Coordinates: 51°32′38″N 0°06′10″W / 51.5440°N 0.1027°W / 51.5440; -0.1027

Islington
Chapel Street, Islington
Islington  Islington shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ315844
London borough	Islington
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	N1
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Islington South and Finsbury
London Assembly	North East
List of places: UK • England • London

Islington ( /ˈɪzlɪŋtən/) is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a desirable residential district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street. The name is often applied to the areas of the borough close to Upper Street such as St Mary's, St Peter's, Barnsbury, and Canonbury, developed in the Georgian era.

Modern definition[link]

Islington grew as a sprawling Middlesex village along the line of the Great North Road, and has provided the name of the modern borough. This gave rise to some confusion, as neighbouring districts may also be said to be in Islington. This district is bounded by Liverpool Road to the west and City Road to the south-east. Its northernmost point is in the area of Canonbury. The main north-south high street, Upper Street splits at Highbury Corner to Holloway Road to the west and St. Paul's Road to the east.

The area around Angel tube station is sometimes considered a district in its own right: The Angel, Islington. The northern part of this area (from the Liverpool Road junction northwards) is within the district of Islington, while the southern half is in neighbouring Finsbury. The area below Penton Steet and east of Pentonville Road is the adjoining district of Pentonville.

History[link]

Etymology[link]

Islington was originally named by the Saxons Giseldone (1005), then Gislandune (1062). The name means "Gīsla's hill" from the Old English personal name Gīsla and dun ("hill", "down"). The name later mutated to Isledon, which remained in use well into the 17th century when the modern form arose.^[1] In medieval times, Islington was just one of many small manors thereabouts, along with Bernersbury, Neweton Berewe or Hey-bury and Canonesbury (Barnsbury, Highbury and Canonbury – names first recorded in the 13th and 14th centuries).

Origins[link]

1861 Royal Agricultural Hall, view from Liverpool Road. Now the rear entrance to the Business Design Centre

1861 Cattle show at the Royal Agricultural Hall

Some roads on the edge of the area, including Essex Road, were known as streets by the medieval period, possibly indicating a Roman origin, but little physical evidence remains. What is known is that the Great North Road from Aldersgate came into use in the 14th century, connecting with a new turnpike (toll road) up Highgate Hill. This was along the line of modern Upper Street, with a toll gate at The Angel defining the extent of the village. The Back Road, the modern Liverpool Road, was primarily a drovers' road where cattle would be rested before the final leg of their journey to Smithfield. Pens and sheds were erected along this road to accommodate the animals.^[2]

The first recorded church, St Mary's, was erected in the twelfth century and was replaced in the fifteenth century.^[3] Islington lay on the estates of the Bishop of London and the Dean and Chapter of St Pauls. There were substantial medieval moated manor houses in the area, principally at Canonbury and Highbury. In 1548, there were 440 communicants listed and the rural atmosphere, with access to the City and Westminster, made it a popular residence for the rich and eminent.^[1] The local inns, however, harboured many fugitives and recursants.

The Royal Agricultural Hall was built in 1862 on the Liverpool Road site of William Dixon's Cattle Layers. The hall was 75 ft high and the arched glass roof spanned 125 ft. It was built for the annual Smithfield Show in December of that year but was popular for other purposes, including recitals and the Royal Tournament. It was the primary exhibition site for London until the 20th century and the largest building of its kind, holding up to 50,000 people.^[4] It was requisitioned for use by the Mount Pleasant sorting office during World War II and never re-opened. The main hall has now been incorporated into the Business Design Centre.^[5]

Water sources[link]

A statue of Hugh Myddleton, creator of the New River, surmounts a drinking fountain at Islington Green. (November 2005)

The hill on which Islington stands has long supplied the City of London with water, the first projects drawing water through wooden pipes from the many springs that lay at its foot, in Finsbury. These included Sadler's Wells, London Spa and Clerkenwell.

