B-13 Peer Review: Resurgence of Tech N9ne

Aaron Dontez Yates (born , 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri) better known by his stage name Tech N9neis an 

American rapper. His musical career has spanned 24 years, during which he has performed shows from Los Angeles to New York City.

Career

Tech N9ne is known for his wide range of collaborations with other well-known artists. In 1999, Tech N9ne was included on the track (and accompanying video) "The Anthem" from Sway & King Tech, two radio personalities based in California.

He started his rap career because of a dare from one of his friends in high school. Early in his career, Tech N9ne was a member of a group called "NNUTT HOWZE", which he pays tribute to in many of his lyrics by saying "Six, six, triple eight, forty six, ninety nine, three" (6688846993), which spells out NNUTT HOWZE on the touch pad numbers of a telephone. However, the group disbanded when they were dropped from their label, Perspective Records. Additionally, he saw glimpses of success as a member of the 57th Street Rogue Dog Villians - also a Kansas City-based group - with their single "Let's Get Fucked Up".

Tech N9ne is a member of The Regime, a large collective of MCs including Yukmouth, Dru Down, Gonzoe, Tha Realest and Messy Marv among various others. Fellow Kansas City rappers BG Bulletwound and Grant Rice are also included in the collective's roster. Tech N9ne is one of the original members of The Regime, as he has been with the group since its creation by Yukmouth in 1997.

In September 2008, Tech N9ne officially hit a milestone in his career, recording over a million album sales to date, thanks to the release of his most recent double album, Killer. Despite the accomplishment, the rapper remembers the struggles of his career, up until this point. However, he wasn't surprised. "It just reminded me of all the work we done in the past, up until now. It's something. It's dope," the rapper told BallerStatus.com. "I don't think it's sunken in yet. I've been celebrating for the last two days because that's a hell of an accomplishment. I've been planning success all my life. I'm not even a bit surprised, I'm happy about it. That just means I was right." Sickology 101: The Study of Being Sick was released on April 28, 2009. Sickology is the second Tech N9ne collabos album (the first being Misery Loves Kompany), the album has several guest appearances such as Krayzie Bone, Crooked I, Messy Marv and Chino XL.

On April 7, 2009, it was announced that Tech N9ne would be one of the performers for the Rock The Bells 2009 Festival. In August, Tech N9ne performed at the tenth annual Gathering of the Juggalos after appearing at two prior Gatherings.

His next solo album K.O.D. will be released October 27, 2009. The album will be accompanied by the "K.O.D" tour featuring Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, Slaughterhouse, Glasses Malone, and new-comer to Strange Music, Big Scoob.

Strange Music label

Main article: Strange Music

Tech N9ne and Travis O'Guin co-own the record label Strange Music, which was created in 2002 after Tech N9ne's release from JCOR Entertainment. Under the label, Tech N9ne has released seven albums,Absolute Power, Anghellic: Reparation, Vintage Tech, Everready (The Religion), Tech N9ne Collabos: Misery Loves Kompany, Killer and Tech N9ne Collabos: Sickology 101. The label has signed several other performers and bands including Kutt Calhoun, Skatterman & Snug Brim, Project: Deadman which consists of Prozak, and producer Mike E. Clark, Krizz Kaliko, and Kabosh which is a joint effort by Tech N9ne and Kaliko where they will venture into the rock world. Recently, Strange Music signed Dirty Thug Records, the label that houses Grave Plott (Killa C & Liquid Assassin), to a distribution deal. Strange Music has also signed Brooklyn-area rapper and member of La Coka Nostra, Ill Bill, to release his upcoming second album The Hour of Reprisal. There are rumors that Ill Bill has signed with Strange Music to join the actual label, although there has been no direct word as to whether his deal is for distribution only or not. Ill Bill later announced that Uncle Howie Records was effectively a sub-label of Strange now, similar to "like how Jay Z brought Roc-A-Fella to Def Jam."

