Tech N9ne and My Tentativeness / Opportunism

Alright, so this is a little opportunistic on my part, but in my Music Appreciation class I was required to write a two-page paper on my "favorite artist." Thing is, I don't really have a favorite artist. I don't even have a favorite five or ten artists. Sure, I'll give you a short list of some very solid lyricists or producers, but that doesn't necessarily make them my favorites. My personal taste is too broad and too versatile.

Anyhow, the opportunism is due to the need to say something about Tech N9ne on this blog. Yes, long the hell overdue. But it's long overdue, for one, because he's a KC artist and I'm from KC. Two, he's one of the most elusive and complex rappers out there, both in terms of his style and his audience, and that warrants some things said.

One other thing worth mentioning. There could be some inaccuracies in terms of Tech's popularity and/or sales, general biographical information, or others. If anyone feels the need to offer corrections, by all means do so. I definitely don't want to do an injustice to the man or the genre.

Without further ado...

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I wasn’t always a fan of Tech N9ne. Today still I’ve never been to a Tech show, although I have seen him freestyle at an open mic/battle and on a couple of different occasions I ran into him at random locations in Kansas City, where he is from, and where I spent a good chunk of my life.

No, when I first came into contact with Tech’s music, I had been captivated by what I’ve called a “b-boy revivalism” and Tech unfortunately fell outside of that milieu which sprang up in the early 1990s and was an attempt to emphasize the totality of the culture of hip-hop against the apparent egoism and “rappercentric” form of mainstream hip-hop then. But no matter where I was at on the broad and universal hip-hop radar, I don’t believe I ever denied Tech’s lyrical ability that easily leaves one’s mouth gaping. While there are other rappers who can be broadly compared to Tech in terms of the pace and rapidity of their flow; Twista and Bone Thugs to name a couple, none of them have the versatility, the eccentricity, or the entertaining persona of Tech N9ne.

Several attempts were made to break out of the relative obscurity in which he labored. Through a mutual producer, QD3, a son of Quincy Jones, Tech had the opportunity to collaborate on a song with 2Pac, but was forced to do the song posthumously once 2Pac was murdered. A year later, he was featured on the “Gang Related” soundtrack, a film in which 2Pac starred, with the song, “Questions” where Tech raps in his characteristically erratic style, “Can I get some, can I spit some, which one? When am I gonna get off this trip? / Can I take another pill? Why do I feel like I'm a sick individual in the room poppin’ off at the lip?”

In 1999, Tech N9ne released his debut album, “The Calm Before the Storm” with the single, “Planet Rock 2K” which was a hit on Kansas City radio. There wasn’t enough fanfare, however, for Tech to break the glass ceiling of local hip-hop and to catapult into the mainstream. This was a fate to follow him for several albums following.

Lucky for Tech and his off-the-wall personality, he managed to build up quite the cult following in other cities around the country and simultaneously elude both Kansas City skeptics and fans alike. Eventually, he found community with the “Juggalos”, a largely white, working class group of Midwest hip-hoppers, but with a growing base of people of color, that are noted for their clown make-up and apparent lyrical nihilism. It’s merely apparent, because a deeper listen will reveal a sense of alienation from the oppression and mediocrity of modern society.

The lyrics from the song “Diemothafuckadie” by notable Juggalo group, Twizted, read:

“Actin’ belligerent on a daily.
Hoping that somebody can save me, but I guess I’m dead wrong.
All by myself.
Fuck everyone else I’m in a hole.
And I can’t breath, my lungs swoll.”

The listeners and sympathizers with whom these lyrics resonate have witnessed a consistency in Tech N9ne’s own bipolar raps which has increased his popularity among them. But Tech, as a Black rapper, has also introduced a component to Juggalo hip-hop which has validated and broadened its base among people of color. In Tech’s “Riotmaker” he raps about being denied a gig in Hawaii because the concert promoter said it would incite the Samoan community there to violence. Tech lashes out at the white supremacy of the concert promoters by both validating people of color’s desire to rebel against racism and the illogic of the argument that hip-hop makes people violent.

Tech is like other mainstream rappers today in the sense that he reflects certain implicitly political but popular sentiments that are set in motion by official society and it’s calls to make sacrifices and to find happiness and mobility within a decaying system. He is not considered a political or “conscious” rapper who stands above the crowd and has to inject his or her own sectarian views into the music. Rather, Tech is like most of us who are torn between the values of the barbarism of modern society and the hope for completely new and free relations among human beings. The difference is that he has an ironic way of playing with those antagonisms and places them center stage in his music and performances. And this is why I am a fan.