Tech N9ne: Pain and Punchlines
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I want to know why in the hell are you not on Patreon? I don't think you guys even realize how much content we have on Patreon. Let me break it down for you. We have the Bunny XO show. We have Meet the D-Fords. We have propaganda. We have more shows that we're adding.

And not to mention, we have the visuals of the podcast. Not only that, we have four tiers that caters to everybody's budget and everybody gets the podcast. There's no more excuses. Head over to www.patreon.com backslash dumb blonde podcast and sign up. Stop missing out. We have built a huge community over there, guys. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of people over there. We even have

Live chats, live chats that I actually am talking in every single night. Last but not least, we give away gifts every freaking month. I'm talking like signed stuff from Jay and I, lives. You just never know what kind of surprise you're gonna get. It's like a Cracker Jack box. I love the community that we've built over there at Patreon. If you are already a Patreon member,

I freaking love you, dude. Thank you so much. You guys are my babies for life, my writers. If I could, I would literally make out with each and every one of you. I love you guys so much. And that's a lot of kisses, actually. Gotta go, bye.

Is this thing on? What's up, you sexy motherfuckers? Welcome to another episode of Dumb Blonde. Today, this man has built an empire, pushed the boundaries of independent rap, and outworked nearly everybody in the game. Mr. Tech N9ne is in the house. Happy to be here, mama. Dude, I'm so stoked you're here. I had a bucket list, and it was Dolly Parton, Joyce Meyers, and Tech N9ne. Whoa.

I've done Dolly. I haven't done Joyce yet. And then I finally got you here. So I'm just like so stoked. I know. You're a busy man. Oh, yeah. Got to keep it that way. You know what I mean? Time waits for no man. Ever. My dad always says, Rolling Stones gather no moss.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I've always lived my life by that. But I finally, now that I've gotten a little bit older, have learned how to kind of slow it down a little bit. Yeah. We were just talking about vacationing and taking some time for yourself. Yeah. I'm going to go to Monaco and see the Harry Bush ladies that you were telling

me about that. They might not be alive now. They're pretty old. Tech was telling me he just went to Monaco and I was like, or he told me he went to Ibiza or something. I was like, did they have any nude beaches? And he's like, no, but we did go to one in Monaco. Yeah, we went to one in Monaco. It's always really old people that are free. It's not like on the movies you see it's all young people. Listen, the geezers have no shame.

All right. And I think once you hit that age, you're allowed to just let it, you let your freak flag fly. And the dudes are never ends. We always see the dudes from the back, you know? Man. Just ass on the knees. It's like a place like right on the nude beach where you can sit down and eat and drink, you know what I mean? And people are like walking by, you're like, what? Who the fuck is eating on a nude beach? Us. You know what? I can't, I,

I can't even talk because I used to go to swingers clubs in Vegas and eat the fucking buffet there. Well, let me tell you something about strip clubs. You know, strip club food? Yeah. I used to eat strip club food. You know, they have chefs in there making those steaks. Yeah, so I used to, I grew up in Vegas, so I used to work in the strip clubs in Vegas and some of them would have five-star restaurants where we would have to wear like gowns

to go sit with our guests in there. Right. Food was fucking fire, dude. It's an establishment. Yeah. They gotta have the right food. I just feel like a nude beach, you know, with just all the bush flying around would be a little weird. That's exactly what you'll see. Bush. Bush.

But you see no young folks, no people in shape. I'm talking about this is my experience, what I've seen over the years. Yeah. Because I'm usually with people that say, hey, man, let's go to the new beach. I'm like, you don't want to see the new beach. Please, come on, let's go to the new beach. Okay, let's go. Chuck's like, you know what? You don't got to twist my arm. You don't want to do it. It's not what they think. The ones I've seen. Yeah, yeah. I've seen one...

What's that place over there, Travis? Where St. Thomas and it starts with an M. St. Martine. St. Martine. There you go. I've seen one in St. Martine. Oh, we're going. We were actually going to go there for my birthday. See, we got to go. Hmm.

The nude beach is calling me. So they have one in St. Martin? Yeah, we call it. I'm black. They call it St. Martin. Oh, I don't know. Is it Martin or Martin? I don't know. It's spelled like Martin. Oh, okay. I see. I might be pronouncing it wrong. We were in St. Martin. I'm not with the bougie shit, so I don't know. I've never been there, so it could be St. Martin too. That's all good. A lot of people call it St. Martin. We call it St. Martin. Sorry. So did you go to the nude beach there?

I'm curious. We were at the place eating that's off the beach. Okay. You're always eating at these nude beaches, Tech. I'm seeing a pattern here. That's funny. I'm Scorpio, but it has nothing to do with that. It's usually people with me. I know it sounds like an excuse. It's just me just zeroing in on the nude beaches. No, no, no.

people with me that I take on tour with me. They're like, hey, they got a nude beach. I'm not just touching down like, where are the nude beaches? Listen, I am. I'm that person. So it's okay. No shame. But if you want to see it, you know what I'm saying? You go see it. It's not what you think. Yeah. All right. From what I've seen. Maybe...

Somewhere in Dubai is different. I don't know. Maybe in Africa is different. I don't know. Have you been to Dubai yet? Nope, not yet. I haven't either, but I heard the women out there are just to die for, like just beautiful, gorgeous. Yeah. I found mine in Puerto Rico. There you go. I love how much you love your girl. Yeah, man. Every chance you get, you get to give her flowers. 10 years. We got married in our 10th year.

Oh my gosh. I love that. So you guys just recently got married? Yeah, July 20th. Oh, congratulations. Yeah, we're newlyweds, man. I love that. But I think a lot of people, you know, the song said, why do fools fall in love? People just, only fools rush in and this, that, and the other. Yeah. I think...

What I learned from being married before, when I was 22 and I had those two babies at 22, we were talking about earlier. Yep, and we're going to get into all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we got married, of course, because we loved each other, but it was for our baby. She's like, I want to have a baby. I don't want to have a baby out of the wedlock type of thing. You know what I'm saying? We got married. But what I learned from then to now is,

Because I think that people don't take time with each other, you know, to date each other. And then, you know, it takes time to move in. Some people just jump right in. Yeah. And we don't find out about each other. Mm-hmm.

You know what I'm saying? In a short period of time, like you should. No, you did it right. You did it right. Different chemical levels and stuff, you know what I'm saying? That happened. Masks come off. Not just with women either. I'm just talking about with men as well. You know what I mean? You don't know if motherfuckers are crazy. You don't know nothing. You don't know what happens when she's PMSing. You don't know none of this shit. You know what I'm saying? If you don't put time...

and learn how to deal with it and not fight negative with negative. You know what I mean? I didn't know that when I was younger. Yeah. You have to learn your person. Jay and I actually got married 30 days after meeting each other. And the first three years of our relationship, I don't know how we made it. Like I talk about it on the podcast all the time. Like it was so toxic because it was two people who,

two fucking strangers who from two different backgrounds, I'm a Vegas girl, he's a Nashville boy trying to figure out life together. And you know, if I could go back and do it again, I would wait to get married and just kind of, you know, learn each other because people don't do that anymore. Like it literally people, everything is like we're in the microwave era. So it's like everybody wants everything now, you know? Right. Right. I heard somebody snoring and I saw the dog. Yeah.

He's right here. In my mind, I was looking around like, who the hell is asleep right now? He's the co-host. I didn't want to lose contact with you, but I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, who the hell is snoring? He's literally the co-host. I said, I know that ain't Travis. No, it might be. He's...

He's literally over there alone with all your boys, fool your friends, fun and parties. Yeah. He's literally grown up in this chair. So he'll sit here the whole podcast, but you'll hear him snoring every once in a while. You'll see me shake him. So the snore doesn't come through. It's his house. So the snore doesn't come through. And he's comfortable with your voice. You know, he's comfortable. That's my baby. So Tech, I have done for the past few days, nothing but research you and you. He's like, okay.

He got nervous. It's a lot. No, it's, you know what? Did you find the drugs and the liquor? I found all of it. And the women all over the world, did you find all of it? I'm telling you. Something I had to grow out of. I'm telling you though, I think you have such a testimony and it really makes me understand you more. It makes me understand the music more and I just want to take all,

all of my listeners on that journey with you. Yes, ma'am. Because it's really a beautiful ride that you've been on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you have worked your ass off to be where you're at. Totally. I mean, I think it's just so cool, the shit that you've gone through and that you've risen from. When you know you have something special inside, it don't matter how many...

obstacles are in your way. Yeah. Because you push them out of the way. Yes. And people that try to create the obstacles because they don't understand, you'll look back and they'll all be shaking your hand. I didn't mean to make that rhyme, but... No. It's just you're a poet and didn't know it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But...

No, it's so real. So let's bring it back to your growing up in Kansas City. You grew up on the Missouri side, correct? Yes, I did. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Take me on that journey with you and your family and kind of like your upbringing and your background. Yeah. My family, Christians, hardcore Christians. We live with my grandmother. My mother, her brothers and sisters lived in a house in...

in the projects 904 michigan and uh wayne minor projects you know what i mean and uh i couldn't really listen to rap music in that house it was all gospel but i found rap next door at the reese's house next door my uncle ike and all them i was i was crazy about hip-hop early on so at a young age you just knew that that was like instilled in yourself i was i was born in wayne minor

From birth till 10 years old, we moved away. So from birth to 10, I was there in Wayne Minor and I found so much music outside of my house. But what really stuck with me was the hip hop that was coming from next door. Do you think that was because you weren't allowed to listen to secular music growing up?

I never thought about it like that. I just thought it was something that really made my hips hop. You know what I'm saying? Hip hop is about dancing. When you think about a hip hopping, you're dancing. And I was a dancer before I was writing rhymes. So...

I always wanted to do Michael Jackson and this is way after Wayne Minor though, but I wanted to, you know, do whatever dances I saw outside, you know, from the older people around me. When did you get into dance? Was that at a young age or was that after 10? I remember fourth grade, my mom buying me breakdance clothing, you know, loose breakdance clothing with white gloves and everything and shoes and

And me being in the talent show, pop locking to a song called Scorpio by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Scorpio, because I was a Scorpio. I guess I was aware. I really liked the song Scorpio, Mama, I Want to Dance to Scorpio. I can't even picture that right now, being in fourth grade, saying, I want to dance to Sugarhill Gang, Scorpio. I love it, though. I was doing Like a Virgin at five, so it's okay. Oh, Like a Virgin. Yeah, yeah. I got in trouble. Yeah.

Listen, Madonna was huge in the 80s, okay? Yeah. In Wayne Minor, I was trying to kiss at five. So I read about that. And if you could take me on this journey. So you grew up in this really religious household. Your grandma was very religious. And you had that spiritual influence on you or religious influence. Yes. But you had cousins that took you to a drive-in theater. No, that was my Uncle Ike. Okay, Uncle Ike. That was my Uncle Ike. Uncle Ike. Oh, you're talking about him.

How about Uncle Ike? Uncle Ike is my savior, I swear. You know what I mean? He's still here today. Oh, awesome. I love that. He took me to the drive-in show with him and his friends on a weekend. And I was so young. I was five. I was so young that they put me on the ground under their feet with...

like a rug or a towel over me or something on the floorboard and they had their feet on my back to get me in they got me in i remember they let me up they say dantez that's my middle name dantez you know i'm saying they call me donnie for short like uh donnie people gonna laugh i don't know my name is donnie you know but uh they say um donnie don't piss yourself now when you see what comes on the screen i'm like what are you talking about and it was uh it was uh

Triple X movie, and I remember it being Tarzan and Jane. And Jane just kept getting fucked by these gorillas. But you're five. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I mean, Uncle Ike, what the hell's going on? He was young, too. Oh, okay. I get it. So he didn't realize. Uncle Ike is like 62 now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was young, too. You know what I mean? So...

