Tech N9ne

Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced Tech Nine), is an American rapper. In 1999, Yates and business partner Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. He has sold over two 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, a name given to him by rapper Black Walt due to his fast-rhyming Chopper 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.

Early life

In 1971, Yates was born 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 explore abandoned buildings with his best friend, hoping to catch a ghost on film. He attended Southwest High School in Kansas City.

Strangeulation Vol. II

Strangeulation Vol. II is the sixteenth studio album by American rapper Tech N9ne, the sixth in his "Collabos" series. The album was released on November 20, 2015, by Strange Music. It features the entire Strange Music roster, including their new signees JL B.Hood, Darrein Safron, and Mackenzie Nicole. The album serves as a sequel to Strangeulation, the previous Tech N9ne Collabos album.

Commercial performance

On the chart dated December 12, 2015, Strangeulation Vol. II debuted on the US Billboard 200 chart at number 25, powered by first week sales 23,969 equivalent album units; it sold 22,380 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting the album's streaming activity and track sales. It became Tech N9ne's second album to chart at number one on the Billboard Independent Albums in 2015.

Track listing

Charts

References

Volume Two

Volume Two, Volume 2, or Volume II may refer to:

Music

See also

Strangeulation

Strangeulation is the fourteenth studio album by American rapper Tech N9ne, the fifth in his "Collabos" series. The album was released on May 6, 2014, by Strange Music. The album features guest appearances from the entire Strange Music roster, including its newest signing at the time — Murs, as well as some outside collaborators such as Tyler Lyon, Ryan Bradley, Mackenzie O'Guin, Kendall Morgan, John 5 and Serj Tankian.

Background

In April 2014, in an interview with StupidDope, Tech N9ne spoke about the inspiration behind the title of the album, saying: "Something’s always happening in Tech N9ne’s life whether it be happy, whether it be sad, whether it be madness. I’m always living it so I’m always writing. The influence behind Strangeulation is off of strangulation you know. Having the industry in a choke-hold after they hear this music. Nobody will be able to say nothing. Just all the way choked up. MURS to MayDay! to Stevie Stone to Ces Cru to Tech N9ne to Krizz Kaliko to Kutt Calhoun to Jay Rock."

Krizz Kaliko

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

Career

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. At the time, Tech N9ne was 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 new-found label Strange Music co-owned by Tech N9ne and Travis O'guin.

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, Twiztid, and Andy Mineo.