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Tech N9ne  

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PNC Bank Arts Center

Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre

Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park

Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island

FirstBank Amphitheater

Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre

The JunkYard

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Tech N9ne (born 8 November 1971) – aka Aaron Dontez Yates – is rapper hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, US and has made a name for himself in the hip hop genre due to his adept rhythmic vocal presentation.

Tech N9ne turned to music at an early age and first began to rap as a young child as a way to remember how to spell his name. After some troubling events occurred in Yates’ life he started to use music and rapping as a way to vent his frustration. He started his professional career in 1991 as a rapper in the group Black Mafia, which experienced some success with the single “Let’s Get Fucked Up”. After Black Mafia disbanded he joined the group Nnutthowze, but soon moved onto the group The Regime in 1997, which was created by the rapper Yukmouth. Later that year Tech N9ne formed his own record label Strange Music.

In 1999 Tech N9ne released his debut solo album “The Calm Before the Storm”. One of the songs on the album “Questions” was included in the soundtrack for the film “Gang Related” and was the first song to be released by Tech N9ne as a solo artist. The soundtrack was a success due to rappers like 2Pac and Ice Cube contributing to the album, and the soundtrack ended up reaching the No. 2 spot on the Billboard’s Top 200 chart. In 2001 Tech N9ne released his third studio album “Anghellic”, which featured the single “It’s Alive”. The album wasn’t necessarily a commercial success, but it received positive reviews and is looked at as an iconic representation of the horrorcore genre.

Tech N9ne’s fourth studio album “Absolute Power” released in 2002 showed him starting to break into the mainstream with it being his first studio album to make it on the Billboard charts. His fifth studio album “Everready (The Religion)” showed Tech N9ne starting to climb the charts making it to No. 50 on the US Billboard 200 chart and No. 2 on the Independent Albums chart. The song “Caribou Lou” was one of the hits from the album and was certified Gold in 2012.

With Tech N9ne’s seventh album “Killer”, he was able to achieve his 1 millionth album sale. The album was a great commercial and critical success, and reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album also featured many notable guest appearances such as Scarface, Ice Cube, Kottonmouth Kings, and Shawnna. Tech N9ne increasingly became more popular with each album release and when he released the 2011 album “All 6’s and 7’s” the album gained the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Rap Albums chart.

Tech N9ne has also started a series of albums called Collabos, which features collaborations with unique artists. Some of the artists he has collaborated with in the past include Snoop Dogg, T-Pain, Mint Condition, Deftones, Cee Lo Green, Kendrick Lamar, The Doors, and Serj Tankian. His music has also appeared in numerous television shows and films such as “Alpha Dog”, and he has made appearances on late night television shows like “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”.

Tech N9ne is persistent with his touring schedule and has shared the bill with artists like Freddie Gibbs, Krizz Kaliko, and Jarren Benton. He has also played diverse festivals such as the Rock the Bells festival and the Gathering of the Juggalos festival. Tech N9ne has gained the status as a prominent rapper due to his diverse influences of music as well as his rhythmic abilities that display a compelling sense of speed and flow.

Live reviews

Amazing show!

1. He plays the hits. I’m often shocked at the songs that are NOT played by certain artists, so when a guy plays his whole catalog of hits, its refreshing. And fun.

2. What makes #1 above even more impressive is that most rappers can’t play many of their hits because they are collaborations with other artists. Or when they do play them, they feel really truncated. Like a teaser. Tech finds a way to not only play his collaboration songs, but the songs feel complete. And his Collabos songs have several other artists, but you’d never know anything was missing.

3. He’s at ease with his craft and you can feel that he genuinely loves the crowd. Krizz Kaliko adds to Tech’s sets and mixes his hits in to give Tech a break. Its works.

4. Show was tight. Doors opened at 6, got there at 8:05. Saw the Dizzy Wright who was very good, then a 20 minute wait for Tech. Perfect!

Show didn't come to San Francisco (??) so had to drive 2.5 hours each way in rush hour traffic, get a hotel room, and be at work at 8 the next morning. Very good show, definitely worth it.

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Aaron Dontez Yates is best known by his stage persona of Tech N9ne. The Missouri born rapper is known for performing huge live shows and great interaction with audiences. He has a huge amount of work to choose from when creating set lists, the rapper has released fourteen album and a whole host of EPs since the debut 'The Calm Before The Storm' in 1999.

Finding commerciality with singles such as 'Show Me A God' and 'Worldwide Choppers', these of course make the list and cause the audience to jump and dance enthusiastically as Yates encourages them to give more and more energy. Although he performs almost every track with this level of passion so the crowd support him throughout, running between the stage and the audience, the energy levels stay high throughout.

Supported by a number of other MCs/dancers, the party vibes carry on all night and when the posse eventually leave the stage the screams to return from the crowd are deafening. An encore of 'Fragile' and 'Stamina' satisfy the masses and leave them dancing to the very last beat.

I saw Tech N9ne in saint louis at the pagent!! It was amazing - what all the fans have been waiting for. The crowd was already on their feet, anticipating Tech N9ne to come out. And when he storms onto stage the crowd went crazy. The majority of the audience have seen Tech N9ne in concert before, but for those who have never seen him in action, it was worth the wait. He came out sporting his usual face paint. He put on an excellent, high energy show for the die-hard fans who have been waiting almost over three hours for his set. All in all, despite the whole show being over three hours, it was still an amazing show all together. The show gave an opportunity for people to see artists that they’ve never heard before and it gave the artists themselves exposure to gain more fans across the country with this tour. His wardrobe changes were amazing!! I can't wait to see hime again! STRANGE MUSIC ALL THE WAY!!!!