To see that at five. It was traumatizing. Right. Because I remember it starting off and everything. I didn't know what was going on. I'm talking about they were showing it going in and out and everything. I remember it like- At the fucking drive-in movies? Yeah, it was Triple X. I had Cinderella at mine. At Triple X. You know what I'm saying? That's crazy. After a certain time at night, they would show-

Maybe it was Fairyland Drive-In. I don't know. I forgot which one we went to because I was so young. Yeah. What a different time of life, right? Yeah, yeah. They showed XXX films after a certain time, right? You don't know? Yes! Even Travis... Oh, damn. Well, we

We're going to look into that. Yeah. I was there. No, I believe you. I'm talking about like at the drive-in, the big screen, they snuck me in. You know what I mean? I know. And I 100% believe you. I just feel bad because at five, that's got to be a lot to take in. They were creating a sexual monster. Right. Yeah. Exactly. I didn't know it. Right. You know what I'm saying? Paired with the Humphrey Bogart.

on TV, you know what I'm saying? Here's looking at you, kid, and kissing and all that kind of thing. You know, I was trying that at five. Right. You know? Well, you're acting out what you were learning, you know? Yes. You didn't know. Nobody told you like, hey, this is wrong or hey, you're not supposed to feel these things or, you know. They influence from what I see, you know? Absolutely. And that, I didn't piss on myself like they said, you know? Sweet boy. But I remember,

I remember Tarzan being upset that Jane kept on wanting to go out into the jungle and get fucked by the gorillas. What a memory. What a memory. Do you feel like you took that with you through life, though? How would I remember this? To tell it? No, I would never want...

To be fucking in the jungle? I don't know. He's like, no, no, no. But I mean, like, the possessiveness is what I mean. Like, you know how, like, you said Tarzan was possessive. Never, never have. They said Scorpios are jealous. That's never been me. Really? I've never been jealous. You know, in my time before I hung my player jerseys up like tapestry, you know, I used to share...

women with my fellow friends. Yes. You know, they're like, she was with me first, but if, you know, cause sometimes people on tour, they love the circus. Oh, I know. Yes. I've been on tour with all the boys and all the people in it. Even the bus driver.

Really? The bus driver was getting action? No, I ain't telling on no bus driver. I'm saying just in general, even the bus driver, from what I've witnessed, nobody is left unsatisfied unless they don't want to. Right, of course. Of course, all consensual. Yeah.

That's the only thing about podcasts. It turns into an interrogation sometimes. No, no, no. Never, never, never. No, no, no. Not from you. I'm long-winded. Oh, no. You're totally fine. I love it. But I was saying, to finish what I was saying, I would share back then. You know what I mean? I was never a jealous Scorpio when I'm dating a woman or whatever. But it taught me later on.

When I found my maturity mid-40s, it took a while. Yeah. I always say I met a morph. I met a morph. And that morph that I made in my life was maturity. And...

that's when I started feeling like I didn't want to share that energy with everybody anymore. It was a tour that I went on with JL and Joey and all these artists that we had on the label that they saw me breaking up with all my women all over the world. You know what I mean? Like I found somebody, I want to try something different. You know, I never seen these women again. They were coming for just one thing and it wasn't for a tech nine show. Right. You know? Yeah. And, uh,

It happened later on in my life, like I say, at 45, you know, respecting myself and feeling like,

I didn't want to share that with everybody anymore. Like this dick ain't, this dick ain't, this dick ain't for free. You know, Kendrick said, you know, and not that you can pay for it and get it. I'm just saying. I mean, if they could, it's all right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So let's circle back to your childhood. Your dad was absent in your life, but he was LAPD. Yeah. Carlton Cook, rest his soul, LAPD.

What was your relationship like with him? I seen him every 10 years throughout my life. You know, because, you know, my mom was 16 when she had me. And I guess my dad had several women in town, you know, and she was one of them. And I remember seeing him when I was like six. I rode on his, I rode on his, I remember riding on his motorcycle with him in the projects. Yeah.

Then he moved to LA. I didn't see him for some years. I seen him again when I was 14. He would have parties at his mom's house in the hood when he came home. They would celebrate Cook coming back home. And I would see him having different ethnicities of women on the couch waiting to meet him upstairs while he's fucking with somebody upstairs. One would come down and the other one would go up. I watched it all night.

You know, this is when I was 14. Atomic Dog was out at the time. I remember, you know, sneaking in the kitchen and drinking some of the liquor and stuff like that. Bad kids, dude. You know, and I saw women crying, leaving, crying. You know what I mean? But after that, I didn't see him for another long time. I think I became Tech N9ne within that 10-year period. I remember him saying something to me like on the phone. He said, hey, man.

Another 10 years is coming up. We got to see each other, you know. That had to be hurtful as a child, though, to like, you know, I don't know how you handled trauma or pain as a child, but, you know, most people would be like, you know, kind of resentful that their dad wasn't a part of their life. It wasn't my life. No? It wasn't my life because I had my uncles. I had my aunties. I had my mom. Yeah. I never did. I never did anything.

feel a way about my dad because I felt like later on I understood where my mom stood with him. Right. It doesn't make it okay. Right. You know, he never taught me how to drive or, you know, how to do things the men, but my uncles did. You know what I'm saying? They taught, tried to teach me a lot of things that they could, you know. Right. But I never felt a way about my dad at all. I don't know why. Maybe because you never. I was always happy to see him. Yeah. Carlton Cook, he's always, he's,

He was a gangster to me. He was always tough, you know. And I had brothers that were older than me, Poochie and Cortez a little bit younger than me, you know, Sister Marvella and El Reese and all these kids out in Cali that I didn't meet until 93, you know, when I got my first deal with

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, all this stuff is intertwined in my story. Yes, absolutely. And we're going to get there. We're still focusing on baby tech right now. Yeah, baby tech. Well, I saw a lot of things, you know what I mean? But I only saw my father in certain periods of my life, you know? So let's zero in on your mom a little bit here, because I know your mom's a huge influence in your music and in your life. And, you know,

Growing up in a household with her wasn't easy because she did have epilepsy. And also, was she diagnosed schizophrenic? That was later on before she died, yes. Okay. That was later on in her life. But early on, she had her first seizure when she was 18. Waiting for my father to come pick her up for prom, he stood her up. And she had her first seizure. That's what my aunties told me. Yeah. Yeah.

So I think I do need water. Go ahead. Take a sip. So growing up with a mom who, you know, was going through, you know, having epilepsy and then, you know, your father not being there all the time, your mom did get into another relationship that was somewhat abusive and you guys had to leave. Can you take me on that journey where you guys were moving around trying to get away from her ex at the time?

That's Charles Wade. That was during my third grade period. Okay. Third and fourth grade, I think. I love how you, I wasn't laughing. I just love how you just can remember everybody like first and last name. Like it's like. Oh, I lived it. Yeah. And I had to hear them fighting in the next room. And, you know, my dad moved away and we moved away from Wayne Minor when I was 10 in the 50s, 59th and School Parkway.

And that's when she met Abul Hasan Rasul Khalifa. There was a couple of boyfriends in between there, a guy named Nuge. I remembered he had a, he was really, he always had on really good cologne. He had a George Washington afro, you know, big back here. I remember Nuge. They probably like, how does he remember these things? Because I would be in the car with him when we're going places. You know, Nuge, she dated Nuge for a while. And then I guess she met Hasan around that time. She wasn't dating Nuge anymore. Yeah.

And she married him when I was 12. She married Abul Hasan Rasul Khalifa. So my Christian mother, my devout Christian mother, had so much love for a man that she married a Muslim. Wow. And, you know, Muslims and Christians have been having quarrels since day one, you know, when in actuality both worship the same God.

One God, you know? Yeah, Allah. Yeah. Allah is just an Arabic word for God. It's just a different language. Yes. But the Christians at the time thought Allah was a man. We won't get into that. Yeah. You get to talk about God being a man and the universe. I don't want to...

piss anybody off no you're fine i mean we talk about everything on this podcast but so that he wasn't the abusive relationship that she was not charles wade was so charles wade when i was in third grade yeah man he was so you had to witness that you know amongst having your dad you know in and out of your life yes you know dealing with the sexual stuff and then having wade was a gangster he had gangster white walls on his cadillac he had gold tooth

I was real close with his son, Chucky. I talked to him every once in a while still. I think he lives in Texas. I love that you keep in contact with him. He was a barber. He was in jail. He was a barber as well. I mean, he was a barber. His father, Charles Wade, he's still alive. He found me because I found Chucky on tour. People's like, yo, brother, I was in jail with your brother, Chucky. I'm like, ah,

Charles Wade Jr. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Me and Chucky were always cool, though, because we were kids, you know. But his dad was turnt up, you know. And I'm veering off because I was talking to Chucky later on in my life. His dad got my number and called me and asked me for a pickup truck. I hung up.

It's just crazy to me that you can traumatize a child like that and hurt a woman like that and then circle back years later and be like, hey, can you get me something? Yeah, he got his karma after beating my mama at her job. He went up to a gas, a KPNL gas service where she worked downtown Kansas City and got her outside and beat her up to where she, he busted her head and all kinds of things and put her in the hospital, you know? Oh my gosh. Shortly after that, he robbed a bank and got 25 years.

So good. He did get his karma. And he got caught because they said he, on the scene of the crime, he drank a sun kiss and dropped it. And left his DNA. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What an idiot. Yeah.

Talk about karma, though, coming around. That's a good story I heard. I'm sure he's probably like, that ain't true. Got him. Craving your next action-packed adventure? Audible delivers thrills of every kind on your command, like Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, where a lone astronaut must save humanity from extinction, narrated with stunning intensity by Ray Porter. From electrifying suspense and daring quests to spine-tingling horror and Rome

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Whatever your stage, businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash listen. So, you know, you and your mom finally get away from him and mom marries a Muslim. Yes. Take me on this journey because how was that adjusting to having a new dad 24-7? It wasn't about...

having a new dad all of a sudden because you know I never really had one you know right right right that was constant it was about coming from a Christian background and home to a Muslim home with no more bacon no more sausage no more Christmas no more nothing that's right oh so they don't celebrate Christmas I didn't know that either no no no we wouldn't do it on it I would have to go to my

Christian family to have Christmas and all that. That was hard for a 12-year-old, you know? Yeah. And Hasan was nice to me, but I missed it as a youngster, like we all do. Him trying to make me a stronger kid and not a mama's boy who still had his mama ironing his clothes at 12, you know what I mean? He started making me do everything.

You know, if I was washing the dishes after, you know, a get-together or something we would have at our house, if there was one, he would check the dishes, and if there was one speck on a bowl, he'll dump all the dishes back in there and make me do all of them again, you know, until late, you know. I thought that was mean. He was trying to show me and toughen me up, you know, show me a different way of being independent as a human being, you know. Right. And 13 came...

14 came. I'm fucking up in school. I'm skipping school. When do gangs come into play with you? Say that again? When do the gangs come into play with you? Well, when she married Hassan, we moved on 58th and Forest. That turned into a blood neighborhood. Right. You know, in the 80s. Yes. And these were all of my friends. These are all the people I went to school with.

These are people that I'm still connected to in my later years. Yes. My friends, my brothers had nothing to do with gangs back then. It had everything to do with pop locking. Right. You know, battling on the street. And then in 85, it stopped and it turned the 37th Street Fruit Town brim from L.A. Him and his brothers moved in our neighborhood. Got you. You know what I'm saying? So that's where that happened. But...

