm like wow! When I was in Santa Cruz they said man some Vallejo niggas talking about coming down and lighting you up. I'm like man, whatever! I did they show, my Federation niggas was there, kicking it like donkeys. Had bitches all in the hotel kickin it partying for Dre. The real niggas knew that it wasn't nobody, had nothing to do with Tech N9ne, had nothing to do with Rich The Factor, had nothing to do with Fat Tone. It's just the way it happened. I say on my first song on my album Everready. "Back on cause this is for Fat Tone, and Mac Dre, all of the soldiers who got gone on that day." Casualties of rap music and the streets, rap music is from the streets so we gonna have stuff like that happen. The fans blew it up into something it wasn't. It wasn't no Kansas City Bay Area rivalry. Never man. That was something else. If that was the case I would've been gone by now baby. Kansas City is rough but them Bay Area niggas ain't playing either. I spent time out there, I know killas out there.
We told Yuk whenever they come to Kansas City come through us. They got them niggas in KCK! You can't do that man. Them niggas ain't got nothing they waiting for niggas to come over there. They don't even like us! [laughs] We city slickers, across the water. Back in the day we used to say Kansas City, Kansas niggas don't like Missouri niggas cause we go over there and take they bitches! Whenever I'm doing shows with ICP and Kottonmouth Kings we be over there in Kansas City, KCK, we come out every window is broken. Niggas stealing shit, going crazy. My girl got her Louis Voitton purse that I bought her stolen. Plus the 800 that was in it.
But I told Yuk when yall on the road get with us. I guarantee if Mac Dre was with us, he'd still be here. Cause we do our business right, we ain't on no sideways nigga shit. I just wish we could turn back the hands of time, do the show, get paid, fuck bitches, go back home. That's the cycle.
West Coast Rydaz: So there you have it, any artists reading/listening to this, holla at Strange Music if you wanna get a performance done right in KC.
Tech N9ne: No doubt holla at Strange Music. 816 229-4700. Don't run with these sideways niggas. It's some promoters that's cool. My boy Fat Boy, down with Southside Posse, they doing it big with Money G. But anybody else, I don't know you, I don't care. Niggas like that end up killing moguls like Mac Dre and we need those niggas! His music gonna live on, you can't go nowhere and not hear it. Thizzle Dance. S-T-U-P-I-D. Everywhere! Especially in Kansas City, to this day. And they be throwing up the Ts at me! You think I didn't see the T's in Denmark! I seen em. Breaks my heart man, sincerity. I'm not talking about something thats gonna save my ass. Naw it's my family. We be hearing it spread out to all creeds. I'm talking about Bend, Oregon. Nigga I ain't know where the hell that was! All I know is Portland, Oregon. Bend, a gang of bitches! All creeds! Thizzed out. Bumpin Mac Dre. Wonderful man, I wish he was here to see it. I wish I was here so I can do something and say I did shit with Pac, Eminem, KRS One, E-40, Bone Thugs, Twista, come on man! I wanted to be able to say I did that with Mac Dre and we kicked it like donkeys. Cause I am Malcom X nigga. I almost died in 99 for taking 15 X pills. You hear T9X, "he popped, trapped in a psychos body, he popped, 15 hits of X in one night, lick big tits had sex with some dyke." That was back then! Now I'm talking about back then black folks wasn't doing X. Cats was tellin me, that's white folks! We smoke weed! We don't do that. Nigga Mac Dre infected this whole nation.
West Coast Rydaz: X was just apart of raves back then huh...
Tech N9ne: Yeah! I Was the black dude with red hair. I been raving, thug raving since 98. Totally! Poppin em! I had to calm down cause I almost died in 99. Dre got the hoods infected! Niggas is thizzin everyday! That's power. I know it ain't positive, but we kick it!
West Coast Rydaz: Like a morning coffee, pop a thizz.
Tech N9ne: Yeah! I love it. Anybody that can spread love like that man, you gotta adore em. It ain't no rivalry, that's street shit.
