The Running Everready Review/Interview Thread
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Already posted. but for those who didn't catch it:
Celebrate Life: Tech N9ne
http://www.hhnlive.com/features/more/140
Celebrate Life: Tech N9ne
http://www.hhnlive.com/features/more/140
KC Star, FRONT PAGE of FYI Section - 11/07/2006
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/15944012.htm
LOCAL MUSIC | A new image for Tech N9ne
EVER READY
That’s what rapper has to be to navigate a successful career.
By TIMOTHY FINN
The Kansas City Star
His new album, Tech N9ne says, is about power and control.
It’s ironic, then, that as he was preparing for the release of “Everready: The Religion,” Kansas City’s most successful rapper cut off his infamous long red hair.
Tech N9ne may not be Eminem, but he’s no Samson, either. In fact, you could say he’s proof that less is more.
“I’ve had long hair since I was in high school,” he said. “It was hard, but also I couldn’t wait to cut it. It was breaking off and starting to look stupid. Now I cut it every week.
“I’ve still got the hair, though. I saved it in a Subway bag.”
His red hair isn’t the only thing in the bag.
Today Tech N9ne will officially release “Everready,” his third full-length album. Given the reaction to its first single, “Bout Ta’ Bubble” — 520,000 plays on MySpace since Sept. 30 — success seems highly probable.
Tech (born Aaron Dontez Yates in 1971) has seen big numbers before. According to SoundScan, he has sold more than 460,000 copies combined of his two other CDs, “Anghellic” and “Absolute Power,” since 2001. He foresees even better things for the new album, for a few reasons.
One, he says “Everready” is his best work ever. Two, he and his label, Strange Music, are promoting the album without the help (or drag) of a big label. And three, Tech N9ne reminds himself every day that he’s lucky to be alive.
It’s the merch
In 1998 Travis O’Guin was a businessman who couldn’t understand why his favorite rapper wasn’t more famous. So O’Guin signed Tech N9ne and started a label in his Blue Springs home. They were spartan beginnings.
“I think Tech had sold about 16,000 albums in about eight years,” O’Guin said. “He had no distribution. The farthest he’d gone to do a show was Topeka.”
Today the label’s headquarters are in a building off Missouri 7 in Blue Springs. It contains a well-appointed office and a warehouse stuffed floor to ceiling with merchandise, everything from CDs, T-shirts, hoodies and skull caps to money clips and G-strings.
Music may be the label’s blood, but the merchandise is its muscle and bone.
“We did $4,000 in merch at a show last night,” he said. “When we tour with bands like Insane Clown Posse and Kottonmouth Kings, their fans go crazy.”
No label can sell that many T-shirts and hoodies unless it has a star. Tech N9ne is an independent artist, but he has accumulated big-label numbers. According to SoundScan, the total sales of all of Tech’s recorded material is 554,930.
Numbers like that are the function of relentless marketing and heavy touring.
“Being on the road is key,” Tech said. “We go to places like Casper, Wyo., and Bend, Ore. We have major followings there. Salt Lake City — we’re huge there.”
According to the Web site of radio station KUUU in Salt Lake City, “Bout Ta’ Bubble” has been the most-requested song for three weeks in a row.
Tech’s popularity isn’t confined to the U.S. In July he was invited to perform at a music festival in Denmark that draws more than 100,000 people. Tech performed in the “pavilion,” which unnerved him.
“I’m thinking, ‘Great. The place holds 10,000 people; 200 are going to show up, and it’s going to be real embarrassing,” he said.
It turns out Denmark loves him like Salt Lake City. “It was ridiculous,” he said. “The tent is packed. People are waving Tech N9ne banners, and about 2,000 people are outside the tent. It was crazy.”
‘Blest’
On his wrist, Tech N9ne has a tattoo: angel’s wings, the date “03-23-2005” and the letter “T.” It reminds him of the day he almost died.
He and four others — including fellow Strange Music rappers Big Krizz Kaliko and Kutt Calhoun — were in a 15-passenger van leaving Billings, Mont., and heading for a show. In a blizzard on an icy overpass, the van and the trailer it was pulling fishtailed. Moments later they rolled down an embankment.
“We rolled five times,” Tech said. “I remember thinking, ‘This is it.’ ”
All five passengers suffered nothing more than minor bumps and scratches. And they made the show in Spokane. All five now have the same angel tattoo on their right wrists, except for the letters, which combined spell “BLEST.”
The crash is re-created in a skit that opens “Everready.” The rest of the album, Tech says, is about how the crash renewed his sense of purpose and how that purpose fits the other forces in his life: his three children, his spirituality, his partying lifestyle.
“God gave me the talent to paint beautiful pictures with words,” he said. “I’m like Tech Van Gogh. My message is to listen to my life and learn from my mistakes. Party with me, cry with me, laugh with me.”
On “Everready” he “stepped up my game on the beats,” he said, by enlisting well-known guests like rapper E-40 and producers Rick Rock, Big Tank and Traxter.
The only big-name help he’s getting on the business side, however, is from Fontana Distribution, which will make sure his music gets stocked in retail stores.
“We talked to a lot of labels, but we couldn’t get the right deal,” O’Guin said. One was nearly struck with TVT Records, but having been stung by middlemen on their previous two records, O’Guin and Tech decided they were better on their own.