In those years, 13, 14, 15, 16, I'm in school, fucking up, got in trouble, dating white girls at school, skipping parties at the white girl's house I was dating at the time. Tech, a womanizer? No way. When did the womanizing start? I don't know.

At five, I was trying to kiss. Yeah. But I mean, like, when did it really start? Like, at five, I think we all play house and do stuff like that. The first, okay, I'll get, let me see. I can speak freely on here. Of course, yes. And we can always cut anything that you don't want. You ain't got to cut nothing. Okay. You know, I'm spontaneous. I don't care what it is. I love it, yeah. First time I came, I was 12. Mm-hmm.

You know, on 59th and Swole Parkway. Yeah. With a girl named Marlene, you know, she was my age, of course, you know. And it was the craziest feeling ever. And I knew it was supposed to happen because I saw it on the drive-in movie. With Tarzan. I saw, you know, that it's supposed to happen. I remember...

She's saying, what is that? I was like, I don't know, but it's supposed to happen. I remember saying that to her. Did anybody ever sit down and have the birds and the bees talk with you? No. You know what I'm saying? My Uncle Ike was the closest thing. Right. Because he would tell me, Dante, this...

When I'm fucking with now, you know, I'm sticking it to her. I'm like, really? You know what I'm saying? You're like, I don't know what that means yet. At 12, I knew what the hell that was. Right, right, right. So can you, okay, let's pause right there. So seventh grade, something happens in seventh grade with the teacher. Can we go on that journey? Because that's about 12 years old too, right? 13? Well, I was going on 13. Like I said, I was fucking up, 13, 14, 15. Yeah.

She, I won't say no names. Yeah. She was young. She was 21. And whenever, it all started when I showed her a picture of my father as a cop. You know what I'm saying? I had a picture of him in his LAPD outfit. And after that, after class, whenever everybody's leaving out, I'll be in there. And she used to say, Aaron is so cute. Because my first name is Aaron, of course. Aaron Dante Jakes. That's Donnie. Yeah.

Erin is so cute. And she was beautiful, you know? Yeah. And I was like, oh, thank you. But she used to do it every day. Erin is so cute. I'm like, okay. You know, then I got to skip in lunch to go visit her while she's by herself, you know, and I'm just going to leave it at that.

You know, to be safe. Right. But I was in love. Right. Until she got married. But you guys ended up, and we can always cut this too if you want to, but you guys ended up getting caught, right? We got caught by a student walking by. She said she told my sixth hour teacher. No, it wasn't my sixth hour teacher. It was...

Six hour upstairs, Miss Glenn's room was like courtroom class. So whenever something happened in school, they would have to come to court in her class in front of her big student body, you know? Right. So they called me up to court class one day, not knowing what they want to talk to me about. I've never been to court class, you know? And...

Ms. Glenn, she's a black lady. She didn't want no fuck shit. You know what I'm saying? So she said, Erin, there's a student in here. The student was sitting right there that says they walked by Ms. So-and-so's room and saw both of you kissing. And the whole crowd, the whole student body said, ooh. I said, huh?

Why would I be kissing a grown-up? You know, I'm smart. You know what I'm saying? She's like, I saw you, Aaron. I saw you. I said, you didn't see me. I was in lunch. No, you were in there kissing. I said, it's her story against mine. You know what I mean? And they called us to the office and called the teacher to the office too. Yeah. And I was sweating. I bet. Yeah.

And they say her name. This is alarming. And she's like, I would never. With a student, you know, I remember her, you know, like pleading her case and being real serious, you know. And nothing happened. We didn't get in trouble because I didn't tell.

But you guys were having, were you guys having sex? Yes. In the classroom? No. Okay. After school. That's another story. You know what I'm saying? On school campuses though? No, no, no, no, no. Okay. Okay. Call home. See if you can help me after school. Can I help my teacher after school and she'll bring me home. Go to her house.

It's so hard for me to wrap my brain around that because I know coming from a man's point of view, it's like, oh, you got to bag the teacher, the older chick. Like I said, I was in love. Right. But if we switched places and it was a man doing that to a little girl, like, you know, like it's hard for me to kind of wrap my head around that and not be mad at her for what happened to you. Yeah.

I appreciated it. Right. She got married in my eighth grade year. And after that, we didn't talk anymore. You know what I'm saying? After, you know what I'm saying? Because we did our thing before we got busted. You know what I mean? Right. So we didn't talk anymore after being in the principal's office. You know what I'm saying? Out of like... Well, because you guys were being watched, I'm sure, like heavily. So I remember the last day of school...

in eighth grade walking by her room, her classroom. And I walked by, I could see her in my peripheral. She had been married already and everything, changed her name. When I passed the room, I heard a voice say, "Hey." She's like, "You're not going to give me a hug? I'm not going to see you again. You're going to the high school." Yeah. Went and gave her a hug. Never seen her again.

She never tried to reach out to you or anything after that? No. You know, I ran away like years after that, you know what I mean, from home and on a quest to become Technina, you know what I'm saying? Let's dive into your love for horror. That's a dark story. Yeah.

I didn't realize how dark it was. You know, so now it's dark to me. No. It's fucking dark as fuck. But you know what? I think it is. This is why I say you have such a beautiful testimony because like you really are what you rap about. And it's like a lot of people can't say that they are.

I've read my life, you know what I'm saying? And I found that out early on. Quincy Jones, he told me, rap what you know and people will forever feel you. And what I know better than anything is myself, you know? Yes. And I wrote about myself and my stories. And what people have in common and they don't really know is emotion. Right. So I tapped into emotion. That's how I got fans, you know? Mm-hmm.

All my stories are true. Yes, absolutely they are. You know what I'm saying? It's your testimony. Except when you get to Black in the Sun and it turns into imagination, you know what I'm saying? Nipples and noodles and all that kind of shit trapped in the psycho's body. It has a bit of imagination in there, you know what I mean? Yes. But it comes from a place. Yes. I don't blame my teacher for...

for anything that's happened to me in my life because I didn't look at it as molesting because I was in love. You know what I'm saying? But in truth, it is. And she groomed you. Yeah. And I mean, I'm sorry, but a 21-year-old looking at a 13, 14-year-old like that is predatory. There's no, but I already came at 12, though, with Marla.

with Marlene. Right. No, and I get that. And I love that you, you know what I'm saying? But I love that you didn't internalize it as being molested, you know, but responsibly, I have to say, you know, like if that was a man doing that to a little girl, we would all fucking lose our minds. You know, I heard stories later on that I wasn't the only one. See what I'm saying? It's predatory. It's very predatory. I heard some of my homies say, you know,

So-and-so hit two. I'm like, huh? What? She was just getting it in. Yeah, that's what I heard. I don't know. The fact that they even still let her work at the school is just wild. Like I said, she was 21. Yeah. Well, but what I'm saying is like after you guys got caught and them still letting her work there, that would never fly this time. Because it was written off like...

That student was just talking some shit. Right. Yeah, absolutely. And they didn't see that. Yeah. They seen me give her a hug or something. Yeah, for sure. You know what I mean? I don't recall what we said, but whatever we said, it was like,

Okay. Yeah. You know. Well, let's switch gears to a lighter subject. And let's talk. No, it's cool. We can go dark as much as you want to. We're going to go through phases. So let's talk about your love for horror. You got introduced to it by your mom. My Christian mama. That blew my mind whenever I read that. She was so cool. I miss her so much, man. She was so cool.

Maudie Sue Yates before she became Maudie Sue Yates Khalifa, you know, let me see. I was born in 71. She took me to go see Carrie in 76. Yes. You know, Halloween, Halloween premiered in Kansas City in 78. I was there. She took me. Yes. My Christian mama took me to, you know, Kansas City.

has haunted houses around late September, October, Halloween. We have Main Street Morgue. We have Dr. Deadly's. We used to have Dr. Deadly's haunted hospital. The Edge of Hell. We still got the Edge of Hell. The Beast. All these haunted houses for, you know, attractions for people who like the darkness, you know?

She took me to all that when I was young. That's amazing to me because I grew up strict Pentecostal and we were not allowed to listen to secular music, anything that had to do with Halloween. It could never partake in it. Like, so that was really cool of her to let you be able to experience some sort of like. I remember her dating my uncle Ike's friend, Daniel Whitney, and him being the one taking us to this haunted house, Main Street Morgue. Mm-hmm.

And I remember us walking in. I was young, young, man. You know what I'm saying? I keep on going back to five. A lot of shit happened when I was five, dude. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Really early on. I remember walking into Main Street Morgan. When you come in, you turn right and you go up some stairs. They had a black light. I didn't know what a black light was when I was young. And I looked at their faces and their eyes were glowing and their face looked crazy. And it kind of scared me.

But I appreciated it because I was already going to the movies and stuff like that. You know what I mean? On the scary tip, my mom showed me all the things that scared me as a kid, like clowns at the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus or the Arrow Rat Shrine Circus. Mm-hmm.

She took me to all that. I had a fear for clowns when I was younger. Do you think that's why you wore face paint later on in life? Yeah. Because it was like embracing a fear. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. Yeah. I became everything that Mardi Su, Yais Khalifa showed me. Her having epilepsy.

You know, when she married Hassan, when she started having seizures, he put her in a psychiatric ward and my Christian family hated him for it because we've dealt with it since she was 18 and she never had to go to a psychiatric ward. So he thought that was the best thing for her because after you have a grandma seizure, the after effects is you talking out of your mind. You know what I'm saying? So I used to have to come visit her there at Western Missouri when Menorah had one off 63rd.

Research Psychiatric Center, all of them in Kansas City. I went to go visit my mom. Wow. And when they see me wearing hospital scrubs on stage, you know what I mean? All that, the clown, the hospital scrubs, the darkness, all that. The nut house. Lyrically, Michael Myers and all that kind of shit.

It's from Marty Suyej Khalifa. It created Tech N9ne. Thank you, mama. You know what I'm saying? Because it saved my life. Everything I built from her and her pain,

I internalized that shit and turned it into Tech N9ne, you know what I mean? And when people come to my house now and they see my clown shrine with all the Michael Myers stuff and all the, you know, I have Reagan, like a life-size Reagan from the Exorcist right there. It says, "Sorry, we dead" on her hand. She's holding up a sign that says, "Sorry, we dead."

I have this in my house and people like, what's up with all this devil shit? I said, it ain't devil shit. My mom taught me early on when I was younger that these toys, these dark toys that you see, don't think of them any other kind of way than you think of your G.I. Joe toys or your Star Wars toys. Or when you see Barbie and Ken, it's plastic and you can't give it any energy at all.

at all and people believe that you can, that you'll have dark energy in your house. And when you look at my shrine, that's Maudie Sue Yates Khalifa right there. And it reminds me her birthday is October 26. She's in that kind of fall kind of feel. So when the fall comes and Halloween, it's just a reminder of my mom. I became the clown.

Painted my face early on in 94. I painted my face for the first time. You know what I mean? I got my face painted, that is. And now when you see the clown with the red nose on a stage, the mask I use now, you know, is just what that clown, what that paint and that clown in my head has transformed into. And it gets worse and worse over the years. You know what I mean? Not within me, though. I just...

know what that darkness feels like of my mom being in a psychiatric ward and having the seizures and seeing her busting her head wide open from falling out on the floor and hitting her head on the bathroom. I mean, the bathtub, you know what I mean? I've seen the puddles of blood, her laying in them, getting beat up, all that stuff. Mm-hmm.

