The Twin Cities have some iconic venues. From First Ave to the Palace Theatre to the newly renovated Armory and Tech n9ne has played most of them. This past Saturday though, he would show up to a much more intimate setting at the Cabooze. Before the chaos would erupt in a sauna of a venue on a hot Minnesota summer night, I sat down with Tech to find out what he's been up to.

UHH: Last time we sat down we wanted to introduce our fans that were in the dark to you and your music. But this time I wanted to talk about the future and that starts with what keeps your going when you're struggling to make music or your struggling to continue in this industry?

Tech N9ne: I've never struggled to make music because I write my life as it happens. I've been known to cure the writer's block for decades by reading something or having something happen to you. So I have not had something that has stopped me, but one thing that keeps me going for sure is the love from the fans and they want to still show out for them lyrically. I am a lover of music so that alone will keep your rhyming over a dope beat.

And I want to get into that relationship with the fans because I don't want to call it a tumultuous relationship with them over this last album Planet. But you had said because of the way [The Storm] was received by the fans you wanted to get away to your own Planet. I loved this idea because I like to be in isolation because it does wonders for [my mental health] but it also freaks me out because it really teaches you a lot about yourself. So I wanted to know what your Planet taught you about yourself?

It taught me something that I had already known, something I have always known; To trust what I believe. To write what I feel and not even trip about what other people will think. I have always done that but I really did it this time. I didn't have anyone in my ear telling me what kind of songs to do. I wrote songs like 'Don't Nobody Want None' because I love that song back in the breakdancing days. […] Songs like 'Bad Juju' and songs that mean something like 'My Fault.' My producer Seven and Navé Monjo present these songs and these hooks to me [and I'm] like 'Wow, you really gonna make me have to say something on this.' but at that time I don't know what I am gonna talk about until I tear into it and I had two wonderful stories to tell the fans on 'My Fault.' It was informative for the fan, and I found out on my Planet that my fans like when I tell stories.

While Tech may have left to create on his own Planet, when he returned to Earth he had a few new cast members to tour with and that had me interested. Not necessarily in the members themselves, even though Joey Cool and Just Juice are excited up and coming artists, but because these artists would be embarking on a trying journey of touring with Tech n9ne.

I have always wondered how you bring in these new artists and introduce them to the kind of chaotic touring schedule that you live?

Well Joey Cool has been on tour with me so he knows but Just Juice out of Boston it was different because he had never been on tour with me. If you ask Kendrick Lamar he will say 'If you can do a tour with Tech n9ne anything after that will be easy.' They just have to learn or talk to me. When we are out there I tell them what to do with their voices. After the first couple weeks, your voice will catch it. It will find a spot and hope the spot your voice doesn't find is hoarse. I tell them that if you rehearse for weeks before the tour like me and Krizz [Kaliko] do, then you will get the hoarseness then like we do. Then when you get out there you will be good. I tell them to try not to party too much after [shows] because you have to use your voice cause you're talking over loud music and rapping against each other every night. I told [King] Iso that, but I don't think he listened and end of the tour he was getting hoarse.

It's really unique and really great to see you reaching out because here in the cities I know Slug of Atmosphere has reached out to local artists as well before they head on bigger tours or start doing more shows to say 'here is what I've been through.'

Yes, we share our experiences with the ones that are coming after us.

Tech n9ne has always been someone who's music made sense to me and hearing him talk about his period of isolation to learn about himself was something that really synched with me, but it wasn't the only thing we agreed on. Tech has never been one to shy away from expanding his catalog sonically, bringing in acts like Corey Taylor, Marsha Ambrosius, Lil' Wayne and Boyz II Men. What we agreed on was the brilliance of instead going out and trying to plan on getting these artists, why not just create them in-house? Why go spend time and headache trying to get Chris Brown on a track when you can have a voice like Darrien Saffron on the label? And that is not to say abandon features outside the label but this gives another lane and a profitable one.