On February 9, 2009, it was announced on Tech N9ne's official website that Skatterman & Snug Brim had decided to leave the Strange Music label after fulfilling their commitment..

On February 9, 2009, it was announced on Tech N9ne's official website that Big Scoob had joined the Strange Music label two days earlier, on February 7th. Big Scoob having featured on Tech N9ne tracks in the past was unsigned by all labels and found a large welcoming into the Strange Music community. Big Scoob has his own theme song recorded on Tech N9ne's first collabos album Misery Loves Kompany titled "Big Scoob". Tech N9ne and Big Scoob both started out as members of the underground rap ground the 57th Street Rogue Dog Villains. Big Scoob will be the first of those members Tech N9ne has personally aided in their career quest for label support.

May 2009, Tech signed Brotha Lynch Hung to his Strange Music label. Brotha Lynch is working on a new album Dinner and a Movie expected in early 2010.

In Popular Culture

Films

Tech N9ne is featured on the soundtrack for the 1997 movie Gang Related, featuring James Belushi and 2Pac, with the song "Questions."

Four of Tech N9ne's songs were featured in the 2007 Universal Pictures film, Alpha Dog. Two of those songs, "Caribou Lou" and "Night and Day" are from his album, Everready: The Religion. Also included are "Slither" from his 2002 album Absolute Power and "LA LA Land" featuring Gina Cassavetes (daughter of film director Nick Cassavetes) which is featured on the Alpha Dog film soundtrack. Originally, Tech N9ne was behind scoring the entire movie but the movie studio decided to remove some of his music to add more commercially known songs.

In 2009, Tech recorded the original song "Get Your Shoes On," for local critic/film maker Shawn Edwards' film, "Our Heroes: The 25 Best Black Sports Movies (Ever)." On March 13, ARTISTDirect premiered the track "Donde Esta La Fiesta" from The Life of Lucky Cucumber soundtrack. In July of the same year, "Let's Go" from his album Killer was used for an online promotional short film for AXE body spray, which featured professional skateboarders Ryan Sheckler, Greg Lutzka and Jereme Rogers.

2009 will see the release of the Danny Trejo film, "Vengeance." The film was initially titled "Jack's Law" and scheduled for release in 2006.

Games

The tracks "Jellysickle" and "My Wife, My Bitch, My Girl", both from 2006 album Everready (The Religion), are featured on the soundtrack to 25 To Life, a 2005 video game, in which Tech N9ne is also an unlockable character. A censored version of "The Beast," also from 2006 release Everready (The Religion), is featured in the game Madden NFL 2006. Tech N9ne would once again find his music on an in-game soundtrack of a video game in 2008 with the release of Midnight Club: Los Angeles. "Everybody Move" from the 2008 albumKiller was featured on its Hip-Hop station.

In 2009, Tech N9ne along with label mate Krizz Kaliko appeared in a promotional video for the Fight Night Round 4 video game. Tech N9ne is frequently discussed in length on IGN's wildly popular Game Scoop! Podcast.

Television

In 2001, Tech N9ne's song "Tormented," from his album Anghellic, appeared in a scene of the Fox TV series Dark Angel, it plays for nearly two minutes in the background of a bar scene contained in the season two episode "Two."

In early 2007, Tech N9ne was featured on the MTV program I'm From Rolling Stone. In December 2007, Tech N9ne's song "Caribou Lou" was featured on an episode of MTV's My Super Sweet 16, during the scene in which the birthday girl received her car. In summer 2008, Tech N9ne's song "Earthquake" was featured on an episode of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew in which the crew had to visually convey the title of the song in their performance.

Tech N9ne's Single "Like Yeah" was featured on the intro credits of the 2008 MTV show "From G's to Gents".

On the August 15 2009 Strikeforce event, Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg, MMA fighter Gilbert Melendez entered the arena to Tech N9ne's 2006 song "The Beast" (Everready (The Religion)) for his bout with Mitsuhiro Ishida.

Tech N9ne is back with a new sound featuring, the new sensation Hopsin and B.O.B.