Tech N9ne performs during his Hostile Takeover Tour 2012 at the Baltimore Soundstage on Tuesday, June 19, 2012 in Baltimore, MD.
BY Anthony Washington
For our inaugural “20 Minutes With” interview in 2012, I sat down with Tech N9ne to talk about fans, hip-hop, being an independent artist, and the music industry before a performance at the Baltimore Soundstage. The Kansas City, Missouri native is one of the most successful independent hip hop artist of all time. Along with Travis O’Guin, he is the co-founder of the label Strange Music.
As we begin to relaunch the “20 Minutes With” interview series, I thought it would be informative to revisit this interview with Tech N9ne whose new album Special Effects will be released on May 4, 2015.
Anthony Washington: I saw the line for the meet and greet. You seem to have a lot of love for your fans.
Tech N9ne: Without the fans, we’re nothing. I figured that out a long time ago. My kids are in the best schools because of it. I guess it starts with writing good music. Being inside out, not hiding anything, no defense mechanisms.
Times are hard and people will still pay $120 for an hour with you. That’s a blessing.
It reminded me of the old-school acts. Many hip-hop, R&B, and rock acts out these days do not interact with their fans like the old school acts did.
Did you hear what we were just listening to in there? All old school stuff. It’s the spirit of the old school here that is what made me want to rap. Back to the basics, going on tour. “We on award tour with Muhammad my man, goin’ each and every place with the mic in their hand.” Touring is how you gain fans. It seems like the major labels have forgotten that.
Tell me more about why you wanted to become an MC.
Chuck D, Ice Cube, Slick Rick, KRS-One, that power music, you know what I’m sizzling? That hip-hop craze. Slick is the reason I rap fast. [On “The Moment I Feared,”] He says, “Don’t worry about a thing, just make sure nobody sees us.” And then on another part, he says, “We’re rich, we’re rich, we can have, whatever we please.” I thought it was dope and I started rapping fast and doubling up my flow. Next thing you know I am sounding like a chopper.
You have your own label with Travis O’Guin, Strange Music, Inc. How do you balance being an MC and a businessman?
I don’t really balance being a business man and being an artist because Travis handles a lot of that because I am always on the road. So when I get back to the office, everything is given to me. I have to sit down with everything at once.
Is it overwhelming?
No… Yeah, it is overwhelming. [Laughter]
It is a good overwhelming because most of it is positive. A couple of big negatives lately, but we’re working through it, and we’re dealing with it.
He’s a shrewd enough businessman that I trust him to deal with a lot of stuff. We are kind of on the same thing when it comes to our brains. Every idea he has, he already knows what I like. So he’s not going to bring me something stupid.
Many artists do not see the success that you have seen as an independent artist, or as an artist on a major label. What have been some of the keys to your success?
One of the major keys, and I keep reiterating this, is that you have to get on the road. You don’t just go where people know you and just do a show because you are going to have it packed. You might have to go some place and do a show for seven people.
Yesterday in D.C. [was] the second time we have been to D.C. in 12 years. So, there were 200 people in a place that fits 3,500. We did that show for 200 people last night like it was 2,000. They had a beautiful time. That is how you build it. Now they are going to tell people, and next time we come back and we have to be at that same club, there are going to be more people there. You know what I am sizzling? Yeah, they lost money, but if anybody is brave enough to keep bringing us back, even if we have to go in there and do it ourselves, we are going to build it.
They said that 2Chainz was there about a month ago and he sold it out. That made me smile when they said 2Chainz sold it out. But he’s on TV and he’s on radio. That means all of the black folks came to see 2Chainz and all of the white folks came to see Tech N9ne. So now I’m like, okay, what do I have to do to get the black folks at my show, in Washington? We’re going to do it.
You bring up an interesting point: there are people who have heard of you for quite some time, and then there are people who have heard of you more recently because of other artists’ songs you have been on. In the African-American community, there is a tendency to support an artist because they are hot right now.
Exactly. I think with our people they have to see it to believe it. They have to see you ballin’.
When XXL put out their report on [Strange Music’s] expanding empire, the industry paid attention. But nobody is looking in XXL for that. However, if that was on TV during the BET Awards! Oh my god!
They heard me on “The Carter IV” and was like, “Whoa, that’s the Tech that we have been hearing about.” Then they saw me on the BET cypher and they are like, “Whoa, that’s Tech,” so they started to pay attention. So the day we get on TV and radio like crazy like 2Chainz, like Drizzy, like Waka Flocka, like Eminem, like Jay-Z, like Kanye, then they will possibly start attending the shows like I want. Because my music is supposed to be for everybody, and I do not want to alienate anybody.
In an interview you did with Underground TV, you touched on how the music industry puts out “bullshit instead of real motherfuckers.” There seems to be a growing sentiment among fans of music in general that the music industry is not willing to put out original artists, but would rather put out a carbon copy of something that is already out there. Do you see the industry going back to building original artists?
If they want to survive and if they want longevity, [yes], but if they want that quick bump, they are going to keep putting out carbon copies. I know that Dickies will never go out of style because they are original. I know the original Nike will never go out style because they are original, they keep coming back. There are certain things that will never leave, but if everybody is doing one thing… I don’t want to really say any names or nothing because I appreciate all types of music, and whatever you have to do to advance in life, you do that. But they’re not going to survive if they just go with fads. I think that fads go away, and people go away with them.
That is why I call myself Alucard, that’s Dracula backwards, because I’ve looked and seen so many MCs plummet that were on top and yet I am still on the incline, you feel me? I feel like I have seen all of these demises. I feel like a vampire, like Dracula. I say, “Alucard everlasting, timeless bars when I’m rapping, all these stars never lasting, but I will still stand when everyone’s passing.”
I hate to see it because I am a fan of these guys that are going all the way up to the top and then, boom, they disappear. I have this crazy Morpheus-type style this style that can do anything. It doesn’t have a time frame on it. Thank God that I am a clusterfuck, that it can always sound new.
I think the majors will eventually find out, but as long as they make their money on their flash in the pans, it’s whatever. It doesn’t do much for the lives of these youngsters, though, when they have to go back to the dope game and end up in that same cycle, back in jail, or dead.
In Ice T’s new movie, The Art of Rap, he asked several artists a very interesting question. He said, “Hip-hop is a masterpiece, but nobody painted the whole thing. So what stroke did you put on the painting?” How would you answer that?
I have been listening to hip hop since I was able to understand and comprehend. I’m talking about Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Sugar Hill, T La Rock, Schoolly D, everything all the way up to now.
What I realized about hip hop is there are a lot of defense mechanisms. Like, “don’t touch me or I’ll fucking kill you”, or “keep away from me.” It sounds like you’re scared and you don’t want your fans to come near you. I am not scared of my fans. I am inside out. What I give is me. All of me. It might embarrass some of my loved ones or hurt them at the same time, but I write my life. No defense mechanisms.
You can put me on Wendy Williams [and] she will never stump me. You can put me on me on Howard Stern and he will never stump me because I have nothing to hide. It’s all out there for my fans to see. You feel like you know me. You do! I gave you my life.
That is what I bring to hip hop.
© 2012 Anthony Washington/MetroMontage.com. All Rights Reserved.
More photos from Tech N9ne’s performance during his Hostile Takeover Tour 2012 stop at the Baltimore Soundstage in Baltimore, MD can be found below.
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