I love that you share with those coming after you, and one of the ones coming after you is Mackenzie Nicole. One thing I am always grateful is that since she has come into her own she always makes a point to come to Minneapolis [when she picks the dates on your tour she comes out for]. Can you tell me a little about her growth going from singing on choruses like Demons to a song like Habenero?

That's Tech n9ne right there. That's Tech n9ne working with a little girl over a lot of years and when she gets up in age, [she's] 19, me having to call her parent's to say 'hey I have this idea for a song but I need her to say a curse word.' Travis [O'Guinn] says 'hold up let me talk to her momma, I'll call you back.' Because you gotta be careful with that, that's still baby girl. That's Tech n9ne trying to push the envelope. Travis called me back and I said 'what's up bro' and heard Mackenzie say 'Bitch I'm Habenero.' I just listened to that on the plane yesterday smiling on the way from DC just smiling ear to ear. That's progress. She's grown up now. Next, at 21, she'll be 'fuck all y'all.' If I have anything to do with it.

Spinning off Mackenzie, you have always said 'Tech will never go mainstream, mainstream will go Tech.' Explain Strange Main and how you've managed to keep a Strange influence while creating a more pop/mainstream vibe.

When you have a partner that has a very talented young lady as a daughter [then] we shouldn't take her to another label. We have built all the relationships over the years with all the buyers, it would be stupid to start over. So Strange Main was perfect for us to launch Mackenzie's album and Above waves and anyone that might be coming after that.

photo by Georgia Eger @georgiaeger

And I think its great that you can launch somebody like Darrien Saffron who can do his thing on Strange Main and in the R&B world and then instead of you guys having to go out and find a pop singer you can just pop into your own label. I think it's brilliant.

Right? It's brilliant. And old school Tech n9ne fans felt like everyone on Strange Music should be a bit dark, but Strange Music was inspired by the Doors, which could be dark sometimes, but even more, than darkness came with Jim Morrison. I just wanted people to know. If you have been listening to Tech n9ne all these years that you get it, you put it together. It started with 57th Street Road Dog Villans, 'Let's Get Fucked Up' in the 90s, 'Mitch Bade' was his first single in '95 and that was gangster. Then he was doing stuff like 'Einstein' that was a little more industrial and always did rock with [songs] like 'Riot Maker.' So you get to know and you see him working with the gangster Lil' Wayne it shouldn't make you think 'awe Tech sold out' cause I worked with gangsters back then. When I'm doing 'Riot Maker' it shouldn't make you Cory Taylor of Slipknot [or Jonathan Davis of KoRn] does a song with Tech n9ne or the Deftones or even the Doors. […] if you look at the history of Tech n9ne I've always been everything so why shouldn't Strange Music be everything? It has to be because I am.

It's funny cause I literally wrote 'You shouldn't be surprised that Tech n9ne created Strange Main because he has had influences from Slipknot to the Doors.' This brings me to my next point which is how do you feel about, Rest in Peace, Xxxtentacion and Lil Uzi Vert that I call Punk Rap. Not because their sound is punk but because their attitude is punk.

They are rockstars.

And people will get pissed at these artists...

It's cause we are real rockstars and we can do rock fests. We can do Rock Fest, Rock on the Range, Aftershock.

How was Rock on the Range?

Aw it was awesome, we do it every year. We are the real rock stars. They are just talking about the swag of the rockstar and they can have that, but we rock with the rockers. Black Hippie Number 1.

This is important for a lot of people to hear because I think we get caught up in labels. What is or isn't hip-hop, rock, reggae, etc? Do you have to have spiked hair and spiked collar to be a punk? Do you have to have grown up in Brooklyn to be a rapper? People can have the vibe of a punk rock kid while making R&B music. Can a blood from Kansas City wear face paint and put out a metal album? Of course. We talked a little about the veterans that influenced Tech, but as I stated this article was mostly about the future.

