Look up -tech or tech in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Tech may refer to:

• an abbreviation for technology, and terms that are derived from it
  • technical support, services providing assistance with technology products
  • techno, a form of electronic dance music
• a technical problem, in airline jargon e.g. "the plane's gone tech" a issue with technology
• a technician, a worker in a field of technology e.g. "We may need to call in a tech"
• Tech 2 (or Tech II), an electronic On-board diagnostics tool for General Motors cars
• Tech N9ne (born 1971), rapper from Kansas City, Missouri
• Tech metal a subgenre of Heavy Metal
• The Tech River in France
• Ghettotech, the genre of Miami bass-techno fusion
• Tech Mo'r, a member of Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes
• A nickname for the Church of Scientology's teachings, dubbed Scientology Technology; also referred to as LRH (L. Ron Hubbard) technology as well
• USS Tech Jr. (SP-1761), a United States Navy patrol boat in commission during the autumn of 1917
• USS Tech III (SP-1055), a United States Navy patrol boat in commission from August to October 1917

Tech is used as a nickname for many universities, including:

• California Institute of Technology, also called "Caltech", a university in Pasadena, California
• Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, in Gembloux, Wallonia, Belgium
• Georgia Institute of Technology, also called "Georgia Tech", a university in Atlanta, Georgia
• Illinois Institute of Technology, also called "Illinois Tech", a university in Chicago, Illinois
• Louisiana Tech University, also called "Louisiana Tech", a university in Ruston, Louisiana
  • Tech (mascot), the fawn and white lineage of English bulldogs mascots
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also called "MIT", a university in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Mid-Florida Tech, a public adult vocational school in Orlando, Florida
• Miller-Motte Tech, a chain of for-profit technical colleges throughout the Southern United States
• New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, also called "NMTech", a university in Socorro, New Mexico
• Northwestern University's Technological Institute
• Ogden-Weber Tech
• Texas Tech University, also called "Texas Tech", a university in Lubbock, Texas
• Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England (a politically incorrect reference to the school's previous guise)
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, also called "Virginia Tech", a university in Blacksburg, Virginia
• The term TeCH is also used in Northern Ireland to refer to Institutes for Further and Higher Education (IFHE). (See; Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education)
• Brooklyn Technical High School, a New York City public high school

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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.

In 2011, Yates told 411mania.com that after All 6's And 7's he planned on releasing his fourth album in the Collabos series titled Welcome to Strangeland, featuring guest appearances from everyone on Strange Music, followed by the long awaited K.A.B.O.S.H. and 816 Boyz albums.^[19] Then, in July 2011, Yates said in a blog post that Rick Ross has agreed to do a song with him for the K.A.B.O.S.H. album and that he is also hoping to have a collaboration with Jay-Z on that album. In the same blog post, he said that the K.A.B.O.S.H. album will be a rock album.^[20] In another blog post several weeks later, he confirmed that he will begin work on the album after completing Welcome to Strangeland.^[21] Following his tour, he announced that he was about to begin work on Welcome to Strangeland and KLUSTERFUK, confirming producers for both projects. He said he will then begin work on the K.A.B.O.S.H. album.^[22]

Tech N9ne is featured on Lil Wayne's ninth studio album Tha Carter IV on the song Interlude. The track features a verse from Tech and Andre 3000. During a radio interview with Funkmaster Flex in August 2010, Wayne stated that he and Tech N9ne formed a "brotherhood" when Yates visited him in jail. In a later interview, Tech N9ne claimed that he thinks the song will "awaken a lot of other people that wouldn't usually look [his] way" and "teach all the new fans how to become technicians."