West Coast Rydaz: What are your feelings toward rap artists always being the scapegoat for negative things being done by the fans of the music? Often times Rock singers include content that's just as negative and violent, but they never seem to be targeted like that...
Tech N9ne: The thing is, rap music is street music. It's from the streets. When you get shit from the streets there's gonna be poverty. When there's poverty there's gonna be crime. So you gonna get niggas in the business that's coming from a life of crime. You don't see Axl Rose or Trent Reznor getting into it, battling over records. This shit is from the street. So they gonna always point the finger at us cause this is the black market. In the mainstream scale. They always talk that shit like oh it's because of this, he was listening to Tech N9ne Trapped in a Psycho's Body when he murdered...You be like, you know what, we been watching the Lone Ranger since we were little. Tonto and Lone Ranger shooting niggas. If you wanna go to cartoons, Yosemite Sam busting at niggas with gages. Like programming us. Then you got Arnold Schwartzenneger, the Terminator! We watching him killing mothafuckas. He's doing what the mothafuckas in Colombine did! Going through places just bustin on mothafuckas. That looks more like Terminator than a nigga on the street! They blame it on rap music because we from the street, and they young, it's the black market. TV is the biggest form of constant bombardment, they got us fucked up. The movies are the biggest form of constant bombardment to the brain. I been listenign to Slipknot and System of a Down for years. "If your 555 I'm 666". I don't believe I'm 666 but I love that music. I love Slipknot. That don't mean I'm gonna go hang myself. I'mma tell you, it all starts in the home. If the parents are not there to corall they god damn kids, they gonna explode and they gonna lash out. My kids ain't about to do that. I been coralling em since they were born. They listen to my music, they listen to Eminem, they listen to the cuss words, but they know not to say them cuss words cause I taught em. Corall your kids or they will explode on everybody. These mothafuckas got no control over they children, try to put it on music now it's your fault you bitch ass mothafucka!
I'm a parent, got 3 kids, 11, 12, and 7 and they wonderful. In this fucked up world they are wonderful. They know what not to do, wrong and right, no in between. Colombine, it ain't no reason they was practicing shooting in they garage and they parents didn't know it! Punk ass parents. Don't know what to do with they children, sittin back smokin weed behind they back. Faggots and shit. I ain't got nothing against the gay community but I'm talkin about these young mothafuckas is fuckin on each other and suckin on each other and then go shoot up a school! No parental guidance bro. It starts in the home. They cannot blame it on music. I took my kids to go see FInal Destination, I took them to go see Dawn of the Dead. The new one with Ving Rhames was real graphic at the beginning! All the blood...my kids were like daddy this is horrible! But they know! Right and wrong! I teach them, I don't hold them back from nothing. Just like the private school thing, they say the private school girls are nastiest because they try to shelter them! You tell the kids no, don't do this, you can't go to this dance, they gonna sneak out and do it! That's why they end up pregnant first. You gotta open, this is the key. You gotta be open with your children just like you talking to grown ups. There's a fine line, you don't wanna talk to your kid like get the fuck outta here you mothafucka! No, but you talk to them and teach them like adults. Like baby you can't use your loud voice when yourinside. We already got that bad stereotype that black people can't be quiet in closed in places. Teach them little things so they will remember when they're older. These parents always wanna point the finger at mothafuckas that's trying to get up out the ghetto. They have no back bone so they kids fuck up and they blame us. Fuck you!
I can't wait till they get me on TV. I got alot to say. And I'm speaking freely now, profanity and everything but they get me on camera, I can talk to you like an intelligent person and I won't have to say one cuss word and let you know what the hell I'm thinking. So whenever they come at me sideways, Nation of Islam always taught me to back up what you say. So if I say something about my music and 10 years later I say something different, they gonna be able to say 'Ah, you contradicting yourself.' It ain't gonna be able to be like that. I was raised a Christian, my mama married a Muslim when I was 12, so when I was 17 I ran away from home. But I learned alot. I try to put alot of that on my kids. I might be slightly crazy, a big clusterfuck because of the way I was raised, but I learned alot! My family loved me. My stepfather taught me alot even though I thought he was against me. But he was a hardcore Muslim, didn't want me fucking with white girls and shit like that. But the only thing he had twisted was that God don't want nobody to hate nobody, he created everybody equal. That's what I always knew, man seperated us. Hatred. A baby is not born with hatred, it's taught it. That's why they shoot up schools, fly into buildings with planes, blow up buildings in Oklahoma. Because they ain't had no parental guidance, it ain't no god damn music. It ain't no Marylin Manson or Eminem.