I listen to many types of music and love them all.if i had to pick one type it would be rock n roll.a dear friend of mine was opposite he would say rap.he was listening to music 10 years ago.when i heard a song i liked so much it made me feel alive and i understood it with my whole soul.the song was called LOUD.i needed to have it so i searched for it much to my surprise i found a place that is home that comfort to be me like my story has been told.and i never would have believed if someone told me id meet my heart mate through a song id not hear them.Then that day come i try to get to all TECH shows in dever.but to be givin the opportunity to meet the person that stole my soul through a song was the best thing to happen to me EVER.cant say thanks enough to sidekick for giving me an opportunity of a lifetime.so much love from a#1Fan

This was my 16th Tech N9ne Show and the small venue made it more intimate and by far one of the best. I’ve seen him and his amazing anterograde of strange music artists from small night clubs like last night to concert hall venues and it’s always the most memorable show of the year. I attend 40 to 50 concerts a year so it’s saying a lot. He brings amazing visuals and special effects to the large venues on top of his amazing stage show and accurate chopping speed raps to the larger clubs but to be a part of a sold out small venue filled with fans dancing and singing along with every song is equally an amazing experience. No one does it like him. It’s no wonder that whoever your favorite rapper is- they more than likely listen to Tech N9ne!

The Tech N9ne show was pretty ill, as every show he throws is. All jam packed close to the stage, he came off the stage and went pack to the seating are and was speaking of how he loved his technicians and how he was on the Forbes list and show was Legit!!! A must see show is any show that Tech N9ne is going to preform at!!! If you get the chance, it's an experience you will not regret, EVERY Show I've seen him at I wish I have seen him at more, get a VIP pass I didn't but would suggest it. I didn't have the money but had on red hat, red long sleeved shirt, red tie, red socks and new red converse...I pray he comes back through Omaha!!!!!

I was at Tech's first ever show in Moscow Russia on February 15th, 2019. The performance itself was great. High energy. Good interaction with the audience. The only downer was that they started about 45 minutes late and played for about an hour and 15-20 minutes. They said the venue was kicking them off. They didn't seem opposed to finishing though. Kinda felt like a rip-off for the ticket price of about $30 USD. Some people even paid more for early admission. I feel bad for them. I came right "on time" and I was about 5 people from the front.

Nina is a fucking lyrical juggernaut his energy his label everyone comes with fire or they don’t come out to play. Seen him twice now and both times were savage to the core new songs old songs bringing girls on stage telling them they definitely gonna get there shit tore up tonight lighting up a fatty before they legalized that shit and he has nothing but love for seattle he will whip around the streets just partying totally does what he spits and anyone want to go against the bat and the snake we can throw down

Well lets see...... (04.07.16)....hellz yahsss!!!!! The entire show was a success. Everybody did their thang. Even with my boyfriend haveing to break up a fight, we still enjoyed ourselves. Was my early birthday present (04/14) and my very first concert ever attended. And I must say.... I got lost in the music, something like a trance. The feeling of it all. Outstanding! Will most deff attend more concerts of Tech and his crew again in Nashville. Thank y'all soo much for the amazeing night!

OMG.. I had a blast!!! What an amazing time!!! It was an honor to see Tech back in Vegas after he was banned from sin City for four years.... I really hope he comes back soon. I am deeply infacuated with Tech Nyne!! If I didn't have his songs to play and vibe with I probably would be locked up or dead!! When times get hard and I start to fall into depression all I gotta do is listen and watch techninna!!!! Thank you very much...Bye

Love Techs number one fan, Kayli

Photos (17)

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Past concerts

The Pavilion at Star Lake

Darien Lake Amphitheater

Leader Bank Pavilion

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Tech N9ne tour dates and tickets 2024-2025 near you

Want to see Tech N9ne in concert? Find information on all of Tech N9ne’s upcoming concerts, tour dates and ticket information for 2024-2025.

Tech N9ne is not due to play near your location currently - but they are scheduled to play 18 concerts across 2 countries in 2024-2025. View all concerts.

Next 3 concerts:

• Holmdel, NJ, US
• Sterling Heights, MI, US
• Indianapolis, IN, US

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David Gilmour rehearses ‘Luck and Strange’ ahead of UK tour

Exclusive: pink floyd star recalls ‘freezing’ recording session with his late bandmate, richard wright, article bookmarked.

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David Gilmour rehearses the title song for his new solo album, Luck and Strange, in exclusive footage obtained by The Independent.

The album track features Gilmour’s late Pink Floyd bandmate Richard Wright, who died in 2008, on electric piano and Hammond organ. The first sessions for the song were recorded in 2007, in a jam at the barn at Gilmour’s home.

“I toured in 2006, and Rick asked if he could be in my band and I said ‘of course’, and when we finished that tour, in January, I got together that touring band and said, ‘come down to the house and we’ll jam for a week in the barn’,” Gilmour recalled.

“What was going through my addled brain I don’t know – it was f***ing freezing in that barn. Anyway, the first jam we did on the Monday morning was the one that became that song – I added a chorus and middle-eight, rebuilt the stuff on top with different chords.