I know what that darkness is. Yeah. So I make the clown look like something hideous like that. You know what I mean? You turned your trauma into triumph. Yes, I did. Is pretty much what you did. I did the same thing, but in a different way, not with the clowns and stuff like that. But it's like you alchemized your pain. And that's so beautiful that you were able to have that triumph

consciousness to do that instead of letting it consume you. Or drive me crazy. Right. You know what I mean? Did you ever fear that you would end up in a place like your mom if you let it consume you? No, I never felt like I would end up in a psychiatric ward because I've always been super cerebral. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like a thinker, you know? I've always been so...

Thoughts and stuff like that, that I always feared having an aneurysm or something, you know? Yes. Because it never stops. Right. Sometimes I have to do mantras to go to sleep to make it stop, you know? Right. But...

I never thought I would end up in a psychiatric ward. I wanted to be a psychiatrist. To figure people out. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I wanted to understand a lot of things. You know, I studied serial killers early on in school. You know, I bought books. You know, Manson and Ted Bundy and, you know, saying the 44 caliber killer. You know what I'm saying? It's all these things I studied because my mom said I was her angel sitting down to help people, you know? So I wanted to...

Find out about my opposition, which would be evil because I am angel. You know what I'm saying? What I got right there, you know? And I never thought I would lose my mind.

And I never lost my mind. I don't think I lost my mind. Travelers would know if I lost my mind. Not intentionally. Maybe on a party night. Maybe some things I do in life, you're like, what's going on in his brain? But I ain't never lost my mind. Right, right. Gotcha. So can we talk about, I read somewhere that you have an obsession with the number nine and the birth of Tech N9ne. Did that come from that? When I got my name in 88 from the gangster named Black Walt, um,

I didn't have a name when I wrote my first three-verse rhyme, you know what I'm saying? The new breed. My first rhyme, I was just going with my middle name. D-O-N-T-E-Z-Z. I didn't have nothing, you know? So...

He was in a group called Black Mafia. He had Mac-10, not Mac-10 Ice Cube. This is Kansas City. Oh, I was like, I love Mac-10. Mac-10. Not that Mac-10. Backyard. That's my brother too, though. Love that. This was a Mac-10 early on in Kansas City, you know, before Mac-10 came out, you know. Right. The OG. Yeah. The original. We started calling them Shorty Mac, you know what I'm saying, later on in life, you know what I'm saying. Gotcha. But, yeah.

When they heard me do New Breed, my three verse rhyme, my first three verse rhyme, they were like, man, we got to find you a name, bro. Black Mafia, man. We already got one gun. Let me look in the guns and Elmo books and try to find you another one, you know? And they looked at Uzi, you know what I'm saying? It's like, nah, now you got a little Uzi Vert, you know? Yeah, yeah. 12 gauge. Because you spit like an Uzi though, huh?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're trying to find something. 12 gauge. I'm like, no. And then 12 gauge is a loaded gun. And I'm done by now. So shake that donkey butt and them big old legs. I ain't too hard to beat. People got that too. We went AK-47. No, no, no, no. We went through the whole book and there was nothing in there. We didn't find anything. But it was a picture of a Tech N9ne on the back. He's like, Tech N9ne?

He said, because the way you spit, you know, I'm like, okay. He said, that's going to be your name until we find something else. But the way we spelled it, T-E-C-H was short for technique. And after I started studying numerology, I found out that nine was the number of completion. Nine months completes a pregnancy. They said cats have nine lives. After nine, there's nothing else like it. It's double and triple or whatever. Yes. You know what I'm saying? I became the complete technique of rhyme. Tech nine, technique number nine. You know what I'm saying? Everything to be able to.

I'm rooted in rap, but be able to adjust to any musical situation. You know what I mean? And your fan base shows that. Yes. Your fan base. You have metal fans. You have juggalo fans. Yes, yes, yes. You have hip hop heads. Yeah, I got gangsters. I got all of it. You've got it all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It covers every... That's how I wanted it to be. I wanted to make Tech N9ne the MC that can do anything. Yeah. Everything.

When you first started rapping, was it always so fast or did you have to develop that style? Because your brain has got to fire at a different frequency. That's from years of practice doing it. But when I first started, one of my first rhymes was,

So that's why they said, what did I say? So that's why they said, it was like going like, you know what I'm saying? And I attribute that to

listening to Slick Rick. People like, Slick Rick didn't rap like that, but he'd be like, around this part of town with diamonds in your girl in front. I'm trying to enter in this rap thing because she having stuff. It's like he would do a little Jamaican toasting, like, don't worry about a thing because Rick is bringing home the goods. I'm like, that's dope. So I turn that, don't worry about a thing, don't

Don't worry about a thing. It's like Jamaican. Don't worry about a thing. Don't worry about a thing. Don't worry about a thing. It turned into chopping, you know what I'm saying? And when I say that to people, they're like, wow. You know what I'm saying? It was just like, don't worry about a thing. Don't worry about a thing. It was like, that's how I started rhyming, you know? It's almost like gibberish, kind of. Like a form of it. Well, no. Okay. Not when you're speaking of Tech N9ne, because I...

pride myself on clarity while speeding. Right, right, right. But it's like the double time is like how they do it in gibberish, correct? Or no? I don't really know. I think they call it bebop. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Bebop. That's why Quincy Jones signed me in 97. He said, your style reminds me of bebop. But I think that's what you mean by gibberish. Well, there's a language, right? Is it pig Latin or gibberish that I'm thinking of where they double up the words? Do you guys know what I'm talking about?

Pig Latin. Okay. Yeah. Usually gibberish means you can't hear it. Oh, gotcha. Okay. I thought, well, I thought it was called gibberish, but maybe it's like another word for pig Latin. Yeah. It's gibberish though. But, um, so pig Latin where they like double up the words is what I'm saying. Either way, it's fascinating how you fucking do it because it's like, I, I just, I don't know how somebody's brain can just fire on

Me either because that signal from your brain to your tongue takes work. It's hard. No, it's insane. It's hard. When I'm writing...

You know, I have to put it on a dictaphone recorder to see if it works. Yeah. To see if the words work off of each other. You know what I mean? When I'm writing that style, because that ain't the only style I do, but that's one of the ones that people know me from, from a song that I did in 98 called Questions on the Gang Related Soundtrack. Right. And everybody, why do I want to stick them with another hit of Out of Abyss? They want to know who that guy is. So since then, since 98, everybody that wants to

Mostly everybody that wants a song from Tech N9ne wants the chopping. I'm so tired of racing motherfuckers. I can race the best of them. I've done songs with Eminem and Kendrick and everybody. I feel like you're at a point where you don't even need to prove yourself to anybody anymore. You are Tech N9ne. People, the younger generation...

want to race me because they grew up listening to me. They want a song with Tech N9ne. Yeah. So, you know, when I did a song with NF, much love to NF, you know, his fans, when we did Trust, I'm dancing all over that bitch too. You know, it's in that track, you know?

You know, Tech Nene, next king up, everybody knowin' I'm a deaf brain guy, that lingua, back thing, yeah, leaving the rebel record, you know, I'm talking some shit. This is what, I give it such an incredible wicked rush of vivid gush of what, I'm really going, you know. As you should. And his fans, they was like, NF really stood up with Tech Nene, you know what I'm saying? That's something, that's a thing. Yeah. He can hold his own with Tech Nene, you know what I'm saying? So I think a lot of guys coming up

really want to race me at a time where I've raced my whole career. I'm tired of racing motherfuckers. I can do it. You know what I'm saying? Tokens... No, I can't. I can't give it away. You know what I'm saying? Tokens sent me one and we're racing. Yeah? Yeah.

So you're going to let him race you even though you're tired of it? Yeah, I still race motherfuckers. Yeah, but I mean you're tired of it. Of course I'm tired, but I still go if it's worth me going. You're just TTG trying to go. If it's worth me going. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Me and Jelly got songs. I didn't have to race. Yeah. We could just do music. They're very melodic.

Yeah, I can sing. Creature was amazing. Yeah, man, it's like platinum and shit. FU too was amazing. Yeah, EFU, yeah. Which you guys did that in a hospital. Right. The video was in a hospital. Right, yeah, yeah. Easier for you, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. You know, we can do, you know, do you know somebody? And I know somebody. You know what I'm saying? We got to sing and play, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Do you prefer that over having to rap fast? I love writing songs fast.

that people can say. Now, when it comes to technicians, they can say all my shit. I don't see how because it's hard for me. Like a song like "So Dope" "When I sip inside a sick and seductive sin of C" "Something so sinister, sick and something like a centipede" It's like I try to make it to where nobody can do it, the motherfuckers can do it, dude. But I like to do music where I don't have to race everybody, you know?

Ronnie Ratke, for instance. Good old Ronaldo. Ronnie Ratke, I love him to death, man. I do a song. I do the song, the big song we got, you know, called Ronald. Which you did phenomenal in that. Yeah. But I sent him something before that where I'm just...

doing my singing. I'm singing, you know? And he was like, this is dope, man. It's so dope. You know, the first four bars I was singing. So dope. But then some weeks went by. He's like, hey, man, can I talk to you for a minute? I'm like, yeah. He's like,

You're singing at the top of yours, and then when yours is over, I come in singing. Like, to me, it's too much singing, you know? And I said, okay, so I'll go in the studio the next day, and I'll just rap. You know? He said, yeah, let's try that. You know what I'm saying? But before, like, after I hung up, like 10 minutes later, he texted me. He said, how about you just scrap that and just come in shredding? I'm like, ugh.

Well, because Ronnie is still, and this is no disrespect to you, Ronnie. He's one of our friends also. He still has something to prove when it comes to rapping. Yeah, but... He doesn't have the longevity that you do. But I'm going to tell you, that's how I found that motherfucker. Because I was looking for metal choppers and I watched the world burn. I was like, fuck yeah. Yeah. He got it already. He knows how to fucking do it. You know what I'm saying? So...

When he said that, I called X-Rated, one of our artists, and I said, "Man, he want me to change my first four bars." He said, "There's too much singing." He's like, "Man, them motherfuckers, man, they just stare at you, man." Nah, I don't think it's that. I just think it's too much singing. Right. So he changed it. He had me change it and just come in chopping. You know what I'm saying? "What is up with your money? You think the devil is making the crime of the people of evil and never no demon dishonor the opposite of the divine?" No. Yes. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. He was right.

But he wanted me to race. Right. Because that's what he knows from Tech N9ne, from Worldwide Choppers. Right. We put out Worldwide Choppers some years ago, and that motherfucker went platinum. Yes. With like 12 people on it. You know what I'm saying? It was Busta Rhymes on it. It was Twista. It was Yellow Wolf. It was...

Oh, I remember. Usos, JLs, people from Istanbul on it. You know what I'm saying? It's like Cheza, you know, so many people on it. If you could do another Worldwide Choppers with other people on it, what artists would you bring on it? Okay, here's the story. Mimi, can you hit the heat, please? I ain't never said this around Travis, but I got to tell. Travis is in the corner watching. So, I did another Worldwide Choppers, too. Okay. My idea was...

was to get Eminem on it. He did it. Wow. When he sent the verse in, you know, Chris Calico got it before Eminem. We love Chris. I didn't want to listen to Chris Calico verse because I didn't want to be influenced by it. So I never listened to it.

I did my verse without listening to nobody. Wow. I always started off and I send my stuff to people so it can be a greater song. A lot of artists won't do that because they don't want to be outdone. I feel like Eminem say, my spot is forever reserved. I don't give a fuck. If you do better than me, motherfucker, it makes for a better song. That's what I think. I love that.

When we got the Eminem verse, I already had people putting fillers out to get Daddy Yankee on it. I was scared to ask Wayne about Nicki Minaj, but I wanted her on it. That'll be fine. And I had people on it that had never been heard before, like...

Gabby Gab from Atlanta, Georgia, a female rapper with Nicki. You know, so I was going to put females on it. You know what I'm saying? Who else? Oh, I was going for Kool-Aid over in Germany. Mm-hmm.