West Coast Rydaz: The Red hair, paint, robes, is that a correct representation of Aaron Yates or is Tech N9ne a whole different persona?
Tech N9ne: Let me tell you this. I tell people all the time, I ain't about no gimmicks or nothing like that. I think The red hair was due to the drugs. [laughs] I started doing ecstacy real big around that time back in the late 90s. I dig what that did for me. I just cut all my hair off two months ago, I look like a normal dude now. American Psycho all the way because you don't know that clown is within me. Let me tell you. Those images that you see is what's inside my head. That's how I best describe the beast in me. Comes as something that's supposed to be pleasant but really aint, that's the clown. The spikes were my crown because I always thought I was a king. That's what my name means - high exalted. Aaron. High priest. My auntie named me that. All these images - the king, the clown, and the G are part of me. I'm not one dimensional, I'm three dimensional. But I think the red hair came from all those raves and all those drugs and it pushed me to do something. That red being my block 57th St. Road dawgs Villain blood gang. Red being my favorite color. But if I wasn't on so many drugs, the acid, the GHB at the time doing hella X and shrooms all in one night, I think that pushed me to say I'mma do this.
As a black man, that's gonna look crazy as a mothafucka to your people! It scared my people away from me. After AngHellic my people didn't buy my albums no more. It hurt me! I had alot of beautiful music but my imagery scared them. But I never changed it at all. The only reason I cut my hair off is because I'm touring so much, a nigga don't know how to take care of bleached hair on the road! I can't afford no bitch to come with me and help me yet! My shit was falling out and it starting to look stupid. So I had to cut it all off from the beginning. If I would've known how many numbers and pussy you get with your hair like that, I would've cut it a long time ago! When you see me you gonna be like damn, he don't even look like Tech N9ne no more. Man the clown is on the inside, American Psycho style. So this is what I came up with, a serial killer has to have some kind of draw to get a bitch in his house. I can't walk up in there with them red spikes and expect a bitch to go home with me. But now that I was forced to cut it, I'm known that it's more women! They say I put the pussy on a pedestal like the 40 Year Old Virgin, I love it! I feel like the female species is the best thing that ever happened to us as males. A serial killer has to have some kind of draw. Charles Manson played the guitar, gotta have some kind of good look to you. So I tell Travis, don't be scared that my hair is gone, my fans still gonna love me. But this is a way I can get more females to come to us! Females buy them albums bro! It's Amercan Psycho style, I'm appealing to these bitches and I get them in here and then we scare the shit outta them! When you see the album it looks normal on the front now when you open it you got the king, the clown, and the G - like this is the same nigga? Hell yeah baby this is what's inside me.
I would never take back the red hair, I still paint my face. Whatever I feel that night before I go on stage - If I did shrooms and I feel spun the next night, I put SPUN on my forehead. I still paint my face cause the clown is still apart of me. THe king is high exalted, feel like ain't nothing above him. The rules don't apply to him. The clown is the extreme party animal, consequence is nothing. Whether it be the abundant use of drugs, or the sexual use of women. And the G, understands family values, like being on the road and not being able to be there for your little girls birthday or sons, it hurts em. I'm three dimensional, that's me. Aaron Yates. The King, the Clown, and the G. NO gimmicks. I'm just letting people know this sick image is what I see in my head when I think of a beast. I made a beast of myself over the years. I lost my wife because of it, but still best of friends. I get to go out to LA to see my children, ain't seen em in months. But I lost my family, what I was working for due to me becoming a beast and being gone on the road for so long. My kids love me to death, but my wife feel like I'm a stranger when I come home. But now me and my wife been seperated for like 2 years and now she wants me to meet some dude she met. It's backlash I get for becoming the beast, but I like it! At the same time, I lost what was so dear to me. But God loves me because he still gives me a glimpse of what I could have. I could go back to my house in Sherman Oaks, California and sleep in the same bed with my wife. We don't touch, we ain't touched in 5 years since I had that affair with that stripper bitch and she told on me and everything. But we been brothers and sisters ever since. We can still go to Magic Mountain and eat and laugh, and when I'm sitting there I'm like damn, I'm a beast but I gotta have some kind of angel in me to be able to have these angels and this piece of my life.
