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Tech N9ne Photo By Marcus Hanschen Continued from Murder Dog vol.15 #2 Why did I use the Michael Jackson “Thriller” concept? Because that shit is worldwide. That is the album that sold 50 million copies. I saw that cover. That’s a classic image that we’ll never forget. Michael Jackson had a white suit on. I don’t got no white suit, that ain’t Tech N9ne. Tech N9ne’s crazy and insane. So you put him in a straight jacket and name it “Killer” instead of “Thriller”. If my journey is about getting to the rest of the world, why wouldn’t I mock that cover that’s everywhere. People who don’t even speak the language are buying his album. They can call me the Michael Jackson of Rap. I love Michael Jackson. I don’t care what people say. Me either. OK, he had problems. I’m not talkin about his personal life, I’m talkin about his musical life. So what I’m sayin is my journey is not even half complete. We’re getting there though. Me and Travis (co-owner of Strange Music), we’re getting there. It’s about getting it to the rest of the world. When I say, “Fuck the industry,” A lot of my fans got it twisted. They think I mean fuck BET and MTV, like I don’t want to be on there. No man! I’m sayin fuck MTV for not puttin me on it. I’m sayin fuck BET cause they’re not puttin me on there. I’m sayin fuck the radio because they ain’t playin my shit like they should be. That’s what “FTI” means. Fuck the industry because they won’t take chances with new music and better music. Music is supposed to inspire. What that means is when I do something superb the next young muthafucka that’s listening is compelled to do something even better. Keep bettering Hip Hop, that’s what it’s supposed to do. Keep going up and up and up. That’s what it’s all about, inspiring. You would think that people on MTV or BET would want to put you their show in a second, because your visuals are so amazing, your stage performance is so incredible. Anyone would be excited to see you on TV. That’s the fucked up thing. It’s all about money. Everybody has to get their palms green. I understand that. I understand payola. I understand that we’re independent. We ain’t about to pay no DJ 20,000 to play one fuckin song 700 times a day. We ain’t got money to throw away like that. We’re about to get it and then we’ll have to ask ourselves do we wanna play that game. They’re gonna have to see me. The fans are gonna have to speak. MTV is gonna have to see me, BET is gonna have to see me, the radio is gonna have to see me. You might not realize it, but you are a legendary artist all over the world. If I were you I wouldn’t even worry about TV or radio. Without anybody’s help you’re touching people everywhere in the world. When I travel all over, everyone loves and knows Tech N9ne. Exactly. What’s gonna happen is like when we were in Denmark, MTV comes there and sees our show and 60,000 people are there yelling my name. They’re gonna say, “Why don’t we know about this?” They’re gonna say, “Where the fuck have we been?” That’s when the fans are gonna force them to listen. Our fanbase is growing by the minute, so they will see us somewhere with all that love and support. We’re turning this into something humongous. We’re right in the middle of it, I see it. You wish sometimes that a really big rapper would just reach out and put you on their tour or call you to do a track with them. Exactly. I got a song on my new album called “Why You Ain’t Called Me”. It’s talkin about me bein on tour with Jay Z. I don’t even know why he ain’t called me. Why Ludacris ain’t called me, why Nelly ain’t called me. Why you ain’t called me? It’s not a diss song. It’s just like, nigga to nigga, why you ain’t called me? You know I got the heat. When someone gets that power they can just brighten someone else’s life by bringing them in. Like I shoulda been on the Anger Management Tours. We were doing our own tours when they were doin the Anger Management Tours and the Family Values Tours and all that shit, the Rock the Mic Tour. I was on the sideline sort of like Rudolf the Rednosed Reindeer. I’m gonna tell your what’s gonna happen. A lotta these muthafuckin niggaz can’t even get people to their shows. They’re gonna call me then, like let’s put Tech N9ne on it. And it’s gonna be too late. Just watch. Snoop will be calling you trying to do something with you. It’s funny you say Snoop, because now they put me and Snoop together on this July 11 show. They want us to do it annually. It’s big things. And I want the bigger things, Black Dog. I want it real bad. I want everybody to know my name. When I go to a mall in a different city and bitches ain’t goin crazy I feel like my job ain’t done. I need to be able to go to Japan and everybody falls to the goddamn knees. That’s the king in me. The reason why I say fall to their knees is because I give all of myself. I turn my insides out. You have experienced certain things