O’Guin is lining up a 2007 tour of about 150 shows that includes Germany, Sweden and Japan. He has also received help from unlikely places, like the cigarette company that distributes “9” cigarettes at Tech’s shows.
“You gotta do what you gotta do,” O’Guin said, smiling. “It’s a big sponsorship. It supplements our marketing budget.”
At Strange Music, the key is to attack, create opportunities, control your own destiny. Thus the talk about power and endurance from a guy who has worked doggedly to get his music heard since Day One.
Tech expects his “best work ever” will get the rewards it deserves; he thinks his new look may help.
“After ‘Anghellic,’ people who didn’t really understand my music thought I was into devil worship,” he said. “I have nothing to do with that (stuff). I pray like 100 times a day.
“I know my hair didn’t help. Red is my favorite color, but I know it scared some people. Now I’m more approachable, not so intimidating.”
In a culture where image is key and in a business where numbers are crunched hard every day, he and his label hope a simple haircut symbolize something else: the power of addition by subtraction.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TONIGHT
Tech N9ne performs tonight at the Beaumont Club in Westport.
Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets to the all-ages show cost $20.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To reach Timothy Finn, call (816) 234-4781 or e-mail [email protected].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**There are also two photos from this story; one of Tech N9ne on the front of the "FYI" section with promo ish all around. The other with Tech and Travis O'Guin in the Strange Music Merchandise Warehouse.**
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/15944012.htm
LOCAL MUSIC | A new image for Tech N9ne
EVER READY
That’s what rapper has to be to navigate a successful career.
By TIMOTHY FINN
The Kansas City Star
His new album, Tech N9ne says, is about power and control.
It’s ironic, then, that as he was preparing for the release of “Everready: The Religion,” Kansas City’s most successful rapper cut off his infamous long red hair.
Tech N9ne may not be Eminem, but he’s no Samson, either. In fact, you could say he’s proof that less is more.
“I’ve had long hair since I was in high school,” he said. “It was hard, but also I couldn’t wait to cut it. It was breaking off and starting to look stupid. Now I cut it every week.
“I’ve still got the hair, though. I saved it in a Subway bag.”
His red hair isn’t the only thing in the bag.
Today Tech N9ne will officially release “Everready,” his third full-length album. Given the reaction to its first single, “Bout Ta’ Bubble” — 520,000 plays on MySpace since Sept. 30 — success seems highly probable.
Tech (born Aaron Dontez Yates in 1971) has seen big numbers before. According to SoundScan, he has sold more than 460,000 copies combined of his two other CDs, “Anghellic” and “Absolute Power,” since 2001. He foresees even better things for the new album, for a few reasons.
One, he says “Everready” is his best work ever. Two, he and his label, Strange Music, are promoting the album without the help (or drag) of a big label. And three, Tech N9ne reminds himself every day that he’s lucky to be alive.
It’s the merch
In 1998 Travis O’Guin was a businessman who couldn’t understand why his favorite rapper wasn’t more famous. So O’Guin signed Tech N9ne and started a label in his Blue Springs home. They were spartan beginnings.
“I think Tech had sold about 16,000 albums in about eight years,” O’Guin said. “He had no distribution. The farthest he’d gone to do a show was Topeka.”
Today the label’s headquarters are in a building off Missouri 7 in Blue Springs. It contains a well-appointed office and a warehouse stuffed floor to ceiling with merchandise, everything from CDs, T-shirts, hoodies and skull caps to money clips and G-strings.
Music may be the label’s blood, but the merchandise is its muscle and bone.
“We did $4,000 in merch at a show last night,” he said. “When we tour with bands like Insane Clown Posse and Kottonmouth Kings, their fans go crazy.”
No label can sell that many T-shirts and hoodies unless it has a star. Tech N9ne is an independent artist, but he has accumulated big-label numbers. According to SoundScan, the total sales of all of Tech’s recorded material is 554,930.
Numbers like that are the function of relentless marketing and heavy touring.
“Being on the road is key,” Tech said. “We go to places like Casper, Wyo., and Bend, Ore. We have major followings there. Salt Lake City — we’re huge there.”
According to the Web site of radio station KUUU in Salt Lake City, “Bout Ta’ Bubble” has been the most-requested song for three weeks in a row.
Tech’s popularity isn’t confined to the U.S. In July he was invited to perform at a music festival in Denmark that draws more than 100,000 people. Tech performed in the “pavilion,” which unnerved him.
“I’m thinking, ‘Great. The place holds 10,000 people; 200 are going to show up, and it’s going to be real embarrassing,” he said.
It turns out Denmark loves him like Salt Lake City. “It was ridiculous,” he said. “The tent is packed. People are waving Tech N9ne banners, and about 2,000 people are outside the tent. It was crazy.”
‘Blest’
On his wrist, Tech N9ne has a tattoo: angel’s wings, the date “03-23-2005” and the letter “T.” It reminds him of the day he almost died.
He and four others — including fellow Strange Music rappers Big Krizz Kaliko and Kutt Calhoun — were in a 15-passenger van leaving Billings, Mont., and heading for a show. In a blizzard on an icy overpass, the van and the trailer it was pulling fishtailed. Moments later they rolled down an embankment.