West Coast Rydaz: A few years ago you were pushing the FTI line...Fuck The Industry, you released the entire Absolute Power album for free download to prove that fans would still support you if they liked the music. What is the status of this whole movement? What are your current feelings on the industry.
Tech N9ne: I totally feel the same way. I still feel like the Industry is a bunch of fucking punks. The reason why, it's the same I woulda told you back then. Because I feel like these record execs don't wanna take a chance with this shit. You got some that do. But you got Russell Simmons that will take a chance, you got Clive Davis that will take a chance, you think he woulda ever thought that if he took a chance he could make all this money off Kenny G, a whiteboy with curly hair blowing a god damn horn? Nah, he took a chance! Music is supposed to inspire, Lauryn Hill said that. What that means is when we do this and our thing, it's supposed to inspire the next mothafucka to do something greater. Kanye West said when he heard "Xxplosive" (Dr. Dre) it made him do that beat for Jay-Z, Scarface and all that inspired him to do a beat similar to it and get in that circle. Next thing you know he done elevated to another level. That's what music is about. If Young Jeezy come out, don't make 10 more fucking Young Jeezys! You almost gotta feel em, the record companies cause they wanna do what's hot right now to get they money. It's all about the money. But don't be a fucking punk and not wanna take a chance with new artists. It's niggas out here that really have new shit and the world has to hear it! If I gotta do it being the Vice President of Strange Music I'm gonna do that shit dogg. Cause I'm gonna always elevate. If I hear something Jay-Z, or Eminem, or Busta do it's gonna provoke me to do something harder! The industry is punks cause they wanna make a million Young Jeezys, it's supposed to be Young Jeezy, boom! Let him have his thing. Young Joc, let him have his thing. But you ain't supposed to duplicate these mothafuckas cause that's what everybody's listening to. Take it to another level. I love Outkast god damnit, cause they don't give a fuck. It's about expressing yourself. Look at Cee-Lo man! You gotta be proud of that brother. You gotta be proud of Gnarls Barkley, he finally getting what he fuckin deserve! I loved Goodie Mob, but this is what that nigga is supposed to be doing. I love to see that. A nigga that was just expressing himself, fuck you nigga I'm St. Elsewhere! Would it be so hard for you to come visit me here? I'm somewhere out there! Wonderful. We listen to music and it's supposed to make us wanna do something greater. That's what the industry don't do. FTI for life dogg. We gonna become the industry and if we get our fuckin hands on the wheel that controls everything, you gonna see innovative shit.
West Coast Rydaz: What is next after this "Everready" album? You gonna keep going active....putting out any of your artists?
Tech N9ne: We gonna do Everready, November 7th. That's gonna be my biggest album ever. We got Alpha Dog the movie coming out January. That's a Nick Cassavetes movie. He's a director that did John Q, he did Face Off. He's a big time director. This is a true story about this dude Jesse James Hollywood who got this other dude killed. [Nick] called me cause he bought Absolute Power just on a fluke and listened to it and loved it and had me do the music for the god damn movie. I'm underground and I get to do a movie that got Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, Emil Hearst, Courtney Cox, everybody is in this god damn movie! And he chose Tech N9ne to do the god damn music! It's gonna be so big for me dogg. I got all kind of Tech music in there.
