Tech N9ne talks about how he was embraced by the rap industry
Tech N9ne has been in the game since the early 90s, and the Strange Music boss has worked with countless top rappers like Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, 2 Chainz, Ice Cube and more. The rapper now sat down with Holdin Court Podcast where he reflect on how his rap peers embraced him as an artist.
“I am just a small town country boy straight from Kansas City,” he said.” So keep in mind I was always the weirdo to everybody with red hair and a painted face. I couldn’t believe when I started doing sh*t like Paid Dues and Rock The Bells that Raekwon would come up to me like ‘I love your sh*t.’ and KRS-1… When I got put into “The Anthem” and I ran into Eminem and he knew me and all these motherf**kers knew me, I felt like I was just an odd man out, Ni**a. I didn’t know those ni**as were paying attention all these years. I didn’t know T.I. was in jail and the white boys there were playing my sh*t and he got up on my music. I didn’t know that f**king Wayne was listening to “Questions” on the “Gang Related” soundtrack. They tell me all these sh*t how they found out. I thought I was just an outcast ni**a that ni**as don’t f**k with because I was on Rock N Roll sh*t, here and there. I was on Gangster sh*t… Rock ‘N Roll sh*t… Hip-Hop sh*t. Gospel sh*t. Opera sh*t. Everything.”
He continues, “It’s also a weird thing man that when people mention Eminem, they mention my name with it when it comes to lyrics man this is a weird thing because I just been doing me, I ain’t trying to sound like nobody… trying to do nothing like nobody. We rap fast but we don’t sound nothing like Bones, Twista… We don’t sound like Eminem. We sound like ourselves.”
Tech N9ne and Eminem went toe to toe on their 2015 collaboration “Speedom (WWC2),” which was a fan favourite off “Special Effects” album.
Planet, Tech N9ne’s 20th studio album, was released on March 2, 2018. N9na, Tech N9ne’s 21st studio album, was released on April 19, 2019. Enterfear, his 22nd album, was released over a year later, on April 10, 2020. On July 29, 2020, he was featured on Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor’s track “CMFT Must Be Stopped.” Fear Exodus, a new project by Tech N9ne, was launched on October 23, 2020.
Watch the new interview below.