Travnim said, man, with Eminem, you can't put all those no-name motherfuckers on there. You know what I'm saying? Which I do understand. I do too. From a business point of view, I do understand that. I do too. But if we did, though, I think it would turn out just like Worldwide Shopper's platinum. Speedo with Eminem ain't even platinum. Ain't even gold, I don't think. Right. You know what I'm saying? Because people love it.

But they said, this is not Worldwide Choppers. And I had to lie and say, come up with some shit like, we're the dopest rappers worldwide, motherfuckers. You know what I'm saying? We're the dopest choppers worldwide. You know what I'm saying? They said, okay, we get it. Now they fuck with it. I don't know what the numbers are on the choppers, but you know what I'm saying? It ain't Worldwide Choppers. The Great Rewards Hunt is on, so join the adventure with DraftKings Casino. For fun seekers, follow the trail to huge jackpots, weekly bonuses, and

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168 hours. Terms at DraftKings.com slash promos. Yeah, so you guys never dropped the one with Eminem? Yes, we did. Oh, you did drop it. I've never heard that one. We got some numbers on it. Wow. Like, let me see. What did I see last? On YouTube, the views was like...

28 million or something like that. I don't fucking know. I mean, that's nothing to scoff at. Or 48 million. It was one of them. Yeah. Just on the audio, you know? So it only ended up just being just you and Eminem on the track or a couple other people? It was me, Eminem, and my brother, Chris Calico. Okay, gotcha. So like I said, I never listened to Chris Calico's verse until after I finished my verse and I had my engineer, Ben. We call him Benjineer. Yeah. Yeah.

Let me hear Calico's verse in the studio. I was like, holy fuck. Yes. I love Chris and his wife. I think my label wanted it to just be me and Eminem and I get that. You know what I'm saying? But Chris was my brother. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, okay, if you fucking do something dope and Eminem even said his verse was fucking dope. You know what I'm saying? So when you listen to Speed Em now and we dedicated it to Richie Haven's Rest His Soul, you know, his estate said yes to use freedom. We called it Speed Em, you know, and yeah.

I don't even know why we were talking about that. No, I love that. So we were talking about how you actually became Tech N9ne, where you got your name from. The choppers. We were talking about the choppers. And then how your flow. And how everybody wants me to fucking chop and I'm tired. That's what we're talking about. I'm tired of fucking racing. I love you, Tech. He said, I'm fucking tired. I'm tired of fucking racing, but I will take on. Do you guys hear this man loud and clear? Stop racing. They're not going to stop. No? No.

No, JID just sent me one a few months ago that I still ain't done yet because I got so busy, but I'm still going to do it for him. JID sent me one. He's racing me. Yeah. I'm like, fucking shit. Well, it's not going to stop because you're the greatest. And this could be a long-winded question, but it's not going to stop until you pretty much retire. And do you think you're ever going to retire from music?

Do I think I'm ever going to retire from music? I still... Was that a fart or still snoring? It's him. It's him. It's snoring. Zach! I waved it up. I'm just saying, it's your house. I was like... No! Damn, what'd you eat before you came here, buddy? Listen, I have been with my husband 10 years and he's only heard me fluff one time. I would never be over here just ripping it up, all right? I heard that farting...

in the workplace is considered sexual harassment are you kidding me stop it but it never made any sense to me because i like how is that sexual like is that like an invitation when you want to fuck somebody's like asking a question with a flat why would that be sexual harassment like at work at the getting coffee because people because we are we're

literally in an era where everybody gets a trophy so people will make up shit to be mad about i swear yeah i don't know if it's really indeed you know we'll have to give that a go you can see if it is at the workplace and i suppose before yeah tell that to your dog chachi stop fluffing over he has the silent but deadly ones this guy right here trust me you won't hear it you'll smell it yeah but um yeah they still want to race me uh the younger generation are still contacting me

Want to race. Yeah, for sure. But like I said, they're going to want to race you until you retire. So do you think you would ever retire from music? That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I'm so sporadic. You're okay, baby. Don't worry. I still get excited when I hear dope beats and melodies. Yeah.

I still get excited. Yeah. Because I love music. I used to be a dancer, pop locker, break dancer, all that when I was younger. You know what I'm saying? I still... Can you still do it? Yeah, I can still do it. You know what I'm saying? On one of those tours, on that E-40 tour we went on, I was doing this break dancing song I did called Don't Nobody Want None, you know? And I was...

break dancing every night and I hate myself for it because my knees were dead after that tour. You didn't have knees like Megan. I didn't have no knee pads or nothing just going rogue on the fucking stage. So, but to answer your question, I don't know because I still get excited when I hear good songs like that one I just saw Jelly Doo with his other guys like hallelujah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That fucking swing.

They should do a remix and put Ted on it. That's...

I heard that shit and I heard him do it live at the Super Bowl. That would be fire. At the show with him and Shabuzy. Yeah. I heard him do it. I said, that's the one I heard lately. I'm going to put it in his ear. I'll put it in his ear. Fucking dope. That would be fire to have all three of you guys on a track. Now, you got to do my song first that I sent him already. Okay. Listen, I barely even get to see my damn husband, so I don't know what's going on, but I'll talk to him about that too. You got to do Sacrifice first and then we'll talk about Hallelujah. Gotcha. Yeah.

I got your back, Tech, I promise. Yeah, and I'm not racing on sacrifice either. Yeah, good. So instead of retiring, do you think that you would ever step into maybe a mentor position of kind of like what Jay-Z has done? I always said that maybe when we get to the point of wanting to sell Strange Music or something, I will do stuff to help my artists, you know what I'm saying? And do verses here and there, I don't fucking know, but...

I can't, I don't see that because I'm getting better with my pen. Right. You know. Because you're getting wiser too and you just have so much life experience. Just trying to keep

From saying shit that will piss people off is the hardest these days. Right. I mean, everybody's... You know, when it comes to religion and politics and sexuality and all that kind of stuff. Sexuality, that's not my business. You know what I'm saying? It's like I don't judge people on their sexuality. You know what I'm saying? I never have and I never will. And I don't know why people are so, you know...

on people and their sexuality. But, you know, I get when people say you're doing it on a show where kids are watching and you're kissing a man or whatever and now people are upset. I get that. But at the same time,

I ain't really worried about nobody's sexuality, but as far as religious beliefs and politics and shit, I try to be careful. Right. Because all this shit is gang shit to me. Well, speaking about politics, I mean, Donald Trump pretty much adopted your Red Kingdom anthem. How do you know that?

Listen, I pay attention to it all, baby. How did that feel for you? And we can cut this part off too. No, you don't have to cut it off. Okay. No, you can ask me anything. Yeah, I just, you know, I just always want to be respectful. But, you know, I was wondering. No, I have my kids calling me like, Daddy, you got to say something. You got to, people going to think that's you. I said, people can think what the fuck they want. Right. When you write music and you put it out to the public, they're going to think that's you.

perception of what it means is going to be different. However they perceive that song is how they're going to use it. Right. And when they put it out, you know, when you put it out, you know, that's what happens, you know? And my kids didn't like that. Right. They wanted me to tell people, I don't fuck with dudes that don't mind. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. You can't get into politics because you'll be damned if you do, damned if you don't. All I know, and, you know, all I know is that it's crazy how on that song how the numbers spiked. Yeah.

Oh, because it's literally, it became pop. Like you're already such a huge presence, but it became like pop culture. Yeah. You know, once you hit that pop culture. What was that? Was it an indictment trial or? I forget. Impeachment. Oh, was that what it was for? Okay. I thought it was for his campaign. Yeah. Yeah, they did. They called it riot music and I made it.

For the Chiefs. Right. You know what I'm saying? I say number 58 is DT the Great and we flowing in the dirt. Yeah. Rest in peace. You know what I'm saying? But the hook, Red Kingdom, I had no idea the Republicans were going to hijack my song and turn it into their shit. You know what I'm saying? Listen, the Republicans hijack everything. I had a fucking, what was it that went viral? A sound that went viral that said, I woke up this morning and I feel like trash. But it's French for trash.

I feel like garbage that's French for trash. All the Republicans grabbed that after somebody said something about somebody being trash in Puerto Rico or something. And it went viral. So it's like, that's what happened to your song. And that's why the streams weren't so crazy is because that shit was on Tik TOK. And I'm telling you, it was everywhere. I was like, go tech. I was so excited for you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we, we, we're the kind of, I'm the kind of artist that, um,

I do the music and I go. And I don't look back. And the next thing you know, I got all these fucking platinum and gold plaques coming in. That was a flex. I mean, as you should. But...

I just do the work and then shit pops up. Yeah. You know what I mean? And, uh, let's, let's dial back real quick and let's get into when you got your first record deal in 97. When you, it was 93. Was it 93? Sorry. I'm not looking at my notes. No, it's all good baby. No, 93. I got my first record deal with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis at Perspective A&M. Yes. 93 to 95. Correct. 93 to 95. They let us off in 95.

Started working with Don Juan around that time. I was working with Icy Rock that got me the deal with Jimmy Jimmy Terry Lewis in 93. Icy Rock was a producer of mine. He did It's Alive. He did T9X. He did a lot of songs for me in the past. And after that relationship was kind of damaged, Don Juan came in and Diamond, rest his soul, they wanted to...

see if I could do hood music. I said, I'm from the hood. Cause you know, with Icy Rock, we're doing nuthouse shit, you know? So we're doing the scrubs and you know, my mom, you know, we doing dark shit, you know? And he's like, you doing that crazy shit over there with Icy Rock. Can you do some hood shit?

They gave me the beat to Mitch Bade. I said, I'll be back tomorrow. Have you ever met a nigga who was pie sprung? It's a lot of slinky niggas where I come from. There's another missile catcher just like him. His name is Mitchell Bade. Mitchell Bade. You know what I'm saying? The motherfucker's like, what the fuck? I'm on there like, what up, Mitch? Is it an everyday thing for you to act just like a bitch? How does it feel to have a nigga with a... I forgot how that goes, but I'm like busting on it. That shit went to the...

Fucking top in Kansas City. It was on the radio and everything. Back then it was hard to get radio play, wasn't it? Yes, it was. It was kind of like a cult that you had to get into. That was undeniable, though. They had to play Mitch Bade. Yeah.

And it was a struggle to get songs on the radio in KC for us, for sure. Yeah. Until Mitch Bade. Cloudy Eyed Stroll and Mitch Bade. Mitch Bade was the B-side of my single, Cloudy Eyed Stroll. It was like a really calm song. Right. Mitch Bade was the B-side. Yeah. Cloudy Eyed Stroll was on the radio. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? But Mitch Bade took over. Mm-hmm. Then right behind Mitch Bade, I got with my group, my Blood Homeboys, and we started a group, 57th Street Road Dog Villains. Mm-hmm. And we did a song called Let's Get Fucked Up on radio. Everything we touched. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And this was after your record deal from 93 to 95, or was this during? No, this is after. Okay. This is after 95 when we got released. Gotcha. You know what I'm saying? So with Don Juan... Mm-hmm.

That's when we, in 97, that's when we got the deal with Quincy Jones, Quest and Warner. Right. One thing I respected about reading your situation with the record label from 93 to 95 was that you said that they put somebody...

in a car with you and the dude was telling you that you had to change. Oh, yes. And you were like, no, I'm not fucking changing who I am. And like, you really like stood your ground and was like, no, I know who I am and I'm not changing for anybody. I know there's a name too. His name was Laif Allah. He was from the East Coast. Yes. In 93, he, I guess, you know, protect your neck just came out with Wu-Tang, you know. And he's like, you got to do this, son. Yeah.