“We rolled five times,” Tech said. “I remember thinking, ‘This is it.’ ”
All five passengers suffered nothing more than minor bumps and scratches. And they made the show in Spokane. All five now have the same angel tattoo on their right wrists, except for the letters, which combined spell “BLEST.”
The crash is re-created in a skit that opens “Everready.” The rest of the album, Tech says, is about how the crash renewed his sense of purpose and how that purpose fits the other forces in his life: his three children, his spirituality, his partying lifestyle.
“God gave me the talent to paint beautiful pictures with words,” he said. “I’m like Tech Van Gogh. My message is to listen to my life and learn from my mistakes. Party with me, cry with me, laugh with me.”
On “Everready” he “stepped up my game on the beats,” he said, by enlisting well-known guests like rapper E-40 and producers Rick Rock, Big Tank and Traxter.
The only big-name help he’s getting on the business side, however, is from Fontana Distribution, which will make sure his music gets stocked in retail stores.
“We talked to a lot of labels, but we couldn’t get the right deal,” O’Guin said. One was nearly struck with TVT Records, but having been stung by middlemen on their previous two records, O’Guin and Tech decided they were better on their own.
O’Guin is lining up a 2007 tour of about 150 shows that includes Germany, Sweden and Japan. He has also received help from unlikely places, like the cigarette company that distributes “9” cigarettes at Tech’s shows.
“You gotta do what you gotta do,” O’Guin said, smiling. “It’s a big sponsorship. It supplements our marketing budget.”
At Strange Music, the key is to attack, create opportunities, control your own destiny. Thus the talk about power and endurance from a guy who has worked doggedly to get his music heard since Day One.
Tech expects his “best work ever” will get the rewards it deserves; he thinks his new look may help.
“After ‘Anghellic,’ people who didn’t really understand my music thought I was into devil worship,” he said. “I have nothing to do with that (stuff). I pray like 100 times a day.
“I know my hair didn’t help. Red is my favorite color, but I know it scared some people. Now I’m more approachable, not so intimidating.”
In a culture where image is key and in a business where numbers are crunched hard every day, he and his label hope a simple haircut symbolize something else: the power of addition by subtraction.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TONIGHT
Tech N9ne performs tonight at the Beaumont Club in Westport.
Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets to the all-ages show cost $20.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To reach Timothy Finn, call (816) 234-4781 or e-mail [email protected].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**There are also two photos from this story; one of Tech N9ne on the front of the "FYI" section with promo ish all around. The other with Tech and Travis O'Guin in the Strange Music Merchandise Warehouse.**
CD REVIEW | Tech N9ne, ‘Everready: The Religion’
Best moments hard to equal
Kansas City’s hip-hop representative gives voice to intriguing self.
By BILL BROWNLEE
Special to The Star
MIKE RANSDELL | THE KANSAS CITY STAR
Tech N9ne is at his most confident on the new “Everready.”
Kansas Citians unfamiliar with one of the city’s best-selling exports might wonder whether they should proudly embrace Tech N9ne or lock their doors as he passes by. As Tech N9ne is a singularly complex figure, there’s no easy answer.
“Everready,” his new release, is a startlingly ambitious statement from an artist who seems to sense that his career and his very life are at stake. Its sprawling 75 minutes contain innovative musical and lyrical heights that trample hip-hop’s tired clichés.
In its best moments “Everready” is the artistic equal of the hip-hop world’s premier releases and compares favorably with the groundbreaking work of Kanye West and Outkast. Yet his longtime fans need not fear that Tech N9ne has gone soft; there’s more than enough violence and misogyny on hand to offend anyone not already desensitized by the grittiness of contemporary hip-hop.
The album’s broad palette of innovative sonic textures is unrivaled by all but the most experimental rock and hip-hop releases. “Welcome to the Midwest” marries the cadence of a military march to a Dean Martin-style croon. The ominous “Night and Day” smartly contrasts Islamic prayer accents with a smooth, soul ballad hook.
While the riveting “Running Out of Time” references a classic-rock hit by Steve Miller, Tech N9ne demonstrates that he’s also completely up to date on the hyphy “Bout Ta’ Bubble.” The slamming club anthem is “Everready’s” most conventional, radio-ready track.
Tech N9ne’s favorite subject is himself; fortunately he’s an intriguing figure. He’s the rare rapper who openly exposes his fears and faults. Often employing his famous rapid-fire delivery, Tech N9ne’s powerful voice has never sounded more confident. He brazenly challenges the local competition on “Come Gangsta.”
“With my red hair and my face paint,” he asserts, “I may look like a clown, but you … sound like a … circus.” The jovial “Jellysickle,” featuring E-40, is a less abrasive attack on his detractors.
“They love my pain because it makes for great music,” Tech says of his fans on the oddly affecting “The Rain.” It’s true that the self-described “crazed clown” seems most inspired on his darkest material.
When he revels in earthly pleasures, such as the ode to his favorite adult beverage, “Caribou Lou,” Tech N9ne falls back on offensive platitudes and stale beats.
Kansas City doesn’t fare especially well on “Everready.” According to Tech N9ne, it’s a place punctuated by gunfire. Mutilated bodies are dumped in Swope Park. But just as he unflinchingly documents Kansas City’s troubles, Tech N9ne proudly extols the virtues of the place he calls home.
“Everready” is an artistic triumph that should make Kansas City proud of its most popular musical ambassador.