By the 17th century these traditional sources were inadequate to supply the growing population and plans were laid to construct a waterway, the New River, to bring fresh water from the source of the River Lea, in Hertfordshire to New River Head, below Islington in Finsbury. The river was opened on September 29, 1613 by Sir Hugh Myddleton, the constructor of the project. His statue still stands where Upper Street meets Essex Road. The course of the river ran to the east of Upper Street, and much of its course is now covered and forms a linear park through the area.^[6]

The Regent's Canal passes through Islington. For much of its length it travels through an 886 metres (2,907 ft) tunnel that runs from Colebrook Row, just east of the Angel, to emerge at Muriel Street not far from Caledonian Road. The subterranean stretch is marked with a series of pavement plaques so that canal walkers may find their way from one entrance to the other above ground. The area of the canal east of the tunnel and north of the City Road was once dominated by much warehousing and industry surrounding the large City Road Basin and Wenlock Basin. Those old buildings that survive here are now largely residential or small creative work units. This stretch boasts one of the few old canal pubs with an entrance actually on the tow-path, The Narrowboat.

The canal was constructed in 1820 to carry cargo from Limehouse into the canal system. There is no tow-path in the tunnel so bargees had to walk their barges through, braced against the roof.^[7] Commercial use of the canal has declined since the 1960s.

Market gardens and entertainments[link]

In the 17th and 18th centuries the availability of water made Islington a place for growing vegetables to feed London. The manor became a popular resort for Londoners due to this rural aspect and many public houses were founded to serve the needs of both visitors and travellers on the turnpike. By 1716, there were 56 ale-house keepers in Upper Street, also offering pleasure and tea gardens and activities such as archery, skittle alleys and bowling. By the 18th century music and dancing were offered, together with billiards, firework displays and balloon ascents. The King's Head Tavern, now a Victorian building with a theatre, has remained on the same site, opposite the parish church since 1543.^[5] The founder of the theatre, Dan Crawford, who died in 2005, disagreed with the introduction of decimal coinage. For twenty-plus years after decimalisation (on 15 February 1971) the bar continued to show prices and charge for drinks in pre-decimalisation currency.

By the 19th century many music halls and theatres were established around Islington Green. One such was Collins' Music Hall, the remains of which are now partly incorporated into a bookshop. The remainder of the Hall has been redeveloped into a new theatre, with its entrance at the bottom of Essex Road. It stood on the site of the Landsdowne Tavern, where the landlord had built an entertainment room for customers who wanted to sing (and later for professional entertainers). It was founded in 1862 by Samuel Thomas Collins Vagg and by 1897 had become a 1,800 seat theatre with 10 bars. The theatre suffered damage in a fire in 1958 and has not reopened.^[5] Between 92 and 162 acts were put on each evening and performers who started there included Marie Lloyd, George Robey, Harry Lauder, Harry Tate, George Formby, Vesta Tilley, Tommy Trinder, Gracie Fields, Tommy Handley and Norman Wisdom.

An 1805 map of Islington

The Islington Literary and Scientific Society was established in 1833 and first met in Mr. Edgeworth's Academy on Upper Street. Its object was to spread knowledge through lectures, discussions, and experiments, politics and theology being forbidden. A building, the Literary and Scientific Institution, was erected in 1837 in Wellington (later Almeida) Street, designed by Roumieu and Gough in a stuccoed Grecian style. It included a library (containing 3,300 volumes in 1839), reading room, museum, laboratory, and lecture theatre seating 500. The subscription was two guineas a year. The library was sold off in 1872 and the building sold or leased in 1874 to the Wellington Club, which occupied it until 1886. In 1885 the hall was used for concerts, balls, and public meetings. The Salvation Army bought the building in 1890, renamed it the Wellington Castle barracks, and remained there until 1955. The building became a factory and showroom for Beck's British Carnival Novelties for a few years from 1956, after which it stood empty. In 1978 a campaign began with the aim to turn it into a theatre. A public appeal was launched in 1981 and a festival of avant-garde theatre and music was held there and at other Islington venues in 1982, and the successful Almeida Theatre founded.^[5]

Housing[link]