in life and have come into a deeper understanding. You want to share it with us through your music. You have a gift to give. I got a song on my new album called “I Wanna Cry”. If I could just cry one good time I think I could clear my soul and be fine. If I could just cry one time, cause I haven’t been able to cry since I was 14. Whenever I used to go to funerals and shit I’d cry on the inside, hurts on the inside, but no tears. If I could just cry real hard one good time I think I’d be cool. I’d open up. For a person that just give everything, fuck yeah you want people to bow down and say, “Thank you!” Everybody else is too tough. “I’ll kill you, I’ll shoot you, don’t fuckin talk to me.” It’s a defense mechanism. Me, I give you all of me. You bring us love, a beautiful gift, but it’s not getting to people. If TV or radio was pushing you, you music would make so many people happy. When we feel down music is what keeps us going. Music is a spiritual gift you’re trying to give to us Do you remember this record “Ain’t A Damn Thing Changed” by WC and the Maad Circle? Whenever I used to get upset back in the day when I was in high school I’d throw that CD in and he had this song, “Get on up on that funk, maybe you’ll feel better…” Coolio was on it—it made me feel better every time, man. It’s like a weird thing with music. It soothes the savage beast. God gave me the ability to soothe you. I’ve got devil worshippers comin to my show in Arizona that come to me and say, “We know you’re not one of us, but we love your music.” They love my pain, because everybody’s in pain. When I set out to do this music I say I want my music to be for everybody all over the globe. That’s why the Juggalos and Juggalettes are gonna connect with me, cause they feel my pain and they see the clown in me. Devil worshippers, they feel when I talk about my bad side, my brain bein evil. They connect with that. When I’m talkin partying, sittin around and drinkin Caribbalu, people in college come to my shows cause they identify with that. When I talk about bein from a blood neighborhood. I wish I could shake it, but I can’t shake it. I love my niggaz, wearin red and all this. The gangsta niggaz can relate to it. I appeal to everybody because I’m everybody in one. When you say people come to your shows who are
devil worshippers, what are they all about? We are the higher power, but we haven’t realized it. We are part of this existence. We are the universe mind. Your pain I can feel. We are all one. Yeah, man. That’s what I believe. I believe that we are the higher power. We have the power to create and do anything. I think the devil worshippers get a lot of that shit from shit that man created. The man-created civilization is not the real higher power. In Sri Lanka we worship devils. We call a devil “yakka”. We have hundreds of different yakkas. Yakkas are our dead ancestors. For sure! That’s cool, they can do that if they like. I just think it’s from shit that they read and movies that they watch. You did your earlier albums while you were using drugs and now you’re clean. Is there a big difference in what you’re doing now? “Killer” is a different album because I write my life as it progresses or it gets worse or whatever. On every album I’m getting older so a lotta things are changing. Therefore it’s gonna be different content, it’s gonna be better beats, it’s a different mind frame. It’s still Tech N9ne. It’s still party crazy wild-ass Tech N9ne,”drunk as hell at 3 in the mornin…” It’s still Tech N9ne, but I’m spittin like I never spit before. People say, you sound like you’re 18 on the mic. It’s like I’m getting young and older at the same time. The flow is not getting old; it’s getting more polished. I’m still raw, but it’s gonna keep changin every time. Like “Anghellic” doesn’t sound like “Absolute Power”. “Absolute Power” doesn’t sound like “MLK”. “MLK” doesn’t sound like “Everready”. “Everready” doesn’t sound like “Vintage Tech”. “Killer” to me is all those in one.
“Killer” is a double album, right? Who made most of the beats for this album? What are some of the big towns for you when you
tour? All those Mormon kids come out? When you tour how many towns do you hit? I love what you’re doing. I hope you always keep it Strange. It’s all about that. It’s just gonna keep getting weirder and weirder.
What made you stop using Ecstasy? My kids, man. My kids. And I’d rather do this music and take care of my children than die on Ecstasy. My kids really look up to me, and their kids at school look up to me being Tech N9ne. They really adore me, they’re proud of me being their daddy. They love to be seen with me. They love to go out to eat with me or to go to a movie with me. My kids are so important to me. It’s them over any drug. Also you had a Mohawk and you used to paint your
face like a tribal warrior. What made you want to decorate yourself in that
way?
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