Best moments hard to equal
Kansas City’s hip-hop representative gives voice to intriguing self.
By BILL BROWNLEE
Special to The Star
MIKE RANSDELL | THE KANSAS CITY STAR
Tech N9ne is at his most confident on the new “Everready.”
Kansas Citians unfamiliar with one of the city’s best-selling exports might wonder whether they should proudly embrace Tech N9ne or lock their doors as he passes by. As Tech N9ne is a singularly complex figure, there’s no easy answer.
“Everready,” his new release, is a startlingly ambitious statement from an artist who seems to sense that his career and his very life are at stake. Its sprawling 75 minutes contain innovative musical and lyrical heights that trample hip-hop’s tired clichés.
In its best moments “Everready” is the artistic equal of the hip-hop world’s premier releases and compares favorably with the groundbreaking work of Kanye West and Outkast. Yet his longtime fans need not fear that Tech N9ne has gone soft; there’s more than enough violence and misogyny on hand to offend anyone not already desensitized by the grittiness of contemporary hip-hop.
The album’s broad palette of innovative sonic textures is unrivaled by all but the most experimental rock and hip-hop releases. “Welcome to the Midwest” marries the cadence of a military march to a Dean Martin-style croon. The ominous “Night and Day” smartly contrasts Islamic prayer accents with a smooth, soul ballad hook.
While the riveting “Running Out of Time” references a classic-rock hit by Steve Miller, Tech N9ne demonstrates that he’s also completely up to date on the hyphy “Bout Ta’ Bubble.” The slamming club anthem is “Everready’s” most conventional, radio-ready track.
Tech N9ne’s favorite subject is himself; fortunately he’s an intriguing figure. He’s the rare rapper who openly exposes his fears and faults. Often employing his famous rapid-fire delivery, Tech N9ne’s powerful voice has never sounded more confident. He brazenly challenges the local competition on “Come Gangsta.”
“With my red hair and my face paint,” he asserts, “I may look like a clown, but you … sound like a … circus.” The jovial “Jellysickle,” featuring E-40, is a less abrasive attack on his detractors.
“They love my pain because it makes for great music,” Tech says of his fans on the oddly affecting “The Rain.” It’s true that the self-described “crazed clown” seems most inspired on his darkest material.
When he revels in earthly pleasures, such as the ode to his favorite adult beverage, “Caribou Lou,” Tech N9ne falls back on offensive platitudes and stale beats.
Kansas City doesn’t fare especially well on “Everready.” According to Tech N9ne, it’s a place punctuated by gunfire. Mutilated bodies are dumped in Swope Park. But just as he unflinchingly documents Kansas City’s troubles, Tech N9ne proudly extols the virtues of the place he calls home.
“Everready” is an artistic triumph that should make Kansas City proud of its most popular musical ambassador.
TECH N9NENov. 7 at the Beaumont
Club |
Although it was a smoke-filled room, there wasn’t much chatter about election results Tuesday night at the Beaumont Club.
About 1,000 patrons were there to celebrate a different kind of victory: the release of best-selling Kansas City hip-hop figure Tech N9ne’s new album, “Everready.”
Security was exceedingly tight, and the police maintained a heavy presence outside the Beaumont’s entrance. The crowd inside, however, was united by a shared love of Tech N9ne. The main offense committed by the steady stream of fans escorted from the club by the security staff seemed to be overt displays of over-exuberance. In the words of Tech N9ne, some people got a little too hyphy.
The first order of business was getting over the shock of seeing Tech N9ne without his trademark red hair. His elaborate face paint and modified Nation of Islam red tie and white formal shirt, which his crew also wore, compensated for the visual alteration.
Tech N9ne’s well-paced 75-minute set affirmed the depth of his catalog. “Slacker,” from 2004’s “Absolute Power,” was met with rapturous enthusiasm. The audience’s involvement peaked with “It’s Alive” from the 2001 release “Anghellic.” The confessional “This Ring” was the evening’s dramatic highlight.
The fanatically loyal audience thrilled to each song. Even so, live hip-hop performances often suffer in comparison to studio recordings. Despite his commanding stage presence, Tech N9ne’s show Tuesday was no exception. The nuance and elaborate soundscapes of his albums were drowned in a relentless bass thump. “Bout Ta Bubble,” the most accessible song on “Everready,” should have torn the roof off the Beaumont. Instead, it fell flat. Whether intentionally or not, the track was stripped down to beat and vocals.
Tech N9ne and his crew were accompanied only by a DJ. The humorous vocals and amusing raps of Big Krizz Kaliko, Tech N9ne’s fantastic foil, balanced Tech’s intensity.
Brotha Lynch Hung, the notorious rapper from Sacramento, Calif., joined Tech N9ne to reprise his “Everready” appearance on “My World.” His machine gun-style delivery rivaled Tech N9ne’s impressive speed.
While thanking those in attendance, Tech N9ne said, “You’re the reason I can put my kids in the best shoes and in the best schools.” The performance ended with a celebratory reading of “I’m a Playa,” as Tech N9ne was surrounded on the stage by his family and friends.
Unfortunately, Tech N9ne’s unique vision does not extend to his ability to sign talent. All three of Tuesday’s opening acts are scheduled to release albums on Tech N9ne’s Strange Music label in 2007. Kutt Calhoun and Skatterman delivered tedious sets of predictable gangsta rap. Critical Bill, a Detroit-based rock-rap act, also was devoid of originality but managed to win the crowd over with its sheer energy.