Some early development took place to accommodate the popularity of the nearby Sadler's Wells, which became a resort in the 16th century, but the 19th century saw the greatest expansion in housing, soon to cover the whole parish. In 1801, the population was 10,212, but by 1891 this had increased to 319,143. This rapid expansion was partly due to the introduction of horse-drawn omnibuses in 1830. Large well-built houses and fashionable squares drew clerks, artisans and professionals to the district. However, from the middle of the 19th century the poor were being displaced by clearances in inner London to build the new railway stations and goods yards. Many of the displaced settled in Islington, with the houses becoming occupied by many families. This, combined with the railways pushing into outer Middlesex, reduced Islington's attraction for the "better off" as it became "unfashionable".^[8] The area fell into a long decline; and by the mid-20th century, it was largely run-down and a byword for urban poverty.^[1]. The author K M Warwick was born in 1957 in Islington, and recalls it as a place scarred by bomb damage and that half of Sonderberg Road was a bomb-site that quickly sent his family scurrying away to Essex to a new life, along with many other families.

World War II caused much damage to Islington's housing stock, with 3,200 dwellings destroyed. Before the war a number of 1930s council housing blocks were added to the stock, but it was after the war, partly as result of bomb site redevelopment, that the council housing boom really got into its stride, reaching its peak in the 1960s with the construction of several extensive estates, both by the Metropolitan Borough of Islington and the London County Council. Clearance of the worst terraced housing was still undertaken but Islington continued to be very densely populated with a high level of overcrowding.

From the 1960s, the remaining Georgian terraces were rediscovered by middle class families and many of the houses were rehabilitated, with the area becoming newly fashionable. This displacement of the poor by the aspirational has become known as gentrification. Among these new residents were a number of the central figures in the New Labour movement, including Tony Blair before his victory in the 1997 general election. "Islington is widely regarded as the spiritual home of Britain's left-wing intelligentsia" (The Guardian).^[9] The Granita Pact between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair is said to have been made at a now defunct restaurant on Upper Street.^[10] The district still has many council blocks, but the local authority has begun to remove a few of them, such as the Packington Estate, and replace them with more attractive mixed developments.

The completion of the Victoria line and redevelopment of Angel tube station created the conditions for developers to renovate many of the early Victorian and Georgian townhouses, and build developments of luxury apartments, popular with City professionals who could then walk or cycle to the nearby City. The inns of the 17th century have been replaced by busy gastropubs and trendy wine bars. Small shops selling bijou items are increasingly being priced out of the area and replaced by national (and international) chains, although many boutiques remain. Islington remains a district with diverse inhabitants, with its millionaires' houses and apartments not far from social housing in immediately neighbouring Islington districts such as Finsbury and Clerkenwell to the south, Bloomsbury and King's Cross to the west, and Highbury to the north west and also the Hackney districts of De Beauvoir and Old Street to the north east. Islington has become one of the most desirable places to live in London, reflected by the number of housing developments announced in late 2011 and early 2012 at prices considerably higher than those achieved in comparable west London districts such as Chelsea and Notting Hill, and the highest recorded growth in house prices anywhere in London in 2011, reported as 15% in the Evening Standard.

Monopoly fame[link]

The area is included in the British version of Monopoly which features The Angel, Islington. However, in the game the Angel is the third cheapest property on the board, which reflects the time in which the board was drawn up, rather than its current position as home to celebrities, media-types, politicians and City lawyers and bankers. 'The Angel, Islington' was included as the licensees considered the names of places they were to use over tea in the Lyon's Corner House, built on the site of the original Angel Inn.

Nearby Monopoly locations are Pentonville Road (mostly within the Borough of Islington) which runs from King's Cross station to The Angel.

Upper Street[link]

At the southern end of Upper Street is a former tram shed that closed in 1979 and which is currently a Jack Wills shop.^[11] The building was formerly The Mall Antiques Arcade. Its closure reflects the reduction in the number of antique traders in the nearby Camden Passage, although a weekend antiques market is still held there.