“There’s bits where Rick’s playing a Hammond lick and I’ve put guitars on since and I’m playing with him, bouncing off his keyboards and it is a bit weird, but I’m not fazed by that element of Rick being there at all at the moment. I just think, ‘Ah, it’s Rick, it’s me, we’re playing.’”

The Pink Floyd artist released his latest project last week; it is on track to become Gilmour’s third No 1 solo album.

“Luck and Strange ends with the thump of a slow’n’steady heartbeat, providing a counterbalance to the panic-attack pulse heard on The Dark Side of the Moon ,” The Independent’s critic Helen Brown wrote in a four-star review.

“‘Yes, I have ghosts,’ sings Gilmour, ‘and they dance by the moon.’ A splashy concert piano-style solo brings the cold drama before the bass and guitar lock into a companionable groove, and the classical guitar thaws old fears into acceptance. Floyd used to sing that ‘hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way’, but Gilmour sounds happier than that. The darkening days ‘flow like honey’, he says. All Floydies will find succour here.”

Speaking to The Independent in a recent interview, he said the record, which was co-written with his wife, the author Polly Samson, was inspired by themes of mortality, love and society.

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“Mortality is something I think about and have done so intensely since I was 13 in my bedroom, essentially a linen cupboard in my parents’ house,” Gilmour said.

“Probably with most of the songs I have written over the years, it is the main topic. But when you get to my age, one has to be realistic and say that immortality is no longer an option.”

Read the full interview here. Gilmour tours the album in cities including Rome, Los Angeles, New York and London from 27 September.

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David Gilmour's prestige venue Luck and Strange tour now includes his first US dates in 8 years

Stellar live band includes Greg Philinganes on keys, Guy Pratt on bass and Adam Betts on drums

David Gilmour is taking to the road in some style, and has announced his first US dates for eight years. The ex-Pink Floyd man has also confirmed a stellar line-up for his backing band, including Guy Pratt on bass, Greg Phillinganes and Rob Gentry on keyboards, Adam Betts on drums, and Ben Worsley on guitar. That’s a line-up we’d pay to see, Gilmour or no Gilmour.

The deluxe tour is in support of forthcoming album Luck and Strange - Gilmour’s first solo offering since 2015’s Rattle that Lock - which itself features contributions from a stellar cast of players, including most of the above, plus luminaries of the stature of Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao on drums. Ambient maestro Will Gardner is on arrangement duties. First single The Piper’s Call (below), was released in April.

What was going through my addled brain I don’t know – it was fucking freezing in that barn... David Gilmour

Sadly departed Pink Floyd co-founder Rick Wright also makes a surprise posthumous appearance on keys.

“I toured in 2006, and Rick asked if he could be in my band and I said ‘of course’,” said Gilmour. “And when we finished that tour, in January, I got together that touring band and said, “Come down to the house and we’ll jam for a week in the barn”. What was going through my addled brain I don’t know – it was fucking freezing in that barn."

Chilly it may have been, but that impromptu session forms the core of the new album's title track.

"The first jam we did on the Monday morning was the one that became that song," Gilmour continued. "I added a chorus and middle-eight, rebuilt the stuff on top with different chords.

"There’s bits where Rick’s playing a Hammond lick and I’ve put guitars on since and I’m playing with him, bouncing off his keyboards and it is a bit weird, but I’m not phased by that element of Rick being there at all at the moment.

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"I just think: “Ah, it’s Rick, it’s me, we’re playing.”

Those US dates comprise just two each at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and New York’s Madison Square Gardens and join the previously announced European leg, at similarly prestigious venues.

Rome’s Circus Maximus (or Massimo), which will host five dates is an ancient chariot racing amphitheatre, and London’s Royal Albert Hall is arguably the UK capital’s highest-status stage. Gilmour last performed live as a solo artist in a Royal Albert Hall residency in 2016.

So, tickets will be highly sought after. To increase the chances of securing a spot, you can sign up for first access Gilmour's webiste . Early access opens on 15 May, before tickets go on general sale this Friday, 17 May.

David Gilmour 2024 tour dates

Fri September 27 2024 - ROME Circo Massimo (Italy) Sat September 28 2024 - ROME Circo Massimo (Italy) Sun September 29 2024 - ROME Circo Massimo (Italy) Tue October 01 2024 - ROME Circo Massimo (Italy) Wed October 02 2024 - ROME Circo Massimo (Italy) Thu October 03 2024 - ROME Circo Massimo (Italy) Wed October 09 2024 - LONDON Royal Albert Hall Thu October 10 2024 - LONDON Royal Albert Hall Fri October 11 2024 - LONDON Royal Albert Hall Sat October 12 2024 - LONDON Royal Albert Hall Mon October 14 2024 - LONDON Royal Albert Hall Tue October 15 2024 - LONDON Royal Albert Hall Tue October 29 2024 - LOS ANGELES California - Hollywood Bowl (USA) Wed October 30 2024 - LOS ANGELES California - Hollywood Bowl (USA) Mon November 04 2024 - NEW YORK New York - Madison Square Garden (USA) Tue November 05 2024 - NEW YORK New York - Madison Square Garden (USA)

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Strange Days: How Kendrick Lamar Became a Star With Help From Tech N9ne

Long before he was an icon, Kendrick Lamar got his first taste of stardom as a hype man on a Strange Music tour.