Club |
Although it was a smoke-filled room, there wasn’t much chatter about election results Tuesday night at the Beaumont Club.
About 1,000 patrons were there to celebrate a different kind of victory: the release of best-selling Kansas City hip-hop figure Tech N9ne’s new album, “Everready.”
Security was exceedingly tight, and the police maintained a heavy presence outside the Beaumont’s entrance. The crowd inside, however, was united by a shared love of Tech N9ne. The main offense committed by the steady stream of fans escorted from the club by the security staff seemed to be overt displays of over-exuberance. In the words of Tech N9ne, some people got a little too hyphy.
The first order of business was getting over the shock of seeing Tech N9ne without his trademark red hair. His elaborate face paint and modified Nation of Islam red tie and white formal shirt, which his crew also wore, compensated for the visual alteration.
Tech N9ne’s well-paced 75-minute set affirmed the depth of his catalog. “Slacker,” from 2004’s “Absolute Power,” was met with rapturous enthusiasm. The audience’s involvement peaked with “It’s Alive” from the 2001 release “Anghellic.” The confessional “This Ring” was the evening’s dramatic highlight.
The fanatically loyal audience thrilled to each song. Even so, live hip-hop performances often suffer in comparison to studio recordings. Despite his commanding stage presence, Tech N9ne’s show Tuesday was no exception. The nuance and elaborate soundscapes of his albums were drowned in a relentless bass thump. “Bout Ta Bubble,” the most accessible song on “Everready,” should have torn the roof off the Beaumont. Instead, it fell flat. Whether intentionally or not, the track was stripped down to beat and vocals.
Tech N9ne and his crew were accompanied only by a DJ. The humorous vocals and amusing raps of Big Krizz Kaliko, Tech N9ne’s fantastic foil, balanced Tech’s intensity.
Brotha Lynch Hung, the notorious rapper from Sacramento, Calif., joined Tech N9ne to reprise his “Everready” appearance on “My World.” His machine gun-style delivery rivaled Tech N9ne’s impressive speed.
While thanking those in attendance, Tech N9ne said, “You’re the reason I can put my kids in the best shoes and in the best schools.” The performance ended with a celebratory reading of “I’m a Playa,” as Tech N9ne was surrounded on the stage by his family and friends.
Unfortunately, Tech N9ne’s unique vision does not extend to his ability to sign talent. All three of Tuesday’s opening acts are scheduled to release albums on Tech N9ne’s Strange Music label in 2007. Kutt Calhoun and Skatterman delivered tedious sets of predictable gangsta rap. Critical Bill, a Detroit-based rock-rap act, also was devoid of originality but managed to win the crowd over with its sheer energy.
3 1/2 STARS!!
Ya beat me to it! HaHa. I just now grabbed the paper from my driveway and grabbed the preview section to see if they did a review this week for Everready. Sure enough! One on the album, and one on the show. They gave him 3 1/2 stars, out of a possible 4! Very good review.... good lookin' out, Keebler.
I personally liked it all, but there were a few errors. Any critic could make them. My favorite was how according to them, Absolute Power was released in 2004. I was like, "Yeah, if only it has been just two years since the last release." Looks like they aren't a fan of his new DJ, either. They were also hating on S & S, along with KUTT. Saying that their sets were "predictable." Hmmmmmmmm....
Ya beat me to it! HaHa. I just now grabbed the paper from my driveway and grabbed the preview section to see if they did a review this week for Everready. Sure enough! One on the album, and one on the show. They gave him 3 1/2 stars, out of a possible 4! Very good review.... good lookin' out, Keebler.
I personally liked it all, but there were a few errors. Any critic could make them. My favorite was how according to them, Absolute Power was released in 2004. I was like, "Yeah, if only it has been just two years since the last release." Looks like they aren't a fan of his new DJ, either. They were also hating on S & S, along with KUTT. Saying that their sets were "predictable." Hmmmmmmmm....
COWTOWN CONFIDENTIAL
Tech N9ne spinning jams in ‘Hollywood’
Hearne Christopher Jr.
The Kansas City Star
The next big thing for Tech N9ne?
The hometown hero/hip-hop artist looms large on the soundtrack of the movie “Alpha Dog,” now slated for a January release. The Nick Cassavetes film is loosely based on the life of Jesse James Hollywood, an alleged drug dealer who reportedly was one of the youngest men ever to make the FBI’s most wanted list.
“Justin Timberlake is in it with Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone,” Tech N9ne says. “It’s a great movie — you’re going to absolutely dig Justin Timberlake. I wouldn’t have thought Justin could be so dramatic.”
Cassavetes didn’t use Tech N9ne’s score, “But they used a lot of my music in the movie,” he says. “We did country music; we did trance music; we did hip-hop; we did rock ’n’ roll. We got to display a lot of our talents in this movie.”
The reason for the movie’s long delay: “It was supposed to come out last year, but (the FBI) found the guy in Brazil, Jesse James Hollywood,” Tech N9ne says. “And if the movie would have come out, they would have hung him — when I say ‘hung him,’ he would have got a lot of time in jail.”
That’s because Hollywood awaits trial for the murder of a teenager. He sued Universal Studios last month to stop the movie’s January release, saying it would impair his ability to get a fair trial.