On January 27th 2012, in an interview with "Underground TV" posted on Tech N9ne's blog, Tech N9ne talked about his 2012 plans, confirming the release of Klusterfuk, the K.A.B.O.S.H. album and an untitled solo album to be released in 2012. As of March 19, 2012, Tech announced that he would be featured on New York rapper, DMX's upcoming album.^[23]

Style and influences[link]

Yates is known for his dynamic rhyme schemes and speed rap abilities. Soren Baker of VH1 states that Yates' techniques "showcase his wide-ranging, mind-blowing flows."^[8] Baker characterizes Yates' earlier work as "apocalyptic music, which discussed abortion and infidelity as much as his rapping prowess."^[8] Allmusic reviewer Jason Birchmeier calls his style "bizarre hardcore rap."^[1]

Yates says that he is influenced by Old school hip hop, and specifically cites Slick Rick, N.W.A, Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, Schoolly D, and Just-Ice.^[18] He is also interested in other genres of music, and lists The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, AC/DC, Metallica, Floetry, Outkast, and Gnarls Barkley as influences. He's remarked generally that "I love beautiful music, beautiful music no matter what type".^[18]

In popular culture[link]

Films[link]

Yates' songs have appeared in the films Gang Related, Alpha Dog, Our Heroes: The 25 Best Black Sports Movies (Ever), and The Life of Lucky Cucumber.^[24][25][26] Yates was originally set to score the entire film Alpha Dog, but the studio decided to replace some of his music with more commercially known songs.^[27] In 2009, his song "Let's Go" was used in an online promotional short film for AXE body spray.^[28] Yates also appears as an actor in the films Vengeance and Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D.^{[29][30][31][32]}

Video games[link]

Several of Yates' songs are featured in the video games Madden NFL 2006, Midnight Club: Los Angeles,EA Sports MMA, and 25 To Life, the latter of which Yates is also an unlockable character.^[33] In 2009, Yates and label mate Krizz Kaliko appeared in a promotional video for the Fight Night Round 4 video game.^[34]

Television[link]

Yates' music has appeared on the television shows Dark Angel, I'm From Rolling Stone, My Super Sweet 16, The Hills, Spike Guys' Choice Awards, and Warren The Ape.^[35][36] In 2008, his 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.^[37] 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" for his bout with Mitsuhiro Ishida.^[38] His song "Riot Maker" was used as the official theme song for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's 2010 Hardcore Justice pay-per-view. Yates also appeared on the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards in the BET Cypher with B.o.B, Machine Gun Kelly, Kendrick Lamar, and Big K.R.I.T..

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• The Calm Before the Storm (1999)
• The Worst (2000)
• Anghellic (2001)
• Absolute Power (2002)
• Everready (The Religion) (2006)
• Misery Loves Kompany (2007)
• Killer (2008)
• Sickology 101 (2009)
• K.O.D. (2009)
• The Gates Mixed Plate (2010)
• All 6's And 7's (2011)
• Welcome to Strangeland (2011)
• TBA (2012)^[39]

with K.A.B.O.S.H.

• Amafrican Psycho^[40] (TBA)

Extended plays[link]

• The Lost Scripts of K.O.D. (2010)
• Seepage (2010)
• Klusterfuk (2012)

Mixtapes[link]

• Bad Season (2010) (with DJ Whoo Kid and DJ Scream)

Selected filmography[link]

• Beef (2003)
• Das Bus (2003)
• T9X: The Tech N9ne Experience (2004)
• United Ghettos of America Vol. 2 (2004)
• Hip Hop Nation Vol. 1 (2005)
• Letter to the President (2005)
• Alpha Dog^[A1] (2006)
• The Psychumentary (2008)
• The Life of Lucky Cucumber (2009)
• Strictly Strange (2009)
• K.O.D. Tour (Live in Kansas City) (2010)
• EuroTech Tour (2011)
• Hip Hop Squares (2012)
• Vengeance (TBA)
• Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D^[41] (TBA)

Selected filmography notes

1. ^{^} Tech 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.

Awards and nominations[link]

mtvU Woodie Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Tech N9ne at the Internet Movie Database
• Tech N9ne on Myspace
• Tech N9ne at Allmusic
• Tech N9ne on Facebook
• Tech N9ne on Twitter