On August 16, 2017, Kendrick Lamar was on top of the world. His album Damn , just a few months away from winning him a Pulitzer Prize, had recently been certified double platinum, and he was in the midst of a tour that would gross him over $40 million . But Kendrick had something else on his mind.

In the middle of a show at Kansas City’s Sprint Center, Lamar took a few minutes between songs to thank some very special audience members.

“Certain artists gave me and my boy an opportunity to learn what it’s like to be professional onstage,” he began. “What it’s like to turn your true lyricism out the booth and bring it on here and give it all you got on this motherfuckin’ stage. Real shit.”

The crowd cheered, sensing what was coming next.

“And them artists,” Kendrick continued, “go by the name of motherfuckin’ Tech N9ne and Krizz motherfuckin’ Kaliko, man, I swear to God.”

“It was almost a decade ago,” he remembered. “That was my first experience on tour, and I was soaking up so much game. A humble student before I even knew what humble was.”

Kendrick paused for a second, as a funny memory popped into his head. “Better yet, that was my first time hearing about motherfuckin’ per diem.” Temporary bemusement over, he finished, “I want to give a salute to Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, and the whole Strange Music family for being true big brothers when we was just scrubs in this shit.”

The monologue made local headlines , and of course onto Tech and Kaliko’s social media, but otherwise it passed unnoticed as just another speech in another city midway through a long tour. But it provides a look into a key part of Kendrick’s development as an artist, and gives us some clues as to how Top Dawg Entertainment became the music juggernaut they are today.

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In March 2009, Todd Moscowitz landed a new job. The longtime record executive moved to Warner Bros. Records, bringing along Asylum Records (where he had been president) to the family of labels.

Richie Abbott, who was running urban publicity for Warner at the time, remembers the move very well. He says Moscowitz realized Southern rappers, like the ones he was working with at Asylum, were running things, and prioritized accordingly.

“After Todd took over, his agenda changed and essentially he put all the money in the budgets into his artists” like Gucci Mane and OJ da Juiceman, Abbott remembers. That left one Warner signee who out in the cold.

“What I remember about [Kendrick] is the way he dressed. It was weird. It was like cut-off jean shorts that were frayed, and knit hooded shirts like a hippie. Something like Crocs on his feet, and he’d wear a hat.” - Tech N9ne

Jay Rock had spent the previous few years at Warner, with no album release to show for it. The Watts-repping rapper spent “every day,” Abbott recalls, at Warner’s Cali headquarters, and the L.A.-based Abbott got along with Rock and his whole team, hanging with them frequently starting in 2007.

Part of the circa-2007 team was a guy Abbott recalls as a “quiet little dude kicking it in the corner, saying nothing”: Kendrick Lamar, then rapping as “K-Dot.”

“The only time I'd hear him is when he'd pop up on these mixtapes that Jay Rock was putting out with DJ Skee or whoever,” Abbott remembers. “All of a sudden K-Dot is featured on like four of these tracks.”

But a few years in, young Kendrick stepped up his game.

“I think it was [TDE president] Punch [who] passed me a record that K-Dot had just done, and it was called ‘Bitch I'm In The Club,’” Abbott says. “I was like, ‘Is that you, K-Dot?’ He was like, yeah. He kept smiling and smiling. That's when I started to become a fan of his, right there. And then things started to go south not long after that.”

Once Moscowitz took over, Jay Rock and the rest of TDE could tell that their days at Warner were numbered. Even getting Lil Wayne on a track wasn’t enough. But the final straw came when Jay Rock was included in XXL ’s 2010 Freshman Class and, Abbott says, the label wouldn’t pay for the rapper to get to New York City for the cover shoot. “That's when I knew that it was just a matter of time before TDE would depart,” he says.

In 2010, Abbott connected TDE with his friends at Strange Music, a Kansas City-based independent label that he had been working with as a side job since 2004. The label’s co-founder and flagship artist is Tech N9ne.

“He was stuck on Warner Bros,” Tech remembers of Jay Rock, on the phone from Bulgaria. “Richie was like ‘They got Jay Rock over there, just sitting on Warner. We really need to do something for him.’ And we did.”

That was the beginning of Jay Rock’s affiliation with Strange, a label better known for rock-influenced, fast-rapping Midwest choppers than West Coast gangster spitters. The pairing was unlikely, but it helped TDE (Kendrick especially) move to the next phase of their careers.

Even before putting out his long-delayed album, which would drop the following year, it was clear that the logical first move would be to get Jay Rock on tour in front of Strange’s rabid fanbase. So, in the fall of 2010, Jay Rock joined the Independent Grind Tour along with Tech and his longtime onstage foil Krizz Kaliko, as well as E-40, Glasses Malone, Kutt Calhoun, and Big Scoob.

Jay Rock needed a hype man. He was in search of someone to keep the crowd going during his set, and perhaps to sneak in a song or two of his own, as well. So Lamar, who had just completed Overly Dedicated and was by this time rapping under his real name, fell into the role.

The tour, per usual with Strange Music, was a grueling affair: 43 shows in 45 days. That style of touring, still in place almost a decade later, reflects the hard-working personalities of Tech and his Strange co-founder Travis O’Guin.