Tech N9ne spinning jams in ‘Hollywood’
Hearne Christopher Jr.
The Kansas City Star
The next big thing for Tech N9ne?
The hometown hero/hip-hop artist looms large on the soundtrack of the movie “Alpha Dog,” now slated for a January release. The Nick Cassavetes film is loosely based on the life of Jesse James Hollywood, an alleged drug dealer who reportedly was one of the youngest men ever to make the FBI’s most wanted list.
“Justin Timberlake is in it with Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone,” Tech N9ne says. “It’s a great movie — you’re going to absolutely dig Justin Timberlake. I wouldn’t have thought Justin could be so dramatic.”
Cassavetes didn’t use Tech N9ne’s score, “But they used a lot of my music in the movie,” he says. “We did country music; we did trance music; we did hip-hop; we did rock ’n’ roll. We got to display a lot of our talents in this movie.”
The reason for the movie’s long delay: “It was supposed to come out last year, but (the FBI) found the guy in Brazil, Jesse James Hollywood,” Tech N9ne says. “And if the movie would have come out, they would have hung him — when I say ‘hung him,’ he would have got a lot of time in jail.”
That’s because Hollywood awaits trial for the murder of a teenager. He sued Universal Studios last month to stop the movie’s January release, saying it would impair his ability to get a fair trial.
Gone is the signature explosion of spiked, red-dyed hair — a look that was inspired during the rapper's long affair with Ecstasy.
Show Details
Who / What:
Tech N9ne
Everready.
Music Genre:
DJs/Rap/Hip-Hop
No longer rolling on pills but still riotous onstage, Tech's rocking the close-cropped, sophisticated-older-guy look. Tech's jutting, pharaoh goatee has strands of white in it — which is common for men his age, which, as of November 8, was 35. A ripe old age for a rapper.
"I had to cut it because it was falling out," he says of his hair. "I cut it two months ago, and for me, that was a bad thing because the hair was an extension of me, and I know what people would think, but for a black man on tour, without a woman with him helping him take care of bleached hair ..." he trails off, comparing the act of bleaching his hair to strewing weeds across his scalp.
"It was getting to where I was looking like a stupid clown," he admits. "Do I look like a stupid clown, or do I cut it all off and start from scratch?"
And then he adds, "If I would have known how much female attention this would get me, I probably would have cut it a long time ago."
We're at the table in the corporate-looking conference room of Strange Music's headquarters — hell, music and merchandise factory — at a small strip mall in Blue Springs. Among the people at desks and computers is Travis O'Guin, a large white man in comfortable athletic clothes and the business brain behind the operation.
The distribution center is in the back. It consists of high-ceilinged factory rooms stocked with boxes of CDs, clothing, posters and the like. A fresh shipment of Tech N9ne hoodies has recently arrived. Folded neatly, the Chiefs-red garments practically glow from the boxes, their logos crisp and artistic. In keeping with the fashion, there's no elastic on the sleeve cuffs or waists of the hoodies.
"We do more merch than all other industry artists, period," O'Guin says. Hoodies, tees and ski caps line the walls of the merch-guy training booth booth like a sporting-goods-store display.
"They call us a mini Wal-Mart on tour," Tech says. O'Guin objects to this comparison to the world's largest dealer of cheap crap. Strange's stuff is quality.
They'll peddle their wares at a projected 150 concerts this year, with support from the various other artists signed to the label (Kutt Calhoun, Krizz Calico, Scatterman & Snug Brim, among others). Last year, they did 134, and that was without a new Tech N9ne album to pimp.
Everready is Tech's first album in four years, promoted in advance by thousands of giveaway samplers. (You've probably seen the customized truck cruising around town in the past month, album art screaming off the sides, street teamers passing out shrink-wrapped CDs to people on sidewalks.) Out November 7, the full album is being distributed by Fontana, the independent-artist branch of Universal Music.
O'Guin is a businessman. Before he hooked up with Tech, he ran a furniture company that handled warranty orders (he still owns it) and a clothing company.
"With a local clothing company, you want all the local celebrities to wear your clothes," he says.
That's how he found Tech.
The two endured two failed partnerships with record companies before Fontana and are now at a stable place. But even during the hard times, Strange managed to move a considerable number of discs — more than 550,000 copies of Tech's albums Anghellic, Absolute Power and the retrospective CD Vintage Tech.
"Everyone who's in a major deal is envious of the type of structure we have," O'Guin says.
Call it absolute power over your own operations.
The challenge is ensuring that your artists can pay their bills.
Tech N9ne loves his fans — and hardcore "Technicians" rabidly requite the love — and he talks with a mixture of joy and resignation at being "married to the road." But what he really wants is to hang with his kids, who, he says, provide the old rhymer with a reason for living. He talks about this dilemma in terms he learned from his Catholic upbringing, saying that he's between heaven and hell.
"Purgatory has treated me really nice since I've been here," he says. "Purgatory is the reason why I can feed my children. Everready is gonna give me heaven — I truly believe that. I've been in purgatory for a while. What is heaven? For me: peace.
"Peace, to me, is being able to chill with my children and being able to take them to foreign places and not have to worry about stupid bullshit every day from day to day or people not getting along," he says.