The last time we talked you had mentioned how Young Thug had grown on you and how you had been wanting to see Travis $cott for a while now. […] Who are some of the up and coming artists that maybe people wouldn't see Tech as wanting to work with or that you've seen coming up in the game recently?

21 Pilots. A duo that's untouchable to me and one day I will work with them. I sent them a song like 2 years ago and at the time they said they loved it. It's called 'Bad Kid' and I still have it in my phone. It's fuckin dope and I don't know if we'll ever do that one but I listen to it today and I'm like 'wow, this could still work.' I'm a big 21 Pilots fan. I've been to a bunch of their shows. Me and my lady love to go to their shows. Super talented, man. I love talented artists, that's who I want to work with just like Elton John likes super talented artists.

Talent is something you are born with, but learning to wield that talent comes with living life. As I have stated before and am sure to do again, one of the main reasons I love hip-hop is that it introduces me to lives I could never and sometimes would never want to live and some of the best storytellers got that way by living a certain life. Like the rest of us, Tech is only human and as open as he is about his life in his music, I wondered just how open has he gotten?

As you mentioned before music is a life lived. I recently sat down with Murs and Evidence who both have gone through a rough stretch lately and as we have seen with their albums that pain can create beauty. You have never been one to shy away from your personal life but I wonder have you ever wrote something that you thought was too personal to release?

All the time, man, all the time. Ask my ex-wife [and] she'll tell you. 'I Love You But Fuck You', come on dude its fucked up. 'This Ring', come on.

Right, but I am wondering have you ever had something you didn't release. That you wrote or recorded and thought 'ehh. Maybe not'

Nah, If I record it I will know before I go in the booth. I took somethings out [here and there] like I took something out of 'The Boogieman.' I had to run backwards and shit because I don't want the world to hone in on those people or attack them for it. There is a little black box up there that I got a lot of secrets that I will never say, but every once in awhile I go in there like 'Tappin In' on Planet. I wasn't supposed to tell that story. That exposes some people and all those relationships are done now. My best friend Brian [B'ZL Dennis] is dead. Diamond just died, but the lady is still alive. People that know us and that story are still alive. If my ex-wife heard it she would be like 'I knew it. I fuckin knew it.' It is me giving people a glimpse of my life then. I am a totally different guy now. I look back at the Tech n9ne then and I was on drugs and was really fucked up, but I always had a good heart and that's something that I kept. The difference between Tech n9ne now, the angel now, doesn't think like the angel then. The angel now doesn't think he should share all that love with everybody. The angel now is more mature and knows that not everyone is worthy of that love, but Ecstacy, Acid, Adderall and you might do some things that you wouldn't think you'd do.

This part had me ready to break down because I look back at myself even 10 years ago starting college and entering a phase of drugs and bad choices. One thing I never lost sight of through it all was the angel heart. And I also saw that growth of the goodness as well. Tech talked about being a more mature angel and to me what that represented was understanding that I shouldn't be doing good things in hopes of reward, but because goodness is right. When I grew a little older it would be the first thing I got tattooed on myself because of the importance to me. Not a lot of people in my life knew the real struggle that I went through leaving school or even the reasons I left and I suppose its because most of it is still in my black box. Having these connections with artists is sometimes the reason we stay lifelong fans, but I like to bring this connection to others which is why I always want to know what the fans are curious about.

Sometimes a fan will just ask a deep question that I feel is worth really diving into but this time I felt there were a lot of interesting questions that didn't require long answers. So off the bat, Daniel M. asks 'What is your favorite label to work with outside of Strange Music?'

TDE

Cesar C. asks 'Is there a collaboration coming with Bassnectar?'

I have been trying to get [Bassnectar] to send me a couple beats for a few months now. Yes.

Travis B said 'I wish Snow Tha Product would have signed to Strange Music.'

Me too. If it didn't take me 2 years to listen to her. Travis was telling me listen to this girl Snow. I'm like 'yeah yeah yeah, whatever' and it took me 2 years to listen and finally did and was like “Yo! Snow” and she was already signed. But we still work together like label mates. We are about to shoot a video on the 10th.