“It's a machine, and I think that comes from Tech and Travis,” explains Jeff Nelson, who was Strange’s senior blog editor at the time. “Those two, not to rob them of humanity, but they're very machine-like people. So the tours, when they're designed by someone like Travis and designed for someone like Tech, there really wasn't a lot of time to fuck around.”

“Just being on stage is not enough. You have to have this certain it factor, and I think that he learned that from us.” - Krizz Kaliko

In addition to a level of precision demanded out of the performers and crew that recalled the famously tight James Brown bands of the 1960s, there were also James Brown-style fines. If there was a girl on the bus and it left the city: fine. Weed on the bus: fine.

“Even people who have toured before learn how to tour when they tour with us, because of how hard our tours are,” says Krizz Kaliko, who, like Tech, is overseas on tour when I reach him on the phone, heading from Paris to Vienna. “They're very regimented. It's almost military how we function. Our whole staff is in uniform, we're never late to shows. We give 110 percent every single night.”

Kendrick, meanwhile, was the opposite, at least sartorially. Tech chuckles when he thinks about it now. “What I remember about him is the way he dressed,” he says. “It was weird. It was like cut-off jean shorts that were frayed, and knit hooded shirts like a hippie. Something like Crocs on his feet, and he’d wear a hat.”

New to the road and with one short set per concert, there was a lot for Kendrick to learn. He would watch Tech and Krizz “every night,” Kaliko says, picking up performance tips along the way. Kendrick spent most of his time onstage telling crowds to “ put your motherfuckin’ hands up ,” but he would usually get one solo song a night, often the Kendrick Lamar EP cut “I Do This.”

Kaliko, Tech’s hype man and a solo artist himself, initially didn’t give the young Kendrick, who was in a similar situation, a chance. “I suffer from the same thing, being somebody's hype man like I've been for years: people don't know what caliber of an artist I am,” Kaliko admits. “And I did the same thing to him. I was like, well, he's a hype man. I wasn't really paying attention to him. But then I saw him perform one night, and Jay Rock was letting him do a song. I went back and listened to the CD he gave me and I was like, damn, dude is dope.”

“I'm happier for him than he is probably happy for himself.” - E-40

When Kendrick wasn’t onstage (or doing meet-and-greets ), he was finding other ways to be on the mic. After the tour arrived in a city, E-40 would usually retire to a hotel and set up a portable studio. Sometimes his fellow Californians would join him. (“We got songs that nobody heard,” he says of himself, Kendrick, and Jay Rock.)

Everything involved with the tour—seeing the efficient Strange Music touring operation, watching experienced performers every night, winning over crowds who didn’t know K-Dot from dipping dots, experiencing meet-and-greets, seeing the label’s business up-close, constantly recording during down time—was being studied by Kendrick and the whole TDE crew. Kaliko says Lamar’s song structures even changed because of what he experienced on Independent Grind.

“[Kendrick] learned to write music to actually perform,” Kaliko explains. “You have to be able to write songs that people can sing along with. And if you notice, his choruses are stuff that you can sing with. I think he learned how to perform and how to have that stage presence. Just being on stage is not enough. You have to have this certain it factor, and I think that he learned that from us.”

E-40, too, saw that Kendrick was intent on educating himself. “[He was] watching them performances, looking at the stage props,” 40 remembers. “Just keeping his ear to the soil. Watching everything, being an observer, being a spectator, a student.”

When he blew up, all the fans were like, ‘I did not know that I met Kendrick Lamar at that meet and greet. - Tech N9ne

While Lamar was getting his professional bearings, what about the people around him? Did people on or around the tour have any idea that they were in the presence of a future hip-hop icon?

“Could I predict that he was going to be a superstar? Hell no, nobody could. If anybody says that, they're lying,” admits Abbott. “Unless it was somebody from his own immediate camp who really believed in him. But the Kendrick you saw in 2009, 2010, you wouldn't say, ‘That guy is going to win a Pulitzer Prize someday.’ This kid reinvented himself and separated himself from the pack.”

A review of the tour’s Eugene, Oregon stop has a small mention of Kendrick, saying he and Jay Rock “thoroughly pleased” the audience with “I Do This.” Tech agrees, remembering that “people loved” Kendrick’s brief moment in the spotlight that tour, “even though they didn’t know who he was. When he blew up, all the fans were like, ‘I did not know that I met Kendrick Lamar at that meet and greet.’” Tech laughs at the memory.

Despite everything that has changed for Kendrick Lamar between 2010 and today, what is most surprising, at least on the outside, is how much has remained the same. Talking to people involved with the 2010 tour brings repeated recollections of how little the rapper himself has let stardom go to his head.

“I met him two times: once on that tour as Jay Rock's hype man, and then once at the opening act on the Yeezus Tour,” Nelson says. “I'm telling you: he was the exact same both times, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's the same guy now.”

Everyone is ecstatic that the artist Krizz Kaliko remembers as “this little quiet, very humble kid” has blown up.

“I'm happier for him than he is probably happy for himself,” says E-40. “Everybody on that tour, we was all just one big family. We respect and got nothing but love for each other.”

