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Strange Music for the masses

Master of the underground hip hop realm Tech N9ne heads into the darkness on K.O.D.
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Who: Tech N9ne

When: Monday, March 22, 9 p.m.

Where: Garfinkel's

Cost: $24 in advance at Clubzone.com

Anyone who caught the Rock the Bells all-day hip hop show at Deer Lake Park last summer will probably remember Tech N9ne as the upbeat entertainer that kept the sun-drenched crowds enthralled with party bangin' beats and raucous refrains of "Show your titties, baby! Show your titties, baby!"

So his fans will be forgiven, then, for being a bit confused by the overwhelmingly dark, almost creepy contents, of his latest album, K.O.D .

Tech N9ne (also known as Aaron Dontez Yates) has been ruling the underground realm of hip hop for almost 25 years. Strangely enough, while he's clearly developed a very loyal fan base over his time in the industry (after K.O.D.'s first week on shelves, it came in #1 Indie Album, #2 Rap Album, #14 in Top 200 on the Billboard charts) he's shied away from the mainstream world of urban hip hop.

"That's how it worked out because they didn't want to take chances with me, baby!" he said during a recent interview. "We'd go out knocking on doors at MTV at the time, and I didn't have a story, so nobody wants nobody without a story. So we built our story up."

Though he definitely had stage presence and character, Tech was hard to market to major labels.

"I know I was a black guy with red hair, but that was something they didn't know what to do with! 'Where do we put him? Is it alternative? Is that hardcore? Is it gangster? Yeah. It's a little bit of gangster, its a little bit of rock and roll...'" he trailed off with a laugh.

"They couldn't label me, so it was hard to get them to open the door for me like they are now."

So in 1999, fed up with "bull" from the big labels, he broke off on his own, forming the independent label, Strange Music, with Travis O'Guin.

"This is what it's all about after two ballsy people get together," he reflected. "We create strange music and the things they didn't know how to do, we knew how to do it and we knew that we could do it. It's going like a forest fire because we did take a chance, and that's a problem I have with a lot of major labels: they don't want to take a chance with new music because with new music and new, innovative stuff, you could possibly go down."

These guys aren't afraid of failure, living by the mantra of "no risk, no reward."

"We just kept bangin' our music out and kept growing our fans and when we sold a million copies independently, then everybody started watching. When they went on Pollstar, they were looking at who grossed the most that year in the tour area: Jay-Z was first, Kanye was second and I was third, without video and radio. That's a milestone, baby!"

A skilled lyricist, Tech bases his flow on the beat, tailoring lyrics to the rhythm.

"I know back in the day, when we had no beats, we used to just write rhymes and then when we'd hear beats we were like, 'oh that one will fit.' No. The reason it's so hard to remix a Tech N9ne song is because I actually write to that beat and that beat is a canvas to put the lyrics right behind it."

But one of the best parts of running Strange Music has been finding new, undiscovered talent and nurturing it. Today, their roster includes heavy hitters like Krizz Kaliko, Brotha Lynch Hung, Kutt Calhoun, Prozak and Cognito, who are able to stand on their own, as well as work collaboratively.

"It was so wonderful to find Kutt Calhoun, find Krizz Kaliko... because they're artists. I didn't want to just put them on stage with me as hype men, I wanted artists to develop."

Through Strange Music, Tech is creating a legacy, a gift back to the industry and the genre.

"They're going to keep the strangeness going," he laughed.

Over the span of his career, Tech N9ne has released 10 full-length albums, with two coming out in the last year alone: Sickology 101 and K.O.D. Both projects feature serious collaborations. On this most recent full-length, he brought in heavy hitters like Three 6 Mafia along with Strange Music comrades, Krizz Kaliko, Brotha Lynch Hung and Kutt Calhoun.

"I know there's strength in numbers. I remember when I had a group called the 57th Street Rouge Dog Villains, there was five of us and I said, 'Know that five fingers make a fist and we can strike a mighty blow,'" he recalled.

But Tech had worked independently for a long time before he finally met up with like-minded, capable lyricists who he can trust to match wits, beats and quips with.

"They know me and my life so they know they can write a song called I Need More Angels Around Me and sing it to me, and I'd love it."

Tech hasn't had a trouble-free road to success. K.O.D ., his darkest and most personal project to date, came out of a dark period in his life, as his mother was very ill. The experience inspired the artist to craft tracks like Blackened the Sun and Show me a God.

In the church every Sunday, I've been searching for one way, or another, you're gonna have to curse me or burst me with a sunray, To let me know that you're coming or en route, I'm 'bout 99, but I need 100 per cent proof.

"All I was asking was, 'Show me something supernatural, show me something I've never seen,'" Tech explained, "'Don't show me a tsunami, don't show me an earthquake; don't show me Mother Nature; I want God.'"

While all of his albums have darker sections and tracks, this project was overwhelmingly heavier, deeper and darker.

"Fans love it, but they will never have an album like that again, if I can help it."

In the end, "he, or she, or it" came through for the artist, seeing his mother through her illness and back into good health. The last piece of darkness is coming on his EP, The Lost Scripts of K.O.D., which is on its way later this month. But, there's an uplifting message for anyone who's really paying attention to Tech's lyrics. Tune in and listen carefully to the title track of K.O.D.

Most of my spirit comes from up above, I'm mostly angel and you know, sometimes we fall, Living under God and I hope he's listening when I say I love you all.

"So I was letting everybody know at the end of the album, I am the angel, and I'm not the demon," he explained.

Now, Tech is ready to party again. In fact, he's already working on his next project, which is all about sex, liquor and adventure.

"I am so trying to run from the darkness," he said.

"It's a return to the 'Caribou Mou' songs ... party hardy hardy hardy..." he sang, and chuckled. "It's time to brighten it up, because if I stay in this hole, I'm not gonna make it."