Tech N9ne

Infobox_musical_artist
Name = Tech N9ne


Img_capt =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Aaron Dontez Yates
Alias = Tecca Nina, T-9, Kansas City King, Killer Klown
Born = birth date and age|1971|11|8
Origin = Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Genre = Hip hop
Years_active = 1996 – present
Associated_acts = The Regime Kabosh 57th Street Rogue Dog Villians Krizz Kaliko Kutt Calhoun Killa C
Label = Strange Music
URL = [http://www.therealtechn9ne.com TheRealTechN9ne.com]

Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri) better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (also, Tech N9NE), is an American rapper. His musical career has spanned 20 years, during which he has performed sold out shows from Los Angeles to New York City. He is also the best selling MC out of his hometown of Kansas 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". [cite web|last=VonHolten|first=Tim|title=The Belly of the Beast|publisher=Lawrence.com|date=2003-12-22|url=http://www.lawrence.com/news/2003/dec/22/the_belly/|accessdate=2007-09-26]

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 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." He is now hard at work on his next album, "Sickology 101: The Study of Being Sick". cite web |url=http://www.ballerstatus.com/article/news/2008/09/5384/ |title=Tech N9ne Reaches Million Sales Milestone, Recalls Ups & Downs Of Career |accessdate=2008-09-03 |last=Starbury |first=Allen |date=2008-09-02 |publisher= Ballerstatus.com]

trange Music label

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. [ [http://www.therealtechn9ne.com/albumbio/?num=3 Tech N9ne - Album Bio ] ] Under the label, Tech N9ne has released six albums, "Absolute Power", ', "Vintage Tech", "Everready (The Religion)", ', and "Killer". 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, Big 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."

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 the 2006 album, "". 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. [cite web|last=D.|first=Spence|title=Various Artists - Alpha Dog: Music From The Motion Picture|publisher=IGN.com|date=2007-01-12|url=http://music.ign.com/articles/755/755004p1.html|accessdate=2007-09-26]

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.

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." [cite episode |title=Two |episodelink=List of Dark Angel episodes#Season 2 (2001-2002) |series=Dark Angel |serieslink=Dark Angel (TV series) |season=02 |number=06 |minutes=13:16 ]

In early 2007, Tech N9ne was featured on the MTV program I'm From Rolling Stone. 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".

Discography

Albums

*1999: "The Calm Before the Storm"
*2000: "The Worst"
*2001: "Anghellic"
*2002: "Celcius"
*2002: "Absolute Power"
*2005: "Vintage Tech"
*2006: "Everready (The Religion)"
*2007: "Misery Loves Kompany"
*2008: "Killer"
*2009: ""

elected filmography

*2003: "Beef"
*2003: "Das Bus"
*2004: "T9X: The Tech N9ne Experience"
*2004: "United Ghettos of America Vol. 2"
*2005: "Hip Hop Nation Vol. 1"
*2006: "Jack's Law"^"2-1"
*2006: "Alpha Dog"^"2-2"
*2008: "The Psychumentary" [ [http://city2city.darkbb.com/strange-music-f32/strange-music-and-tech-n9ne-present-t40.htm Tech N9ne dvd info] ]
*2008: "The Life of Lucky Cucumber"^"2-3"

:fnb|2-1Yet to be officially released.:fnb|2-2Tech N9ne does not physically appear, but he did have a helping hand in scoring the movie, this includes the placement of several of his songs in the films score as well as the appearance of a song from fellow label mates Skatterman & Snug Brim.:fnb|2-3Completed, awaiting release. [cite web |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1031606/|title=The Life of Lucky Cucumber (2008)|accessdate=2008-09-03|work=IMDB.com]

References

External links

* [http://www.therealtechn9ne.com/ Official website]
*imdb name|1855137
*MySpace|techn9ne|Tech N9ne
*allmusicguide | id=11:hjfixqqjldfe
*MusicBrainz artist|id=dde3d9b1-0e44-48bc-b0c9-d739b3570000|name=Tech N9ne
* [http://www.lawrence.com/news/2003/dec/11/interview_with/ Interview with Tech N9ne] (Note: Contains some offensive language)
* [http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1458185/20021017/n9ne_tech.jhtml VH1 article on Tech N9ne]
* [http://www.theunion.com/article/20070125/PROSPECTOR/101250096/-1/SPECIALA01 Short article on Tech N9ne]