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The Rise of a Rap Powerhouse: Strange Music

From its roots in a Kansas City, Mo., furniture repair warehouse, Tech N9ne and Travis O'Guin's Strange Music has grown into one of the most vibrant and successful independent hip-hop labels, with 11…

By Reggie Ugwu

Reggie Ugwu

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Tech N9ne pauses to examine the still-wrapped box of condoms that has just been generously thrown onstage. It’s a sold-out hometown show at the French baroque Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland in Kansas City, Mo., and the crowd is feverish. Minutes earlier, Tech, born Aaron Dontez Yates, confided to the 3,000 fans in attendance that he’s just beaten a pesky cold and, this being the final stretch of a 50-date tour, fully intends to get some “good pussy” tonight. But it won’t be with the help of the proffered contraceptives.

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“This ain’t gonna cut it,” he concludes, in the gruff, theatrical baritone of a professional wrestler. Then he offers the box to a hapless cameraman, stage left, and half sings the punch line: “I only use Magnums!”

Tech N9ne’s fans aren’t the usual poster-and-a-T-shirt sort. More than 7,000 — that he knows of, at least, through his official website — have tattooed his name, face or logo on their bodies. Many more spend upwards of $11 a head on flasks, baby onesies and G-strings at his frequent and uniformly rowdy concerts. He says he moved to the outskirts of town in order to stay out of the fray during off-tour stretches at home, but recently two 19-year-old girls managed to track him down and bang on his door at 3:30 in the morning.

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That kind of behavior, provoked to only a slightly lesser degree by other artists who fly under the banner of Strange Music, the independent label Tech founded with partner Travis O’Guin in 1999, has begun to convince the 41-year-old rapper that he’s transcended the role of an artist and become something more akin to a cult leader-an issue he addresses on his 2011 song “Cult Leader.”

“What we’ve built is so massive that I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to stop until the world ends or a meteor or asteroid comes and fucks us all up,” says Tech, standing in a corner office at Strange’s 17,500-square-foot main building in Lee’s Summit, Mo. It’s 1:30 in the afternoon the day of the concert, eight hours before showtime. “I’m confined by a responsibility to these people that have my name on them. I’ve got to maintain myself because they believe in me.”

Getting people to believe in him used to be Tech’s greatest struggle. A misfit from childhood (“Too white for the black kids and too black for the white kids”), his music has always come from the vantage of an outsider. In 2002-nine years before he had a No. 4 debut on the Billboard 200 with the 2011 album “All 6’s and 7’s,” which sold 55,000 in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan — he put out a street single called “The Industry Is Punks,” on which he lamented his inability to fit in at radio.

“I can’t get wit it,” he rhymed, in a booming, rapid-fire flow somewhere between Chuck D and Twista. “Record labels in the industry are sick wit it/PDs that really don’t know a hit for shit/Kick the bitch, if you diss my hit, you might get pistol-whipped.”

Tech, a self-described Doors fanatic who was involved in drum’n’bass in the late ’90s and known for wild and colorful hairdos (these days his head is clean shaven), was passed around from label to label for much of his early career. In 1998 he had a deal with Kansas City label Midwestside Records that was upstreamed to Quincy Jones’ Qwest Records, itself a joint venture with Warner Music Group. But Warner shut down Qwest in 2000 and Tech was left to languish. That’s when he teamed up with O’Guin.

“When I sat down with him for the first time, I said, ‘OK, what’s going on? What’s next? What are you doing? When is this going to blow up?'” recalls fellow Kansas City native O’Guin, a serial entrepreneur who met Tech at a local fashion show for a clothing brand he helped finance. “That’s what I expected to happen because I thought he was that good.”

O’Guin was a millionaire by the age of 22 thanks to a furniture repair business that he built and expanded to 32 locations in 18 states. The youngest son of a sod farmer, he too had been a misfit — a white kid who went to black schools and a hip-hop fan in a rock household. He expanded from furniture into realty and, with Tech as his secret weapon, decided to try his hand at the music business.

“To be honest, I made enough to retire doing furniture, but it’s not a very glamorous business,” says O’Guin, 41. He’s stout and tan with a crew cut and a voice that’s part Southern congressman, part DJ Khaled. “You’re always dealing with people that are pissed off because their shit is broke. It was refreshing to do something that people actually fell in love with, that people absolutely praised, that people got excited for.”

Strange Music was founded as a 50/50 partnership, with O’Guin serving as CEO and Tech taking the role of VP. The fledgling label struggled to get distribution on its own, so at first it turned to more established partners to do joint-venture deals. In 2000, Tech’s fourth album, “Anghellic,” was released as a partnership between Strange and JCOR Entertainment, a label run by Jay Faires and distributed by Interscope Records. In 2002, follow-up “Absolute Power” was released with the help of MSC Entertainment, which was owned by former Priority Records founder Mark Cerami.

But eventually both deals went bad. JCOR went bankrupt, leaving Strange short $400,000, according to O’Guin, and Cerami went AWOL, allegedly losing interest in the label in favor of long trips overseas. By then, however, Tech’s music had begun to find an audience. Fans across the Midwest were connecting with the high-energy live shows and alternative messaging. Between “Anghellic” and “Absolute Power,” O’Guin says Strange eventually sold 500,000 albums.

In 2006, the label finally got its own distribution deal with Fontana, then a nascent distribution arm of Universal Music Group and now wholly owned by INgrooves. The arrangement gave Strange both the freedom it craved and big-league access to major retailers.

“That’s when Tech and myself really started to…” O’Guin moves his hand skyward, palm down, and whistles. “All of a sudden there wasn’t nobody in the way.”

