English 2
November 14, 2012
Mrs. I
The public view of the rapper Tech N9ne has taken a turn for the better in the past year or so mainly due to the verse that he did for Lil Wayne’s most recent album Tha Carter 4, which sold 964,000 units in its first week alone. In the song which has two verses back to back and no chorus Tech starts up the track with a high energy verse that maintains a fast pace and includes several words that rhyme in each line of his bars, like most of his songs his incredible rhythm and wordplay are very apparent. Before this feature with the Atlanta legend Andre 3000, his fan base was relatively concentrated and exclusive to certain people who enjoy the “horror core” genre of rap. This demographic also favors such groups as The Kotton Mouth Kings and the Insane Clown Posse along with other members of the “underground” hip hop scene. At the end of his part in the song he states “I know a lot of you probably never knew who this is, you’re listening to Teccan Nina suwoo business”.
His appearance on such a renowned piece of music has definitely been a giant career booster and he has recently seen great improvement in his success. Even before the collaboration with Lil Wayne took place, he still was a very well selling artist having sold over a million albums worldwide. Since then however he has released three new EPs over the past year, all of which were awarded the #1 spot for independent rap album their first week by the billboard hot 100. The least recent of these “Klusterfuk” sold 17,000 copies in its first week but was such a huge success due to the fact that Strange Music spent $0 on marketing and promotion.
In the past Tech has not seen such wide spread mainstream success due to the fact that people believed that he is a devil worshipper. There are many legitimate reasons why someone would be inclined to believe this. The reoccurring dark overtone of many of his songs along with his flow that seems to be invoke somewhat of a trance like state for listeners are both suspicious of some satanic ideology. However, these are not the only pieces of evidence that has been brought forward by people accusing Tech N9ne of being a cult leader.
During an interview with the recording artist from Strange Music, Krizz Kaliko, there were many questions asked pertaining to accusations of this sort. The interviewer, Jason Whitlock, wasted no time stating he had heard from many different sources that he had been working alongside of a devil worshipper but Krizz denied this saying that he had asked him himself about some of his stranger behaviors and claims that Tech is just crazy and he is using this as a tactic to arouse attention from the public. Jason brought up several examples of why he believed that there are indeed some satanic influences present in Tech’s work. The symbol for Strange Music, Tech’s label that he co-founded, is a snake going through the body of a bat making the letters “S and M” and some people have made the claim that these letters stand for sadomasochism. He also mentioned the use of a barcode cross which supposedly means that evil is God.
The final point that was used is the numbers that tech often refers to in some of his songs, six six triple eight forty-six nine nine five, and that when these numbers are added together they equal sixty-seven. Tech has stated on several occasions that he is all sixes and sevens, six being the number of the devil and seven being a holy number. Krizz responded to this by saying that while it was indeed true but that the numbers were obtained after looking up the corresponding numbers on a phone pad for the word N-N-U-T-T-H-O-W-Z-E which is a group he was a member of and nothing more. After several more attempts to get a confession out of Krizz he responded by telling him that was too much and hung up the phone.
In an interview with Tech himself he opened up about the way people had been responding to him and his reaction and feelings. The point was made that one of the reasons that people believed so whole heartedly that Tech N9ne had made himself a cult leader was the behavior of his die-hard fan base. Many of these people are not the typical fans of rap music, many of them being white people with a kind of emo-gothic look. The worst part of this for Tech personally is that there are no black people attending his shows which made him feel like he is not even supported by his own people. He understands that people have come to that conclusion due to his face paint, crazy lyrics and wild hair and was surprised when he was complimented by many mainstream rappers such as Nas and Busta Rhymes at the Rock the Bell concert because he was under the impression that everyone thought he was a weirdo.
While there are many references to Satan in his music there are also many references to Jesus as well. Religion has always played a major role in his life even while growing up because of the influence from his Christian mother and his Muslim step-father. So while Tech does not worship Lucifer, he acknowledges his existence and also the influences he has had on the more negative parts of his life. In the song “Show Me a God” he uses an aggressive tone addressing God demanding that he revealed himself in order to save the life of his deathly ill mother.
The point that I believe he is actually trying to get across is that he is a good person who is capable of doing bad things because that is the nature of all humans. The album cover from his E.B.A.H released in September was intended to add a concrete image portraying this idea. It displays a heart with angel wings and a crown of fire circling above it, the intended message of this image might not be interpreted clearly at first glance but after listening to the song entitled E.B.A.H it is made known that it is an acronym for evil brain angel heart.
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Strange Music. "Tech N9ne - E.B.A.H. EP Strange Music, Inc Store." Strange Music, Inc Store. Strange Music, Inc Store, 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.strangemusicinc.net/product_info.php?products_id=9822>.