Islington High Street[link]

Islington High Street is the former High Street of the village of Islington. The earliest reference to Islington High Street is its appearance on a 1590 map of the area. At this time, nine inns (including the famous Angel, which has subsequently given its name to the area), as well as housing and a public pond were shown lining the street.^[12] Then as now, Islington was and is unusual in that the village church, St Mary's, does not stand on the high street but is some way off on Upper Street.

In 1716 Islington High Street came under the control of the newly formed Islington Turnpike Trust. The Trust grew rapidly, and soon had control of most major roads in the area, building a number of major road arteries through the expanding residential areas, including Caledonian Road, Euston Road, City Road and New North Road.^[13]

The Peacock Inn^[14] at 11 Islington High Street dates from 1564, although the current façade dates from 1857. It featured in Tom Brown's Schooldays as the inn at which Tom stays prior to travelling to Rugby School. It closed in 1962, although the building still stands.^[15]

Angel tube station on Islington High Street has the longest escalator on the London Underground system, at 318 steps.^[16] In 2006 a Norwegian man made headlines after skiing down the escalator at the station.^[17]

In literature[link]

Islington features extensively in modern English literature and culture:

• The Diary of a Nobody, an English comic novel written by George Grossmith and his brother Weedon Grossmith. The main character lives off the Holloway Road in Brickfield Terrace.
• The Wilfers of Holloway feature in Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.
• Douglas Adams lived in Islington and used it as a setting in his novels, and named a character in his famous Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy series after a well known local estate agents - Hotblack Desiato.
• In Neil Gaiman's best selling novel Neverwhere Islington is an angel that lives under London, named after the Angel tube station.
• Martha Grimes' fictional detective, Richard Jury, lives in a flat in Islington.
• Emma Evans, protagonist of Margaret Drabble's novel The Garrick Year (1964), lives, after she has married her husband David, in "an ordinary nineteenth-century terrace house in Islington, and on either side of the front door stood a small stone lion . . . the back garden was up to the standard of the lions".
• Simon Gray's play Otherwise Engaged is set in Islington. It was written in the 1970s.
• In The Zoo, a comic opera by Arthur Sullivan and B. C. Stephenson, two of the main characters are the Duke of Islington and his beloved, whom he asks to become the Duchess of Islington.
• Nick Hornby's book, and later film, About a Boy are set in Islington.
• Nick Hornby's novel SLAM is set in Islington.
• Joan Smith's female detective, Loretta Lawson, lives in Islington.
• The film, Notes on a Scandal is set in Islington.

Transport[link]

The area is well served with bus routes, with a major bus interchange located near Angel tube station. Red route and residents' parking restrictions apply throughout the area.

Nearby places[link]

• Angel
• Barnsbury
• Canonbury
• De Beauvoir Town
• Finsbury
• Highbury
• Hoxton
• Holloway
• King's Cross
• Pentonville
• St Luke's

Nearby stations[link]

• Angel tube station
• Essex Road railway station
• Farringdon station
• Highbury & Islington station
• King's Cross railway station
• King's Cross St Pancras tube station
• St Pancras International

Education[link]

For education in the area, see the London Borough of Islington and City of London articles.

Government and infrastructure[link]

The Civil Aviation Authority has its head office in the CAA House in Islington.^[18]

Listed buildings[link]

The Grade II* listed St Paul's Church seen from Essex Road. This was built in 1826 to a design by Sir Charles Barry, who went on to build the current Houses of Parliament. (March 2007)

The Egyptianate former Carlton cinema on Essex Road is Grade II listed, and has now closed. (November 2005)

Grade II*

English Heritage^[19] list three Grade II* listed buildings within Central Islington (and many more in surrounding districts):

• The Union Chapel
• 3 Terrett's Place (an 18th-century house on Upper Street)
• St Paul's Church, St Paul's Road (Designed by Sir Charles Barry, now the St Paul's Steiner Project)

Grade II (selected):

The area is perhaps most notable for its picture-perfect Georgian townhouses, shops and pubs. Many whole terraces are listed including much of Liverpool Road (one side of which is in Barnsbury) and Islington High Street/Upper Street. Other multiply listed streets include Camden Passage, Compton Terrace, Colebrooke Row, Cross Street, Duncan Terrace, Essex Road, Gibson Square and Milner Square).