I been watching a bunch of reaction videos. You know Sarg Barz?

I love Sarg Barz. **Tech impersonating Sarg** “Sarg Barz mwuahah. In a world...” (I will just say that if you haven't watched his reactions they are definitely worth seeing) I can't wait to meet him so I can get him to talk on one of my records. He disappeared for awhile and people were telling me he was dead and I'm like what the fuck and then he popped up and I'm like 'aww yeah there he is.' We need Sarg Barz

And the last one comes from Robin and she asks “Will you be my dad?”

No. My kids are grown. 24, 23, 19.

I couldn't let the fans have all the fun because there is one question that I have asked everyone from both of my favorite labels and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get an answer from the Co-founder of Strange.

So I have sat down with a lot of guys from two labels in particular. Prof, Stevie Stone, Ces Cru, Slug, Evidence, Murs and now yourself. I have asked them all the same question and it is there a chance of a Strange Music/Rhymesayers album collab. I know you have worked with Prof, Murs has his connections, Ces Cru with Slug and Murs. I already laid the groundwork with the album name calling it RhymeStrangers.

RhymeStrangers! Damn.

Just add a little line of credit in there for me.

What are you asking for? An album collab?

Yeah, a label collab. I know you have done album collabs within your whole label. Have you ever thought about doing an album collab with another label, my suggestion being Rhymesayers?

So many people have been tryin to get me on collab albums for years. I am not really that kinda dude. I am a weirdo. I can collab with people and I have done it a lot in my career but like everyone wants Tech n9ne and Twista. It'd be just that [rapid fire] the whole track. Someone said Tech n9ne and E-40. What the fuck are we gonna talk about? That's my relative but we are totally different. He is the Hall of Game and I'm the Hall of Strange. They wanted me with B.o.B. because he is a lyricist and I get it. They only got me to do one mixtape and this is a mixtape industry in hip hop. They got me to do one with Whoo Kid. Out of my whole discography I have one mixtape. So that's how I am, I am weird.

I really like that though because a lot of artists don't really understand what an album versus and EP or Mixtape is and it gets lost. Even people that call it an album. You look at something like The Doors and these older rock bands and the progressions and real thoughts that go into a whole album. Ces Cru's latest project, I felt like that was first [few] real albums that were such a well thought out the whole process in a while. And you do the same thing where you break your albums into parts that progress and change.

I been doing it for years but Ces Cru did it in a way that was theirs and it was beautiful. It has to make sense to me. So like me and Krizz Kaliko do our metal project called Keebosh that we've been planning for awhile. That's gonna be it. The only other collab album I would do [would] be NNUTTHOWZE. Right now I would put me, Krizz and King Iso in NNUTTHOWZE with two females. Female rapper and female singer. I have always wanted Lauryn Hill.  I need crazy for real. I can't say Lauryn is crazy cause I've never met her. Maybe not Krizz for NNUTTHOWZE even though I know he is crazy as fuck. We present our crazy through Tech n9ne. Maybe me, King Iso, Eminem, and Lana Del Rey and a female rapper. If it's me, Iso and Eminem that's a lot of rapping. Lana Del Rey, that's beautiful. She is gonna make hits. And maybe Angel Davenport. That would be a solid NNUTTHOWZE.

Going back 10 years to me being a metal head and first hearing Tech n9ne to now where I have spent the last 5 years or so immersed in hip-hop of all kinds, this interview was one I will never forget. And the show that followed was one that thousands wouldn't forget. Going from a sweat box to stepping out to the outdoor bar to make Caribou Lous to performing for the first time in just a white t-shirt cause the jersey was far too hot. Tech n9ne sat down for a revealing interview and then pour his heart and sweat on the stage in Minneapolis, which is just one of the reasons that he continues to sell out venues when he comes to town. Buy his latest album “Planet” online and follow Tech n9ne at the links below.

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