You got to do this. You got to do, you know what I'm saying? M-E-T-H-O-D, man. Whatever the fuck. You know what I'm saying? I was like, no, that's them. I got to do me. And that was the tension. You know what I'm saying? Same thing with N97 with Quincy Jones. He wanted me to do whatever I wanted to do, but his...

People who worked at his label wanted me to do like popcorn shit. You know what I'm saying? They wanted me to do this song for the Shaq movies called Steel. He was like Robocop or some shit. And I had a song like, he's strange.

And I like it. He's strange just the way he is. Take a knee now. Take a knee now. What's up? Why you so damn psycho? Couldn't tell you, baby. You know, it was like cookie cutter shit. Right. But I could do it. Right. Produced by Quincy Jones, his son, QD3, the third, Quincy Jones, the third. But at the time I had Tech Night. I had Planet Rock, the Down South remix, you know. I said, I want to start with this one. He's like, nah, it's regional. Nope.

And I'm like, I told Quincy and he started firing motherfuckers. So they hated us up there because he favored us. Right. And I met Travis the next year, the next summer in 98.

So before you met Travis, and we're going to pull Travis in whenever we get to there. Yes. You did something with Death Row and Suge Knight. That was in 98. That was in 98. That was the year I met Travis. Okay, gotcha. But it was 98 when I was out in LA before I went home to KC. Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah.

- Tell me about meeting Tupac and like, I actually have hung out with Suge numerous times. - Yes, me too. - And we can cut this out, I don't know if like-- - No we don't, that's my brother, that's my brother, no, no, no. - Well, I'm talking about for me too though, but 'cause Suge gets such a bad rap

Yes, he does. He's a nice guy. Thank you. I have never told this story on the podcast before, but I used to do cocktails at the Palms and Suge would come in every night. He'd be so fucked up and he would be the nicest dude. I done kicked it with him on several birthdays and everything. He was so nice. Like he never was disrespectful to me. He was like my homie, dude. And he would tip me all the time. Really good dude. Great human. It's just that you encounter people in the industry, not saying they deserve anything. I'm just saying you encounter friends

fuck shit in the industry. Yeah. And sometimes people handle fuck shit differently. Right. You know what I mean? Right, right, right. I don't know his whole life. Right. What he done to people, but I know when I'm around him and we around all the homies with him and everything, it's all love, all respect. We partied together. He came to my shows. Yeah. Whenever I was in Vegas and San Diego, he would come to my shows. You know what I mean? Just...

Showing love, man. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. What about when you met Tupac? Because you said you've met him on probably like what, four instances? Well, I met him in 93. Okay. No, 92 at Jack the Rapper. It's a musical conference, a music conference that they used to have in Atlanta at the Atlanta Hilton. You know what I'm saying? And I met him in the lobby, right?

He was checking out this stripper, this dancer, had a big old ass. She used to be at the BRE conventions that I went years before. I'd see her all the time. She was a Caucasian girl with a big old ass. We love those.

Pac was standing behind her, you know what I'm saying? I was like, I can just visualize it. Pac was standing behind her, he's like, "I'm black owned, I'm black owned." You know what I'm saying? I guess this is after the riots, you know what I'm saying? He's like, "I'm black owned." And I went up to him and I was like, "Hey, you're Tupac, you can do whatever you want with that." He's like, "Nigga, I'm black owned." Like, what does that mean? You know what I'm saying? And I was like, "Oh, during the riots,

whatever building had black on and nobody would fuck with. So he said he must've got black on written across him because the bitches wasn't fucking with him. You know what I'm saying? So I met him that year. Yeah. 92. Then in 93, I got my record deal with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Life A Law and all of them. I met them the first day there. You know what I'm saying? There's a guy named Jordy, you know what I'm saying, who drove us around and Life A Law was the

guy who was trying to turn us into whatever they wanted us to be they took us to this club after we checked into the la dufe uh you know in hollywood you know and um they took us to this club and tupac was there i went over there hollered at him hollered at mo prim his brother was with him you know i saw him that whole summer we was fucking the same bitches and everything you know what i'm saying just on a rotation yeah man you know what i'm saying it's like

The bitch be at my house, she be crying because Pac said something to her, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I remember like it was yesterday. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That was like such a cool era, you know, because I was in Vegas at that time too. And I was actually in Vegas when Pac was murdered. Yeah. And it was, I remember it was like one of the saddest days. Like it was just such a, it was like an end of an era. The connection is,

was QD3, the producer. He did music for Tupac. Gotcha. And me, and Ice Cube, and Dubsy. You know, a lot of people, you know what I'm saying? Yuck Mouth, you know what I'm saying? The loonies, you know? I got shot nine times. Yeah. I love Yuck Mouth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was the connection, you know what I'm saying? Because, you know, I would see Pac, but we never talked about doing music, but QD3 would talk to him about Tech N9ne, you know what I'm saying? Right.

And he had told me that Pop wanted to work. You know what I'm saying? And when he got killed, QT3 already had a song in mind. You know, because we were already... He was already working on one. He said, I got one. I'm working on it. Then he died. Then like two weeks after he died, QT3 called me. He said, hey man, I got this verse on it. You still want to do the song? I said, fuck yeah, I'll do. Yeah. It was called Thugs Get Lonely Too. It was a version that had...

Prince sampled, if I was your girlfriend, you know, it had that sample and Prince wouldn't have any samples. Yeah. And that's when Prince was still alive too. So for him to even okay that is historical. Maybe he would have did it for Pac. I don't know, but it never came out. It leaked somehow. We didn't leak it though.

I was just so happy it leaked because people think I was lying. Right. Like, dude. That's a piece of history. I kicked it with a nigga for years. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Seeing him in LA, seeing him in Atlanta, you know. So that same year that you're going through all that with Death Row, Travis enters the picture in 98. Yeah, 98. I came back home from LA. I brought that song, Planet Rock, that I wanted to play.

Fucking put out instead of Tekanina, Tekanina, why you so damn psycho, you know? I wanted to put the Down South mix out, so Quincy let us go. Went back to Kansas City, brought Planet Rock back with us, me and Don Juan. We put that shit out. We start playing on the radio. It fucking blew the fuck up, okay? Mm-hmm. So, like I thought it would. Right, right.

He leaves out right when we're about to get to him. And if you need to use the restroom too, we can break too if you want to use the restroom. I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. I'm long-winded. I can stretch it. No, you're good. Even if it has some shit, you know, I can stretch it. But we brought Planet Rock 2K back to Kansas City and it blew the fuck up. It was a fashion show that was being held downtown Kansas City. It was a clothing company called Paradise Originals. My boy Heath and all his buddies. Travis was funding it.

I went down there to the fashion show and I did my song. You want me to jam? I'm finna, you know, brainwaves, pain from the same days, make you sick like bad mayonnaise. Tech N9ne, got the remedy, rhyme, infinity, criminal, leave finna be some shit. I crack you open like the youngest Mel Kennedy. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm really doing Tech N9ne, you know? Yeah. But it's that beat. Tech N9ne. Tech N9ne. You know, it was like that. It was like that shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They said... I get hyphy when he does that. Every time he does that, I'm like, yeah. I get so excited. Right, right, right, right, right, right. Told you I'm animated. No, I love it. Listen, I've been to your concerts before and nobody puts on a show like you. Yeah. Like, it's insane. Travis, you can go ahead and sit on the couch too, baby. But, you know... You're good.

Right before we were here, we had breakfast and the guy taking our order, like, you want coffee? I'm like, no. I can't have coffee. I can't ingest any caffeine. I'm naturally caffeine. If I have caffeine, I'll be up for three days and I need to sleep with my job. Fuck that shit. Never could I have any caffeine. Can't drink no goddamn Mountain Dew, no...

Dr. Pibb, Mr. Pibb, or Dr. Pepper. I'm sensitive to caffeine too. There's no way. Or was it Mr. Pibb? Yeah, Mr. Pibb, Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper, you know what I'm saying? Dr. Pibb, that's disrespectful, dude. I was catching what you were putting down though. So I did that fashion show for Paradise Originals. Travis was funding them, you know what I'm saying, Heath and the boys. The next day, George Forte hit me.

And he said, our boss want to meet you. The boss. Yeah. I said, your boss? He's like, yeah. The guy, you know, makes paradise work. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, oh, okay. Let's go. Took me to his house in Blue Springs and we had our first meeting.

Mr. Travis O'Gwen has joined us on the couch. I'm really excited to get you both together because I think it's very... It's legendary. Yeah, I think this is very rare that I've ever gotten to see you two in an interview together, at least recently. I don't think it's ever happened, to be honest with you. I mean, we always do individual interviews. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't do very many. Yeah. So...

this might be a first. I feel honored. So Travis, I'm happy that you're here. And like we were just saying, I'm so honored that you guys are doing this together because I have so many questions, especially with you guys being like the biggest independent label pretty much in the world. You guys really built something from the ground up. What was, you were already involved in music before you started?

found tech because you were funding the fashion show. Well, so I was actually involved in a clothing company and paradise originals, how we met. I wasn't really into the music business at all. As a matter of fact, I had no experience, no background at all. Wow. And so, um, but, uh, I, I,

When I went to high school, I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood. But more importantly, my school was about 80% black. So I grew up around hip hop my entire life. I mean, from grade school, middle school, and then into high school. So I was always into hip hop. So whenever we wanted to do this fashion show, Tech had a buzz because of those songs that he talked about,

being on the radio and I'm like, okay, yeah, let's do this. Let's, let's, let's find him. Let's get him in there and see if he'll do it. And, and he did, which was awesome. And, uh, but afterwards, like I knew of him and I knew of several of his songs and I always heard about how, uh,

He was about to be the next biggest rapper and everything else. And then after we did the fashion show, I really wanted to talk to him to understand what that journey was because it wasn't a lot of the things that I heard were going to happen weren't happening. So I just wanted to understand why, like, okay, you know, what, what, what, what's your story? And, and he came and he was really, really, really open with me. And he told me every, every,

He told me about the managers that he had, which there was a lot of them, by the way. I think he had like five managers or something. I'm like, damn. And so, and then, you know, all the people that were involved. And at first I was like, okay, well,

You know, he told me about the deal that he had with Quest and how that was through Warner Brothers and he had a publishing deal through Windswept. And it seemed pretty complicated. And at first I thought I could go in and say, you know, maybe I can give some advice. I was really good at business. I had a really successful furniture business at the time, successful with the clothing, successful with real estate. I was doing my thing and I thought maybe I could offer some advice. And after I met with him, I realized, you know,

Advice isn't what he needed. He needed some money and he needed somebody that would go in there and kind of clean up a few things because it got a little... It got a little...

to be a little bit too much it was gridlock right amongst the label and then the local label midwest side records and then uh quest and then warner brothers and uh at that time i'm like dude that's crazy man good luck cool story good luck and wish you the best and and um but i didn't think that i could offer any words it was going to change anything and uh but we stayed in touch and and then

there was a time when he reached out to me and I got an opportunity to go down to, uh, it was icy rocks house. And he played me a song, uh, because we were together at a restaurant when they were writing a song, this, this restaurant, what was it called? Hops. Yeah. And so, um, and, and I was intrigued by it. And then after it got done, I got an opportunity to go down there and listen to it. And that song was called this ring. Yes.

and I was blown away by it. He was nice enough to let me have a copy of it, and I must have played that song a thousand times in my life. Dawn was like over it. She was like, what are you doing? Shout out, Dawn. And not only that, but it's like, wait a minute. He's trying to balance being Tech N9ne and being married.

trying to say something like, like, why do you keep playing this damn song? And it was, I couldn't leave it alone. And then that's when we ended up meeting again. And I'm like, Hey man, tell me what you want to do. I heard what everybody, everybody else has in mind for you, but

fuck all of that like what do you want to do and that's when he told me that he had a publishing company called EGN arts and I'm like okay and then I put it together yeah yeah and then I was like he goes that's strange backwards and I'm like oh okay and I said why is that and he goes well because if I ever have an opportunity to do my own label I want to call it strange music

And I'm like, Oh, and then he told me about his love for Jim Morrison and the doors and all of this stuff. And so I, I, I took a leap and said, okay, well, listen, man, I, I don't know the music business, but I'm a quick learn. And, uh, and I have the means that, you know, the, the financial means to, to help out. And I think I have, you know, a good business acumen and, and I know how to move forward relatively quickly. So I said, uh, if you want to truly do that, uh, I'll,

I'm in, man, 50-50, and we'll go, and we'll figure this thing out. Yeah. And, oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah, like, what a wild venture for you guys to both be like, you know what, let's start, or was it let's start a record label, or was it just going to be like, hey, let me just help you out as an independent artist first? No, no, no, no.