Other Grade II listed structures include:

• The Almeida Theatre.
• The Angel Baptist Church, Cross Street.
• The Angel public house (the original one, now a Co-op bank - not the newer Wetherspoon's), Islington High Street.
• The Business Design Centre (part of which is the former Royal Agricultural Hall), Upper Street.
• The Camden Head, public house, Camden Passage.
• The Hope and Anchor public house, Upper Street.
• Ironmonger Row Baths.
• Islington Town Hall.
• M Manze's Pie and Eel Shop, Chapel Market.
• Mecca Bingo Hall (now closed), Essex Road (once the Carlton Cinema). This is due to become a church in the near future.^[20]
• The Old Queen's Head public house, Essex Road.
• St John's Church, Duncan Terrace.
• St Mary's Church, Upper Street (rebuilt after World War 2 - only the spire remains from the original).
• South Library, Essex Road.
• The York public house.
• Emirates Stadium

See also[link]

London portal

• List of people from Islington
• Islington Museum
• Islington Local History Centre
• Almeida Theatre
• Little Angel Theatre
• Arsenal F.C.
• Business Design Centre
• Crafts Council
• Islington Green
• Market Estate
• The Union Chapel
• Loony Left

References[link]

• A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 8 (Note that even this largely refers to the old parish, considerably larger than the modern district)

External links[link]

London/Islington travel guide from Wikitravel

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Islington

• Islington Council
• Islington Archaeology & History Society
• Islington Literary & Historical Strolls
• The Islington Society
• St Mary's Church
• Freightliner's Farm
• London Landscape TV episode (5 mins) about Islington

v t e London Borough of Islington Districts Angel Archway Barnsbury Canonbury Clerkenwell Farringdon Finsbury Finsbury Park Highbury Highgate Holloway Islington Kings Cross Lower Holloway Mildmay Nag's Head Newington Green Pentonville St. Luke's Tufnell Park Upper Holloway Attractions Almeida Theatre Business Design Centre Emirates Stadium House of Detention museum Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art Islington Local History Centre Islington Museum The King's Head Theatre London Canal Museum Museum of the Order of St John Sadler's Wells Theatre St. Luke's LSO Union Chapel Wesley's Chapel Street markets Camden Passage Chapel Market Exmouth Market Nag's Head Market Whitecross Street Market Parks and open spaces Barnard Park Bingfield Park Bunhill Fields Caledonian Park Gillespie Park Highbury Fields Paradise Park Rosemary Gardens Spa Fields Gardens Whittington Park Constituencies Islington South and Finsbury Islington North Tube and rail stations Angel Archway Arsenal Caledonian Road Canonbury railway station Crouch Hill railway station Drayton Park railway station Essex Road railway station Farringdon Finsbury Park station Highbury and Islington Holloway Road Old Street Tufnell Park Upper Holloway railway station Other topics People Public art Schools

Joe Black
Pitcher
Born: (1924-02-08)February 8, 1924 Plainfield, New Jersey
Died: May 17, 2002(2002-05-17) (aged 78) Scottsdale, Arizona
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
May 1, 1952 for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Last MLB appearance
September 11, 1957 for the Washington Senators
Career statistics
Win–loss record	30–12
Earned run average	3.91
Strikeouts	222
Teams
Brooklyn Dodgers (1952–1955) Cincinnati Redlegs (1955–1956) Washington Senators (1957)
Career highlights and awards
1952 NL Rookie of the Year

Joseph Black (February 8, 1924 – May 17, 2002) was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro League and Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Redlegs, and Washington Senators who became the first black pitcher to win a World Series game, in 1952. Black died of prostate cancer at age 78.

A native of Plainfield, New Jersey, he starred at Plainfield High School.^[1][2] Black attended on a baseball scholarship and graduated from Morgan State University in 1950 and later received an honorary doctorate from Shaw University. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He appears prominently in Roger Kahn's classic book, The Boys of Summer.