He has two kids by his wife, from whom he's separated (she lives in Sherman Oaks, California), and one son by a rapper named Agony who lives in the Kansas City area. To the former, he says he pays $5,000 a month in support; to the latter, $700. That's why he has to tour constantly. Tech lives in California now but will look for a place here when the Everready tour's over.
As for life on the road, Tech describes his fans as the best thing that's happened to him since his children.
"My fans give a fuck enough about my life to go pay for a CD or buy a ticket so I can take care of my children," he says. Born Aaron Dontez Yates, Tech grew up in a Blood neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. He eventually joined a gang called the 57th Street Road Dog Villains. (He gives a shout-out to a fallen member on Everready's lead-off track, "Riotmaker.")
These days, his life is distanced from that past —no drugs, no pimpin', no beef with anyone in the industry or on the street. Still, he says, being in a gang made him the person he is.
"My family really loved me, but when I got with my gang niggas, man, they taught me to be a man," he says. "This is the positive thing they taught me about the gang shit, man — togetherness. I love that those dudes stayed together through all those trials and tribulations. Through gang-banging, through drugs, through hatred from other people, they stayed together."
Most of his old running buddies are still alive and out of jail, too. Tech has never been arrested, and he made his first court appearance just this year, sorting out child-support payments to his local baby's mama. Maybe his gang survived because it wasn't the hardest on the block?
"People are going to hate to hear this," he answers, "but they [his former gang mates] are the hardest — they're men, dawg. A bullet don't give a fuck about how much of a man you are, but these guys are angels.
"How can that be — gang-bangers are angels?" he continues. "I kicked it with these people, I lived with these people, and I know they hearts. Never mind what they grew up around."
With that in mind, it's surprising that today's Tech N9ne is not a gangsta rapper. In fact, many of his fans are white — most noticeably, followers of his frequent tourmates the Insane Clown Posse, who paint their faces in clown makeup, like Tech, and call themselves juggalos. They're quite the misfits in the world of fandom.
"I'm everybody," he claims, "so my fans are growing rapidly. Juggalos are part of everybody. My fan base ain't ever been just juggalos."
Though his music isn't for everybody (East Coast aficionados may not dig it), it has broader appeal than the haters say.
There's nobody who sounds like Tech N9ne. His music spans from ominous rap-metal to sparse, heavy-drumbeat hyphy — the latter captured on the new single "Bout ta' Bubble," a party track that samples an Art of Noise song favored by B-boys back in the day. Present still on Everready is Tech's penchant for orchestral, Tim Burton-movie-soundtrack gothic backdrops and his trademark, percussive vocal chah, which his producers seem to be able to summon at the push of a button.
Tech doesn't brag through his songs, as some rappers do; he doesn't rhyme about bling or cars. He tells stories from his life, and he does it with a literate, self-effacing flair.
Case in point: "My Wife, My Bitch, My Girl," track 11 on Everready, which is preceded by a comical mock game-show skit that has the contestant (Tech) spinning a wheel in hopes of winning all three females. In the skit's ideal world, he wins them all, but in the reality that unfolds in the song, he has trouble with all of them.
"I hate that that's a true story," he says. "I hate that it had to be that. I wish it could've been just my wife."
Everready is full of similar stories, told with dexterity and cleverness. Tech can definitely rap. And though he still paints "Fuck Off" in decorative letters on his face at shows, the stories he tells nowadays are more profound than his past tales of sex, drugs and vampire strippers. Hell, the guy's 35.
Show Details
Who / What:
Tech N9ne
Everready.
Music Genre:
DJs/Rap/Hip-Hop
No longer rolling on pills but still riotous onstage, Tech's rocking the close-cropped, sophisticated-older-guy look. Tech's jutting, pharaoh goatee has strands of white in it — which is common for men his age, which, as of November 8, was 35. A ripe old age for a rapper.
"I had to cut it because it was falling out," he says of his hair. "I cut it two months ago, and for me, that was a bad thing because the hair was an extension of me, and I know what people would think, but for a black man on tour, without a woman with him helping him take care of bleached hair ..." he trails off, comparing the act of bleaching his hair to strewing weeds across his scalp.
"It was getting to where I was looking like a stupid clown," he admits. "Do I look like a stupid clown, or do I cut it all off and start from scratch?"
And then he adds, "If I would have known how much female attention this would get me, I probably would have cut it a long time ago."
We're at the table in the corporate-looking conference room of Strange Music's headquarters — hell, music and merchandise factory — at a small strip mall in Blue Springs. Among the people at desks and computers is Travis O'Guin, a large white man in comfortable athletic clothes and the business brain behind the operation.
The distribution center is in the back. It consists of high-ceilinged factory rooms stocked with boxes of CDs, clothing, posters and the like. A fresh shipment of Tech N9ne hoodies has recently arrived. Folded neatly, the Chiefs-red garments practically glow from the boxes, their logos crisp and artistic. In keeping with the fashion, there's no elastic on the sleeve cuffs or waists of the hoodies.
"We do more merch than all other industry artists, period," O'Guin says. Hoodies, tees and ski caps line the walls of the merch-guy training booth booth like a sporting-goods-store display.
"They call us a mini Wal-Mart on tour," Tech says. O'Guin objects to this comparison to the world's largest dealer of cheap crap. Strange's stuff is quality.