It was record label. It was list, art, or record label. It literally was record label from the gate. Right. Yeah. Because I think, you know, he was, he was kind of like tired of, of being stuck and nothing actually coming to fruition. Like, so it's, it's like, you know, nothing ever really, uh,

materialized and you get tired of that stuff and you're living on like minimal per diems and you can't go out there and really... Oh, I get it. We lived it. Right. Make a living. So it's like, you know, and I had to learn, man. I mean, we took and we put together...

And we had to gather a bunch of songs and a lot of the earlier producer of those songs wouldn't give us the files because they wanted to be paid a second time. That was a really volatile thing. And I'll save all the,

back on that. The music industry is so snaky. What's that? The music industry can be so snaky. It's, it's, it's filled with a bunch of people that I, I, I don't care for 90 plus percent of the people that's in the music business. Yeah. You know, and, and I, that,

that's now, fuck that. It hasn't changed. I still don't like it. No, I don't because, because there's so, um, there's so many of them that are just, they're, they're full of shit. There are people that are not, uh, they're, they're not, you know, are there filled musicians who find a way to wiggle into a position, uh,

in the business and then they don't know what the fuck they're doing. I call them car salesmen because they all have that icky car salesman personality. All those comments, oh yeah, that's going to be bananas.

Oh, because of bananas. That's in LA. That was LA. Everything was bananas in LA and everybody was a dick in New York. Like everybody was, yeah, it was crazy. So I have a couple of questions that I want to ask you guys, if you guys don't mind, because I really am just so blown away by what you guys have built. But at a time when labels were everything you...

When labels wore everything, you guys went the independent route. Did you guys ever doubt yourselves, like, whenever you were first starting out? Well, you know, you got to be kind of crazy, slightly crazy to lose $140K on your first tour and then go back, right? Wow. When this thing started in the first couple of years...

I was a little over $2 million of my own money in. And initially I had in my mind that I might end up spending a couple hundred grand to get this thing to go the right way. Not $2 million, you know what I mean? But things were challenging. Things were expensive. And it was hard to figure it all out. And we kept having to throw money at it. And it was harder because I was a black kid

with spiked red hair, with a painted face, bishop's robe on stage, a hundred blood clothing, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. You know, it was just like a clusterfuck. I would feel like that would set you apart from everybody else though. It did. It did, but it's along the road. But not in a good way. Right. If you're not doing what everybody else is doing, you know? Right. Think about this back then in like '99, 2000, 2001.

There were no independent hip hop tours, period. Right. The only hip hop tours there were is like you've seen Run DMC coming with the Beastie Boys or you've seen, you know, there was a few of those bigger tours. Public Enemy and shit like that. Yeah, stuff like that. But there was no independent hip hop touring at all. Yeah. So then take...

Add in black dude with wearing spiked red hair. His name is Tech Nine, the name of a gun. First strike. Right. And then he's got face paint on and a preacher's robe.

And he's got two strippers taking the preacher's robe off. Yes. Yes. Right. So like, like, so it was not an easy sell to white America, white club owner, America. So I literally get on the phone with these guys. Cause I started by putting together our own tours by ourselves. We didn't have an agent. Nobody was messing. Well,

they were not going to touch us with a 10 foot pole. Then the club owners didn't want that in their club. They, they, they were, they were so fearful of it. So we would make deals. I had to talk to tech like, man, this is crazy. But you know, our very first paid show was 500 bucks at a, at an Italian restaurant that turned into a nightclub during the weekend, simply Sicilian and blue Springs, Missouri. So shout out to them for giving

giving you an opportunity, right? Absolutely. You had to tell him to give the money back if we have any problems. Yeah. We had to literally convince all these different people by saying, hey, look, let us come there. Let us do this show. We'll do a door deal. And if anything goes wrong, you keep all the money. So with it,

people not let you buy on to tours? Was that not a thing back then? They wouldn't let, we, we didn't really want to go with the idea of buying on because there were no tours back then. Right. Yeah. I mean, this is honestly, there were no tours to buy on to for someone like him or us or whatever. So we had to go out there and do it ourselves or we weren't going to see anybody. We weren't going to tour. And, and that's where we lost, you know, money on the first tour. But I always looked at it like, look, if we can get in these places and we can plant a seed and,

then great. Yeah. We're going to spend money. You spend money when you do that. And then we'll come back the next time and we'll water it. Right. And, and we still may not make money, but at the end of the day, at least we're gaining momentum, gaining fans. And then once we come back again, now maybe we can pick a little fruit, you know, whatever the case might be. So it was a, it was a, it was a journey to get to that point. And, but, but it worked out, you know, we played a show in San Diego at the blue agave seven people, seven people.

people seven people the next time we came it was it was like much better 300 and something the next time we came and every time since then we've sold it out every single show in san diego so you know it worked but but nobody knew it and i didn't i knew that i wasn't going to fail because i just i can't accept failure like it's a mental block for me but uh and don't admire about you my wonderful wife she never doubted me but did i get some of these looks like

I got a few of them, but she never doubted it. And she knew that I couldn't stop. And, and, and, and thank God. And she, she, she helped, she worked there, her and Glenda and, you know, sending out CDs and vinyl to radio stations and stuff out of our basement. Like, yeah, I mean, but yeah, it, it, it, it was interesting in the beginning. Yeah.

Do you guys feel like the Juggalo community is what accepted you first? Did what? Do you feel like the Juggalo community accepted you guys first? No, no, no. Or who do you feel? They came in in 2003. Okay. Now, I started in Kansas City. Right. You know what I'm saying? And I think with Mitch Bade being the first thing, all the gangsters were first. Right. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? And then the college kids came. And those college kids will run the numbers up. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? But we did Sprite Liquid Mix Tour in 02 with Jay-Z, N.E.R.D., Nappy Roots. You know what I'm saying? Hoobastank. Oh, wow. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be a great tour to circle back. So we was already buzzing. Yeah.

On that tour, you know, motherfuckers, Jay-Z was coming out to see my set on the second stage, you know. Right. You know, they heard about this ring, you know.

Everybody's like, you should got to see this ring. Kanye was there. I never saw him, but Chris Calico saw him. He was with Talib Kweli. He was on that tour too. So the next year, 03, is when I met the Juggalos. When I finally found out everything about Psychopathic. Because I'd heard about Insane Clown Posse years before when they got signed to Disney or something. I was like, baby, more clowns, more clowns. You know what I'm saying? I painted my face, you know? Yeah. And...

03 is when the Juggalos came and added a lot to our fan base. Right. You know what I mean? And the Metalheads came, you know, and it just kept growing. And that first tour, that first tour that we did with them, actually the only tour we

with them, I guess, other than the gathering, but it was insane clown posse. It was bone thugs in harmony. It was cop now Kings iconic. And so it's like, you know, that we, we, we thought, Oh wow. What a wild menagerie of craziness and loved it. And I'll tell you what, their fan base was so intriguing to me because they were so devoted and, and, and looking at that fan base, uh,

and looking at, I had an opportunity to talk to and work with Hank Williams Jr. and go to his butt naked barbecue in Paris, Tennessee and all this other shit. I missed that one. I missed that one. Was everybody naked? No,

No, no. The only one naked was probably Hank. And that's because he had to climb out of the damn lake that he drove his four-wheeler in because he was out of his mind. Hilarious stuff goes on around. They shoot cannons and shit in the backyard. Oh, I could only imagine. It's a trip. But watching with the Juggalo fan base, what Hank Williams Jr. had to do when country music shunned him because they didn't want to deal with this nepotism because of, you know, and then looking at that and then looking at what Kid Rock, this white rapper that moved to New York, you know,

and was in the apartment downstairs from Queen Latifah, but looking at the fan base that Kid Rock was able to build, and those were the things that were so intriguing to me because look at these fan bases. They built them, and all the odds were against them too, and that's when I think that we really started to

focus on how can we look at and understand and take the best things out of all these different people's followings. What can we get out of that? What can we learn from them? And we learned a lot from each one of them, including psychopathic and their, their merchandise game was mind boggling. It was so wild to see that, man. They, they, they did something that not everyone,

Not a lot of people have ever done. Well, they've built a cult following, you know, and that's where your real core like fan base is, is in that cult like following. And it was a very...

a distinct niche that they had and those people. - That's why they're still able to do it. - Oh, it's wild. I literally, I didn't know what a juggalo was. But the crazy thing is, is I listened to Insane Clown Posse when I was younger, but didn't know the juggalo statement. I didn't know what a juggalo was until I went to the gathering. I saw so many butt holes. And people have, I mean, but they are the nicest humans ever. Like they're so great.

- That was one of the biggest parties I've ever seen, the biggest, wildest parties I've ever been to. - Wild, yeah, no, it's insane. So when did you guys know, like you guys were able to look at each other and be like, this is gonna work when it came to the record label? - '06.

So when like Caribou, Caribou Lou came out, we, we, we hit a few bumps along the way. The very first deal that we did in 2001 was with a company called J core and a guy named Jay Ferris, who for the record is a complete piece of shit still is to this day.

And I'd love to bump into Jay sometime. I take the charge. I love how you guys use first and last names. Yeah, yeah. Jay fucking Ferris. Fuck you, Jay. You're a piece of shit. He's like, and I stand on it. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. We did a deal with them and we did everything that we were supposed to do. And then he literally sent us to Los Angeles to shoot a video.

and he would only pay for part of it. So we had to come ante up some money. And, and the only reason we got to shoot the videos, because we did a first week number that far exceeded what they thought they were going to do. Keep in mind, we're an independent label back.

back then there wasn't independent distribution. There wasn't any Fontana's or are those types of small indie label. You still had to get distribution. The only way you could get it at that time was by doing a deal because we didn't have any sales history to really rep and to warrant us being able to get that type of deal. So we did this deal because he had a distribution deal through Interscope and it was a 50, 50 JV and we,

We outperformed everything that they expected. And then we're supposed to shoot a video. We fly, we get to, we get out to LA and we're in the hotel room and we're supposed to do something the first, the next day. And it doesn't happen. And then another day goes by still nothing because we found out the label or Jay Ferris and J core records wasn't,

wasn't advancing the money for the video, the deposit. And so we're like, what's going on? A third day pops off. And finally I get on the phone and I'm talking to the people over there because you can't ever get to Jay. And they say, well, he's had a change of heart and thinks that you guys need to do more touring before we shoot a video like this. What?