Negro and minor leagues[link]

Black helped the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro Leagues win two championships in seven years. He and Jackie Robinson pushed for a pension plan for Negro League players and was instrumental in the inclusion of players who played before 1947. Black then played for a year in the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league system.

Call up to Brooklyn[link]

The Dodgers promoted Black to the major leagues in 1952, five years after teammate Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. Black was 28 when he reached the majors. He roomed with Jackie while with Brooklyn, and was dominant out of the bullpen, chosen Rookie of the Year after winning 15 games and saving 15 others for the National League champions. He had a 2.15 ERA but, with 142 innings pitched, fell 8 innings short of winning the ERA title.

Strapped for pitching, Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen brought Black out of the bullpen and started him 3 times in 7 days in the 1952 World Series against the New York Yankees. He won the opener with a 6-hitter over Allie Reynolds, 4–2, then lost the 4th game, 2–0, and the 7th, 4–2.

Black's decline[link]

The next spring after the World Series, Dressen urged Black to add some pitches to his strong slowball, which was his favorite pitch. In six seasons, he compiled a 30–12 record, half of his wins coming in his rookie season.

After baseball[link]

After his career ended, Black taught health and physical education at Hubbard Junior High School in Plainfield, N.J., and later became an executive with Greyhound in Phoenix, Arizona.

In addition to lobbying for black players, he remained in baseball through his affiliation with the commissioner's office, where he consulted with players about career choices.

In 1991, Black appeared as a fictional character 'Joe 'Playday' Sims', in TV's Cosby Show, in the 7th Season episode, "There's Still No Joy in Mudville", which originally aired April 4, 1991.

He was a board director of the Baseball Assistance Team and worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks in community relations after they joined the NL in 1998. Black was a regular in the Diamondbacks' dugout during batting practice and in the press box. He also did a lot of charity work in the Phoenix area.

He wrote a syndicated column, "By The Way," for Ebony magazine and an autobiography, Ain't Nobody Better Than You.

Black was interred in the Hillside Cemetery of Scotch Plains, New Jersey.

Comments on Black[link]

"Joe Black was a tremendous human being," Arizona manager Bob Brenly said. "He always had positive words for me. His parting words were always, `Make sure you do it your way.' He must have told me that a hundred times last year. "He was a diehard Diamondbacks fan. He loved this team and I'm just glad we had a chance to win a World Series for him."

"He was a Dodger, but he was a giant of a man," former NL president Len Coleman said. "He was the greatest friend, and his loss leaves the world a lot more empty."

"His legacy is the thought that unheralded players can rise to the heights, that someone who at the time was considered an ordinary athlete could wind up pitching Game 1 of the World Series," said Vin Scully, the Dodgers' play-by-play announcer since 1951.

"He loved the game and he loved to talk the game," said Montreal manager Frank Robinson, who was friends with Black and visited him this month when the Expos were in Phoenix. "He was a great guy, a jolly guy, a real fun guy," said New York Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer, a teammate with the Dodgers. "It's sad to lose him."

Honors and awards[link]

The Arizona Fall League's Most Valuable Player award is named for Black.^[3] First presented in 2002, the award honors the 1952 National League Rookie of the Year.^[3]

Beginning in 2010, the Washington Nationals will present the Joe Black Award to a Washington area organization chosen for its work promoting baseball in African-American communities. The award recognizes Black as the first African American player on the Washington Senators (1957).

References[link]

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Negro league baseball statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference (Negro leagues)
• Baseball Almanac
• The Deadball Era
• Historic Baseball
• Meet the Real Joe Black Biography

Tech N9ne
Tech N9ne at release signing for Everready (The Religion) on November 6, 2006
Background information
Birth name	Aaron Dontez Yates
Born	(1971-11-08) November 8, 1971 (age 40)
Origin	Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, Vice President at Strange Music
Years active	1985–present
Labels	Strange Music
Associated acts	The Regime, Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, Yukmouth, Big Scoob, 816 Boyz
Website	TheRealTechN9ne.com

Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971),^[1] better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "Tech Nine"), is an American rapper from Kansas City, Missouri. In 1999, Yates and Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. Throughout his career, Yates has sold over one million albums and has had his music featured in film, television, and video games.^[2] In 2009, he won the Left Field Woodie award at the mtvU Woodie Awards.^[3]

His stage name originated from the TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun, given to him by rapper Black Walt due to his fast rhyming style.^[4] Yates later applied a deeper meaning to the name, claiming that it stands for the complete technique of rhyme, with 'tech' meaning technique and 'nine' representing the number of completion.^[4][5]

Early life[link]

Aaron Dontez Yates was born on November 8, 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri.^[1] He began rapping at a very early age, and would rap the letters of his name in order to remember how to spell it.^[6] He never met his father, and his mother suffered from epilepsy and lupus when he was a child, which emotionally affected him and inspired him to "search for God."^[6] He would wander around abandoned buildings with his best friend, Brian Dennis, hoping to catch a ghost on film.^[6] In 2003, Dennis was shot and killed by his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, which further inspired Yates' search for a higher power, as well as giving him the drive to vent his frustrations in his music.

Career[link]

Early in his career, Yates was a member of a group formed in 1991 called Black Mafia.^[7] He saw glimpses of success in the group 57th Street Rogue Dog Villians with their single "Let's Get Fucked Up." As a member of the group Nnutthowze, Aaron Yates signed with Perspective Records in 1993.^[8] However, the group disbanded soon after being released from the label. Yates signed with Qwest Records briefly before moving to JCOR Records.^[8]

In 1997, Yates joined the group The Regime formed by rapper Yukmouth.^[9] The following year, he was featured on the soundtrack for the film Gang Related.^[10] Yates appeared on the song "The Anthem" by Sway & King Tech in 1999, which also featured artists RZA, Eminem, Xzibit, Pharoahe Monch, Jayo Felony, Chino XL, KRS-One, and Kool G. Rap. Later that year, he and Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music.^[11]

In 2001, Yates released the studio album Anghellic on JCOR Records.^[8] After disputes arose about the promotion of the album, Yates and his label severed ties with the JCOR with a deal that allowed them to retain the rights to the album. The next year, he released Absolute Power, under a 50–50 joint venture between Strange Music and M.S.C. Music & Entertainment (which was founded by former Priority Records head Mark Cerami). The album debuted number 79 on the Billboard 200. The albums sales are said to have tripled following a campaign, going by the name of "F.T.I." was started by the rapper and his label. The campaign, which asked music listeners to legally download the album for free through the artist's own website was in response to the anti-downloading campaign by the RIAA.^[8] In 2006, Yates released the album Everready (The Religion).^[12] The following year, he released Misery Loves Kompany.^[13] Yates announced that the album was the first in a series of "Tech N9ne Collabos" albums that feature a wide range of guest appearances.^[13]

The following year, Yates released the album Killer.^[14] That September, he exceeded one million album sales over his entire catalog.^[2] Yates remarked of the accomplishment that, "It just reminded me of all the work we'd done in the past, up until now [...] 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."^[2] Yates released his second Collabos album, Sickology 101, in April 2009.^[15]

Yates later performed at the Rock The Bells 2009 Festival and the tenth annual Gathering of the Juggalos.^[16][17] That October, he released K.O.D., an acronym for King of Darkness. The album featured a dark overtone, as Yates was dealing with the illness of his mother.^[18] An EP of new songs over unused beats from the K.O.D. album was released in 2010 as The Lost Scripts of K.O.D.. Later that year, Yates released his third Collabos album, The Gates Mixed Plate.^[18] In October, he released his second EP Seepage. On December 23, he released his first mixtape Bad Season.which was later released in retail CD form with a modified track list and without DJ Scream. On June 7, 2011 Yates released All 6's And 7's. The album features several hip-hop artists as well as rock artists including B.o.B, E-40, Snoop Dogg, T-Pain, Mint Condition, Busta Rhymes, Twista, Lil Wayne, Yelawolf and Deftones.