They'll peddle their wares at a projected 150 concerts this year, with support from the various other artists signed to the label (Kutt Calhoun, Krizz Calico, Scatterman & Snug Brim, among others). Last year, they did 134, and that was without a new Tech N9ne album to pimp.
Everready is Tech's first album in four years, promoted in advance by thousands of giveaway samplers. (You've probably seen the customized truck cruising around town in the past month, album art screaming off the sides, street teamers passing out shrink-wrapped CDs to people on sidewalks.) Out November 7, the full album is being distributed by Fontana, the independent-artist branch of Universal Music.
O'Guin is a businessman. Before he hooked up with Tech, he ran a furniture company that handled warranty orders (he still owns it) and a clothing company.
"With a local clothing company, you want all the local celebrities to wear your clothes," he says.
That's how he found Tech.
The two endured two failed partnerships with record companies before Fontana and are now at a stable place. But even during the hard times, Strange managed to move a considerable number of discs — more than 550,000 copies of Tech's albums Anghellic, Absolute Power and the retrospective CD Vintage Tech.
"Everyone who's in a major deal is envious of the type of structure we have," O'Guin says.
Call it absolute power over your own operations.
The challenge is ensuring that your artists can pay their bills.
Tech N9ne loves his fans — and hardcore "Technicians" rabidly requite the love — and he talks with a mixture of joy and resignation at being "married to the road." But what he really wants is to hang with his kids, who, he says, provide the old rhymer with a reason for living. He talks about this dilemma in terms he learned from his Catholic upbringing, saying that he's between heaven and hell.
"Purgatory has treated me really nice since I've been here," he says. "Purgatory is the reason why I can feed my children. Everready is gonna give me heaven — I truly believe that. I've been in purgatory for a while. What is heaven? For me: peace.
"Peace, to me, is being able to chill with my children and being able to take them to foreign places and not have to worry about stupid bullshit every day from day to day or people not getting along," he says.
He has two kids by his wife, from whom he's separated (she lives in Sherman Oaks, California), and one son by a rapper named Agony who lives in the Kansas City area. To the former, he says he pays $5,000 a month in support; to the latter, $700. That's why he has to tour constantly. Tech lives in California now but will look for a place here when the Everready tour's over.
As for life on the road, Tech describes his fans as the best thing that's happened to him since his children.
"My fans give a fuck enough about my life to go pay for a CD or buy a ticket so I can take care of my children," he says. Born Aaron Dontez Yates, Tech grew up in a Blood neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. He eventually joined a gang called the 57th Street Road Dog Villains. (He gives a shout-out to a fallen member on Everready's lead-off track, "Riotmaker.")
These days, his life is distanced from that past —no drugs, no pimpin', no beef with anyone in the industry or on the street. Still, he says, being in a gang made him the person he is.
"My family really loved me, but when I got with my gang niggas, man, they taught me to be a man," he says. "This is the positive thing they taught me about the gang shit, man — togetherness. I love that those dudes stayed together through all those trials and tribulations. Through gang-banging, through drugs, through hatred from other people, they stayed together."
Most of his old running buddies are still alive and out of jail, too. Tech has never been arrested, and he made his first court appearance just this year, sorting out child-support payments to his local baby's mama. Maybe his gang survived because it wasn't the hardest on the block?
"People are going to hate to hear this," he answers, "but they [his former gang mates] are the hardest — they're men, dawg. A bullet don't give a fuck about how much of a man you are, but these guys are angels.
"How can that be — gang-bangers are angels?" he continues. "I kicked it with these people, I lived with these people, and I know they hearts. Never mind what they grew up around."
With that in mind, it's surprising that today's Tech N9ne is not a gangsta rapper. In fact, many of his fans are white — most noticeably, followers of his frequent tourmates the Insane Clown Posse, who paint their faces in clown makeup, like Tech, and call themselves juggalos. They're quite the misfits in the world of fandom.
"I'm everybody," he claims, "so my fans are growing rapidly. Juggalos are part of everybody. My fan base ain't ever been just juggalos."
Though his music isn't for everybody (East Coast aficionados may not dig it), it has broader appeal than the haters say.
There's nobody who sounds like Tech N9ne. His music spans from ominous rap-metal to sparse, heavy-drumbeat hyphy — the latter captured on the new single "Bout ta' Bubble," a party track that samples an Art of Noise song favored by B-boys back in the day. Present still on Everready is Tech's penchant for orchestral, Tim Burton-movie-soundtrack gothic backdrops and his trademark, percussive vocal chah, which his producers seem to be able to summon at the push of a button.
Tech doesn't brag through his songs, as some rappers do; he doesn't rhyme about bling or cars. He tells stories from his life, and he does it with a literate, self-effacing flair.
Case in point: "My Wife, My Bitch, My Girl," track 11 on Everready, which is preceded by a comical mock game-show skit that has the contestant (Tech) spinning a wheel in hopes of winning all three females. In the skit's ideal world, he wins them all, but in the reality that unfolds in the song, he has trouble with all of them.
"I hate that that's a true story," he says. "I hate that it had to be that. I wish it could've been just my wife."
Everready is full of similar stories, told with dexterity and cleverness. Tech can definitely rap. And though he still paints "Fuck Off" in decorative letters on his face at shows, the stories he tells nowadays are more profound than his past tales of sex, drugs and vampire strippers. Hell, the guy's 35.