The Midwestern United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is one of the four U.S. geographic regions. Though it is geographically in the north, and more eastern than western, the term refers to the fact that the region is midway to the opposite coast when heading directly west from New England and New York, where the term originated. The area is now called the Midwest throughout the English-speaking world.

The region consists of 12 states in the north-central and north-eastern United States: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.Ontario is often associated with it, due to its location and relationship with Michigan. A 2012 United States Census put the population at 65,377,684. Both the population center and the geographic center of the contiguous United States are in the Midwest, in Missouri and Kansas, respectively.

Chicago is the largest city in the region, followed by Indianapolis, Columbus, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Mo., and Omaha. Chicago and its suburbs form the largest metropolitan statistical area, followed by Metro Detroit, the Twin Cities,Greater St. Louis,Greater Cleveland and Kansas City area.Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, is the oldest city in the region, having been founded by French missionaries and explorers in 1668.

Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), 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. In 2009, he won the Left Field Woodie award at the mtvU Woodie Awards.

His stage name originated from the TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun, given to him by rapper Black Walt due to his fast rhyming style. 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.

Aaron Dontez Yates was born on November 8, 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri. He began rapping at a very early age, and would rap the letters of his name in order to remember how to spell it. 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." He would wander around abandoned buildings with his best friend, Brian Dennis, hoping to catch a ghost on film. 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.

Samuel William Christopher Watson (born March 7, 1974 in Kansas City, Missouri) better known by his stage name Krizz Kaliko, is an American rapper and singer. He is a long time collaborator with fellow hometown native, Tech N9ne, and is signed to the label that Tech co-owns, Strange Music.

Krizz Kaliko began his musical career in the late 1990s when he began working with a local producer by the name of IcyRoc Kraven. Another local rapper by the name of Tech N9ne was also collaborating with IcyRoc at the time, which led to the two rappers meeting. Tech N9ne was currently working on a song titled "Who You Came To See" and Krizz made a comment that the song could have a better hook. Tech offered up the opportunity to prove his case, and Tech was blown away when Kaliko proved just that. Tech would bring Kaliko into his "inner circle" which would eventually result in Kaliko signing to the label co-owned by his new found friend.

Since then, Kaliko has often contributed to albums put out by Tech N9ne, be it being featured as a rapper or simply providing background vocals for the tracks on the album. Although the largest portion of his work is that of his collaborations with Tech, he has also performed similar tasks for fellow labelmates Kutt Calhoun, Skatterman & Snug Brim, and Prozak. Other collaborations include tracks with the Kottonmouth Kings, Potluck, E-40, T-Pain and Twiztid.