So on my roster after Everready you gonna get Critical Bill, it's the first rock band we signed to Strange Music from Detroit, Michigan. Shortly after that it's Scatterman and Snugg Brim, my gangsta mothafuckin niggas. They putting out they album called Word On The Street. Shortly after that it's gonna be Kutt Calhoun, a second album called Feature Presentation. Then its gonna be PDM. Project Dead Man. Signed them a couple years ago outta Saginau, Michigan. This is for the Juggalos, the darker side of music. Alot of ICP fans are fans of them, so they're coming out. Shortly after that big Krizz Calico finally get to do his first album, "The Funkra". Then shortly after that me and Krizz are gonna do a venture into rock shit called Kabosh. When you put the kabosh on something it's when you put a halt to it. If a bitch is talking shit it's like I put the kabosh on that bitch last night. Everything stops after Kabosh. It's so much stuff we about to do man. After that I'm gonna do another album called Izms, I don't really see nothing more until it hit me. I write as my life progresses and right now I'm just going. I'm gonna ride the Everready wave. Like the battery, meaning it's stronger than ever. Keep going even though I keep getting knocked down. 9 Lives baby! If you look at the Everready symbol, it's a 9 with a cat jumping through the loop of the 9 with a lightning bolt tail. I was like hell naw this is a message from God! I'm calling my album Everready but I did it wit 2 r's instead of one. I subtitled it The Religion. Meanin something to be worshiped or praised. This shit will be worshiped and praised!
West Coast Rydaz: So no more for year hiatuses?
Tech N9ne: Hell naw cause the bigger we get, the better our touring is gonna be. It's like doing 56 city tours and then right after that doing another 40 city tour. It's like the bigger we get - we gonna do 22 dates in these big ass arenas. Then we gonna do an album, then we gonna do a tour again. We stay on so much cause we gotta feed our family bro, and this is the way we do it. So I stay out there for the love of my family. I send all that money to my wife in LA, or my baby mama here in Kansas City. So it's like I gotta stay on the road to take care of them. The fans make it possible for me to buy them the best clothing. The fans make it possible for me to have them in the best schools. And I say this in every interview because I want the world to know, you got these punk ass rappers that the fans run up to, the don't know when they gonna see you again. That's why whenever Eminem said "at least have the decency, when you see me eating with my daughter not come and speak to me." I understand what he's talking about, I love Em. But alot of these rappers, and these fans don't know the next time they gonna see you! So they gonna take advantage, whether you in the bathroom, this is a fluke! Tech N9ne is passing through Denver, Colorado airport, you think they ain't gonna stop me? They don't know when they gonna see me again. Alot of these rappers turn people away like nah I don't sign autographs. They the reason why you can live in this god damn house. These people are the reason why your kids are spoiled like a mothafucka! They are the reason I can take my children to Magic Mountain or Knottsberry farm. My fans are the ones who put that in my pocket so I got to show them love! Alot of these rappers need to wake the fuck up and get off they high horse and know that you ain't shit without these fans!
That's truly how I feel at 34 years old. I'm about to be 35 November 8th man. I feel like I'm 18, I fuck these bitches like I'm 18. But my heart man, I recognize what's real and what's right. Some of these mothafuckas live on the street and still got your album. Nigga you better fuckin sign they shit and not charge them 5 dollars. I should start tellin the fans, you should start smackin these niggas with guns when they say no. I bet you they will sign it then.
I only got one more thing to say. I want to tell anybody that's listening to me right now. I want this to be quoted correctly. It's two words I always say to people. Celebrate Life. No matter how fucked up you think, or you can't pay your bills, you gotta find some way to celebrate life. If you just feel how you feel on the inside, it's alot of shit I ain't accomplished yet that I wanna do for my children. If I died right now Fernando, I would say I'm happy with the person I am on the inside. I might not be happy with the rest of my life or the way shit's going, but I'm happy with the way I am. I could die and say I got a good heart. Celebrate Life because people are trying to blow this mothafucka up! Over money. Celebrate Life as much as you can because you don't wanna have to die and say damn, I didn't feel right, I didn't do what I wanted to. Celebrate Life, those two words mean everything. Tell all these mothafuckas to celebrate life, from Tech N9ne to the rest of the world.