Just this year, Strange has released 11 albums or EPs, all of which reached the top 15 of Billboard’s Rap Albums chart. Tech N9ne’s 13th studio album, “Something Else,” released in July and featuring major-label stars Kendrick Lamar, T-Pain, Game and Wiz Khalifa, among others, gave the rapper his biggest sales week ever, debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with 58,000 copies sold.

“After we saw the live show and how rabid the fans were, we started pounding the table to do the deal and get in business with them,” says Dave Zierler, president of INgrooves and former head of business development at Fontana. “That was one of the first labels we really gave a big advance to. They were so organized and clearly had ambitions that went way beyond what they were already doing.”

Inside Strange’s main building in Lee’s Summit, a suburb about 30 minutes southeast of Kansas City, a pair of order fillers in black T-shirts bearing the Strange Music logo — a snake and a bat forming an “S” and an “M” — diligently hand-pack 3,000 pre-orders of Tech’s latest EP, “Therapy” (Nov. 5), a collaboration with producer Ross Robinson, known for his work with Korn and Slipknot. Each order includes a pair of Strange dog tags, a poster and a sampler of music by other Strange artists, including R&B singer/rapper Krizz Kaliko, rap groups ¡Mayday! and Ces Cru, and rapper Stevie Stone.

Portraits of Strange artists past and present line the halls of the tan, voluminous building, which looks like it could have been a Costco in a past life. Strange moved here in 2009, after outgrowing its space in O’Guin’s old furniture warehouse.

“You know what you need?” Tech asks, sporting his signature bushy goatee, a black Strange Music football jersey draped loosely over his compact frame and Chuck Taylor sneakers. “A scarf. We’ve got one that would go perfectly with what you have on right now. Korey! Get this man a scarf!”

Most of the building is reserved for the brightly lit warehouse, which houses more than 128,000 pieces of merch representing 500-plus SKUs. Scarves, ties, cutting boards, cocktail shakers, blankets, pillow cases (“I want Strange Music to be the last thing you think about before you go to sleep,” O’Guin says) — it’s all here in boxes and on shelves stacked up to the ceiling. Strange makes just shy of $7 million per year in sales of merch sourced from places as far as China, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, $4.5 million of which goes through its online store. The rest is sold out on the road.

Upstairs, an in-house social media team tends to Strange Music’s Facebook and Twitter accounts (2 million and 400,000 followers, respectively), as well as its flourishing YouTube channel. The label, which has received more than 110 million views on the site, recently added a nine-person video production department and partnered with multichannel network Fullscreen to monetize its videos at a CPM (cost per thousand views) of $8. Including satellite employees in Los Angeles, Strange has a full-time staff of 37.

Around 3 p.m., Tech climbs into the back seat of a black, 12-passenger touring van with his face emblazoned on the side (one in a fleet of 23). O’Guin takes the wheel while longtime label publicist Richie Abbot straps in on the passenger side. Touring is Strange’s second of three main revenue streams — smaller than music sales but bigger than merch — all of which hover consistently within five and seven percentage points of one another, according to O’Guin. Additionally, Strange has its own publishing companies with ASCAP (Snake and Bat Music) and BMI (Songs of Snake and Bat). All told, the label has cleared more than $20 million in revenue for each of the past three years.

The touring van takes a short ride to Strange’s new building, a $4 million, 18,000-square-foot facility that houses two state-of-the-art recording studios, additional warehouse space and seven video editing bays. On the way over, O’Guin and Abbot work out the logistics of picking up TV personality Nick Cannon, former rapper and current husband to Mariah Carey, who is flying in to see tonight’s show with a 12-person entourage. Abbot suggests O’Guin and Tech meet with Cannon, who wants to interview the pair for a new video series he’s producing, backstage before the show. But O’Guin wants to be sure to give Cannon the full Strange experience.

“I need him to see this,” he says, gesturing toward the new building as the van pulls into the driveway.

Slightly more remote than Strange’s main building, Strangeland Studios is buttressed by stunning magenta, gold and green fall foliage — one of the many perks of Lee’s Summit’s relatively sparse commercial development.

“This is what John Cougar Mellencamp was writing all of those songs about,” Abbot says.

The interior of the building, which used to be a vinyl manufacturing plant, was thoroughly gutted by O’Guin, who used his furniture connections to furnish it with custom, locally milled wood. No expense was spared, from ubiquitous Brazilian granite countertops to a $17,000 Raven multitouch console in studio A. Inside both studios — each equipped with its own kitchen, bathroom and lounge — a $40,000 diamond pendant in the shape of the Strange Music logo is sealed in impenetrable glass.

O’Guin plans to lease the studios to other artists either staying in or passing through the Kansas City area. He rattles off a short list of superstars whom he would consider letting record free of charge. Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg and sentimental favorite Alanis Morissette all make the cut. Not on the list, though, is Maybach Music Group rapper Wale, who got on O’Guin’s bad side during a recent trip to the studio by reportedly being discourteous to staff and blowing off an invoice.

“We built a beautiful place and we want artists that are going to respect that,” O’Guin says.

After the tour, everyone piles back into the van and heads to the Midland Theatre downtown, where Tech is due to sign autographs for a couple of hours before the show starts. He does signings every day before a performance, which is a lot, considering he’s logged more than 200 shows per year for the past six years in a row.

It’s the day before Halloween and a handful of the 200 or so fans wrapped around the venue for the signing are already in costume. There’s a devil and an angel, a pirate and a jester, but most people are simply wearing Strange gear in the label’s signature white, black and red colorways. The crowd is largely working class and notably diverse — whites, blacks, moms, daughters and scores of college-age guys in baggy jeans and uneven facial hair.

A slender brunette toward the front of the line gets things under way by approaching Tech, pulling down her skinny jeans and presenting her rear end. She says she wants a tattoo of his signature on her right buttock, and Tech agrees to provide the template.

“That’s going to hurt!” she says with a laugh afterward, and gives the rapper a hug.

All Tech N9ne shows are Strange Music showcases, with younger artists on the label serving as the opening acts. Stevie Stone, Krizz Kaliko and Ces Cru are already at the Midland by the time Tech arrives, meeting fans of their own, taking photos and drinking energy drinks care of Monster, a three-year sponsor of Strange Music that helps fund label samplers and tour bus painting among other line items. Tech, who leads A&R for Strange, says the No. 1 thing he looks for in a new artist is the ability to translate his or her music effectively in front of a live audience.

“I have to see them live because that’s how we do this,” he says. “As soon as we sign them, boom, they come on tour with me. I’m still trying to get [Strange rapper] Brotha Lynch Hung on a plane. It don’t make no sense not to. I tell him, ‘Don’t you like money?'”

At 7:30 the van is loaded up again and heads off to the InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza hotel, where Cannon has just arrived from the airport. During the signing it had rained sporadically, and by now it’s pouring buckets. Mugs, a large but genteel man who is Tech’s head of security, makes a nervous comment mid-route about this being “tornado alley,” which O’Guin pounces on.

“You see that sideways rain?” he teases. “That’s what it looks like right before the big one hits.”

Cannon, wearing a black hooded jacket, jogging pants and gray baseball cap, flashes a big grin in the parkway of the InterContinental and gives everyone bro hugs. Then he finds a seat in the back of the van along with his towering assistant, Punch. As it turns out, the 12-person entourage includes several members of a rap group that Cannon is developing called Psych Ward Druggies, which he suggests might make a good opening act for Tech N9ne. The Druggies, who Cannon describes as “Wu-Tang meets Odd Future,” tail the van in a black Chevy Suburban.

Back at Strange HQ, the motorcade is greeted by O’Guin’s wife, Dawn; 15-month-old son Travis Jr.; and 14-year-old daughter Mackenzie, a bubbly blonde aspiring singer with glitter on her eyelids. Mackenzie gives everyone full hugs and launches into a story about her recent birthday party — fon the roof of the InterContinental — which was a smash hit despite being on the same night as homecoming. “All the seniors came,” she gushes.

In short order O’Guin leads Cannon and Punch on a deluxe tour. A video crew materializes, perhaps from the Druggies car, to document every detail. Throughout the tour, the honored guests seem genuinely in awe of the whole enterprise, especially an all-pink room that Mackenzie designed as a children’s play area when she was 9.

“My wife would love this room!” Cannon says.

Later, at Strangeland Studios, Tech regales some Druggies in the lounge area with stories about his days starting out in music.

“I was a B-boy at first, but all of my friends left to go dance for MC Hammer,” he recalls.

Having already been given the Strange experience once today, Billboard bows out and talks with singer/rapper Krizz Kaliko, who has been with Strange longer than any other artist besides Tech and often performs with him as a tag team. Kaliko is portly with dark skin and a sharp haircut and has pink speckles around his eyes and lips due to a skin condition.

“When he first brought me out on tour, I used to always try and outdo him. ‘You think you’re crazy? Look at this!'” Kaliko recalls of joining Tech in 2000. “I was a fat guy with vitiligo who suffered from anxiety and depression — I didn’t think that this was an opportunity I was ever going to get. But [O’Guin] and Tech believe in their artists and encourage them to talk about the things that they’re going through. That’s what builds the connection. The fans look at us and think, ‘They’re just like me.'”

On the ride back to the venue Cannon appears to have been converted. He calls what he’s seen of the label “inspiring” and suggests that Strange needs its own reality show.

“I’ve seen Taylor Swift’s operation and y’all are killing her,” he says.

Next steps for Strange include a bigger push for radio play, an avenue O’Guin and Tech wrote off in the early days of the label as being too expensive. Tech recently had his first success at radio with a song called “See Me” from “Something Else,” thanks in part to high-profile guest verses from Wiz Khalifa and B.o.B. O’Guin says the company is looking for suitable promotional partners to work with on breaking into the format, including radio teams at the major labels.

One goal of radio exposure is to help the label and its video content make the leap from YouTube to broadcast TV, either through music networks or other outlets. O’Guin also says he wants to build still more facilities and “orchestra-style and/or choir-style” studios. On the TV front, at least, he may find help from a new friend.

A few days after Cannon’s visit, O’Guin will receive a text that reads as follows: “I’m up here at the MTV offices raving about y’alls movement. They love you up here. I think we can do some big things at MTV in a real way, no bullshit. Are you down?”

It’s just 20 minutes before showtime by the time the motorcade from Strangeland reaches the Midland. Tech hurries into his dressing room to get face paint applied, a preperformance ritual he’s maintained for more than a decade in honor of a slain friend. The crowd is raucous and well lubricated.

A booming voice comes over the loudspeaker.

“Kaaan-sas Cityyy! Are you ready for Tech Niiine?!”

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