I left us in LA. I'm on sunset. I had to go in the hotel and tell him this. And I'm, I'm beyond furious in ways that I can't explain. And,

I would not want Travis O'Gwen mad at me. So they had rented us a Lincoln Navigator for local use around there. I went ahead and hopped in the Navigator with a couple of the guys that were out there with me. We arranged travel to get him back home. And I literally drove from LA all the way to Kansas City in their Navigator.

Uh, their rental navigator. Then I picked up, um, a few of my very, very large friends and drove all the way to New York city where Jay Ferris was, uh, to, uh, to, um, to get out of that deal. And on the way there, I'm talking to my attorneys, drawing up paperwork. Uh, you know, he owed us money at that time. And, uh, we got there and they still wanted to, uh, I was done talking. There was nothing else to talk about. And, uh,

we went in the offices, they, they had a scare there because they, they, they basically didn't pay a street team company. And the street team guys came in there and like beat up a bunch of their monitors with some baseball bats and scared the shit out of them. And so they had armed security, uh,

so when we showed up, there's armed guards, all this other dumb shit. And, uh, we, we, we unarmed them and placed them in a nice, comfortable room and went over and got the paperwork, uh, with Jay and got him to sign off on it. And,

And no one was harmed. No, you know, everything went fine. Yes. Real gangsta shit. Well, we got the album back. Gangsta shit. Yeah. We got the album back and... We called it Angelic Reparations. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, in doing that, then, you know, the guy that took us over there, a guy named Dave Weiner, because...

Violet Brown was a very big part of the early days. And she had introduced us to Dave Weiner, who was at Priority Records. And then they sold. And then Dave went over to J-Core. And there were a couple other people like Brian Shafton and some others that were a part of that huge success that Priority had during all those years with Master P, with NWA, with everything. And so...

He ended up quitting that job in protest of the way we were being handled and went back and got with his old mentor, a guy named Mark Cerami, who was one of the two owners of Priority Records.

And then that's where we ended up. We followed Dave over there and did a deal. And those two deals are the speed bumps and the education that we needed and the sales that we needed in order to get the attention of Fontana and Universal to get our own deal. So then we were able to cut out the middleman and really focus on how...

how to do it the way that we thought it needed to be done. Right. And, uh, and, and, and MSC wasn't really much better. Mark Cerami ended up being a fuck, a fuck. He's an asshole too. A fuck person. He's a fuck boy. I was about to say a fuck boy. Yeah. I really don't mind. Like, um, we actually recently, just a few years ago, we ended up getting all of the albums we put out through him back as well. But, um, um, you know, and I, I,

He uses his crutch. If he had a stroke, he had a tray of weed brownies, got on a Learjet to go look at a fucking yacht, had a stroke in the air and had to learn how to eat, walk, talk and shit again or something. And he wasn't the same guy. But again, the guy that took us over there quit in protest again and moved to fucking Hawaii. And so it's like, you know, it was a weird combination, you know, take,

2000 to 2006, that's how you can fuck around and spend two million bucks pretty quick. Yeah, absolutely. But we got all of our shit back from Mark Cerami as well. Fuck him too, for the record. 2006 was when we got with Fontana and we did it. And then we got to do our deal. We did it already. No middleman between us and...

And look, the results are what the results are. If we work hard and we perform and we get something, we actually get paid. Yeah. Our wires come in religiously every single month. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah. And we went there and we've been there ever since. We're still there. Yeah. I mean, it's changed names. It was Fontana, then it was Ingrooves, and now it's Virgin Music. Yeah. Yeah.

But at the end of the day, we ended up finding a way to succeed becoming in the top one or two or three, normally top one label that they had. And we've maintained that for a really long time and, uh, and been able to do other cool shit. Like it goes up, you know, our distribution, uh, which is fantastic.

Where, where, where jelly came through. You know what I mean? So it's like, he signed on a Valentine's day in 2020. Yeah. Yeah. It's so weird that it was Valentine's day. Yeah. But yeah, man, I mean, uh, it's, uh, 2006 is when we, we realized that now that nobody could screw up the money and nobody was in between us and that, then it was, it was all up from there. And that's really when we started having real success. Mm hmm.

Tech, what was it about Travis that made you trust this process? Because that's a long time, 1999 to 2006 before you guys are even seeing any recourse. What was it about the struggle that made you trust him? When he said that

He, that I opened up and told him everything, he's always been forthcoming with everything, you know what I'm saying? Like, he's always been open, not secretive when it comes to any type of money or any kind of thing that would come in, you know? It's like he's always been open, an open book. He's like me, you know what I mean? And, uh...

you can feel that, you know what I'm saying? Especially being in business for 25 years. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? It's pretty much self-explanatory. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I'll always be fond of Travis. He was there when I got my first Rolex or was it, was it me or was I buying Jay his first Rolex? I forget. You were buying Jay the Rolex through a guy here, buying it from a company that I work with all the time out there. You know what, Carlin? Yeah. Carlin Creations. Yeah. That's actually where it came from. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's actually where that watch came from. That might be where this one came from. I have no idea, but it's just, I love my love for Travis always is going to run deep. So just really one other quick question. We'll actually too, but what's your take on this mainstream versus independent debate? Because, you know, especially the country rap world right now, they're insane with, you know, wanting it, everybody needs to stay independent or, you know,

Should you go mainstream? How do you guys feel about that? I think it can work either way for people. Depends on what you want. Right. Yeah. I think that we were independent way before it was cool, way before it was sexy.

we were independent pretty much out of necessity. I think that, you know, the lines are blurred between what was independent and, you know, there's so many different projects that like, even we worked early with TDE. We signed J-Rock. We had Kendrick Lamar was over there, you know, Schoolboy Q, Absol, Black Hippie. I love Schoolboy Q. Right. And so, but when you look at that though, like when that deal upstreamed,

didn't want to be mentioned. They wanted it all to be about TDE and top dog entertainment. Right. And they wanted it because independent was cooler to the fan base and, and they felt like it was going to connect better if they were in the shadows, you know what I'm saying? So, but now I think it's so incredibly blurred, uh,

I think that whatever it is the end goal is, if you want to go out there and you want to be huge at radio, you might have to make that sacrifice and sign up with the folks that are capable of doing that. But you also have to make sure that...

that that is the right fit and that they're going to do what they say they're going to do. And that you end up getting a result that you want, because if you don't, that's a very expensive situation. You go sign a major label deal, you sign a 15, 16, 17, 18 point deal.

And now you're recouping at the rate of that deal. And so everybody doesn't understand that for every $100 the major label spends and then they recoup, you're only getting $18 of a credit out of that $100. And so now you're in a pretty deep hole. And how wild is it not to make...

and you got the number one record in the country and you're not getting paid though from, from the record label. Right. It's because the deal structures are very favorable to those majors. And that's, but if, if, if it goes crazy and you have seven number one songs, then,

then it begins to make a lot more sense. And you have the ancillary, you have the touring income, you have, you know, all of the merchandise income and all these other ancillary incomes. So sometimes a major deal makes sense and works for folks. Yeah.

Uh, but, but the deals are constantly shifting and changing. Yes. Distribution is constantly shifting and changing and how it's done. So it's, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's a wild time, but you just have to be smart and dissect the deals that are in front of you and really try to figure out what your, what your path is. If, if you don't,

care as much about radio or you want to go through the process of hiring and doing radios and working with the independent yourself, you could of course do that too. And then your reward is much, much greater if it does connect and it does go, you're going to end up in a really great place. Right. You know, but, but I mean, it's, um, I feel like radio is so outdated to like how you have to get, um,

plays and all that stuff. Like I watching my husband go through it, which I'll probably get shit for talking about this. I just feel like they're the way they go about things is so outdated and isn't everything more on streaming now as opposed to radio? Everything is indeed more on streaming than it is radio, but radio terrestrial radio is still a big factor on, um,

getting people to amass popularity. It is unfortunately or fortunately, however you look at it, still kind of like the, it's a huge part of it, but it's,

Now you don't only, when we started, it was about the music. Now it's also about the social media. It's about the TikTok. It's about Instagram. It's about, and not only that, but now, wait a minute, not only do I have to do those things, but okay, my TikTok needs to be for my personal moments or something. You know, you got to campaign the shit, right? So it's about this. And then my Instagram is going to be about the music making process. And then my Facebook's going to,

You have to come up with strategies and plans and you navigate this space all the time, but like it's way bigger than, than the music now. And that kind of sucks. Right. And they want the personality behind the music. And, and, and, and, but streaming streaming is the biggest fuckery that we're all dealing with. How is a guy like,

Daniel Eck, how is he worth 3.6 billion or no 4.6 billion recently on the backs of all the artists? And how did, how did they make a $1.5 billion profit yet? They're paying less than one third of one penny per stream of the actual artist that put in the work. And the way it happened was,

The three majors made an alignment with Spotify. They have ownership stake. And it was the new way for them to get control of the business again. Because independents like us were kicking their ass. We were the subject of a lot of different board meetings where guys would go in and literally, I had this guy, Richie, who used to call me. He's like, man, fuck you.

I'm like, what's up? He's like, dude, we had to hear about you guys for 30 minutes straight. People yelling at us over how in the fuck are they doing this? And we can't even do this. 50 Cent said he used to tell his artist about us. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. So, so it's like, you know, but, but, but, but streaming is, is really, really twisted. And the creative accounting that goes on with streaming and you got guys that are making songs and AI, a hundred thousand songs collecting millions of dollars. It's fucked up. And I'm, I'm, I'm waiting for people to get as sick and tired as we are.

You know, you got to get people to be sick and tired of being sick and tired. Right. And to make a change. But there's no way an artist can fight back for that. We have a lot of really kick ass ideas. Like back when we did the whole fuck the industry thing, that whole campaign. We have it. But there are much larger risk at play now because, you know, when you're when you're not making any money and, you know, you're willing to say and do a lot of shit to rattle cages.

Uh, you know, and, and now we have to be very methodical because we have artists that are signed to the label. If we did something radical, like pull all their shit off of a platform to create our own platform, we could run into obstacles. It would be uncomfortable for others. So it's not just,

his and mine at stake now it's a whole collective of people and content and catalog that we have to be mindful of so we're hoping to do it in a better way still still you know going crazy on people and doing things differently is i'm down for that and i have no problem saying you know

Well, obviously I've said it a few times. Fuck the industry. Yeah, I don't have anybody to fuck the industry and fuck anybody else that wants to not treat artists fairly. That shit pisses me off to the core. And I don't know how you can allow people to put all their work in and pay them...

fractions of pennies that shit that shit is irritating beyond words no it's it's it's not fair at all touching base real quick on the um artists that you guys have signed you guys have chris calico ritz mayday and stevie stone artists like that what do you guys look for in an artist before bringing them in and what would somebody have to do to be signed by you guys if somebody's listening to this right now and is like i want to go to strange music well i like artists

that understand music and I don't have to babysit. Right. You know what I mean? I like artists that I can see hanging with me artist-wise, you know what I mean? That are able to do hits if you got to chop, you know what I'm saying? It's not a requirement, but you know what I mean? We started something, Strange Music, and the chopping was part of it.

You know what I mean? But we have other songs, like you said, Caribou Lou. Yes. Who Go Crazy and Everybody But Me. You know, you've got a whole bunch of songs that, you know, we look for artists that can do that. Like you found Sky Daddy, right?

I love her. Yeah. Yeah. Sky is doing incredible things. She's through the distribution. And, and I, I think also another thing that we look for, because you mentioned artists like Chris Calico and others, I think, I,

people that can create music that means something that is meaningful to the human experience. Right. That's, that's what I want to hear something as a message. How, yeah. How can, what, what, and sometimes, you know, the, the content is heavy, but that heavier, the content, the more help it provides to people going through the same thing who feel like they're alone. And so like, if you took all of these thousands of emails that we get talking about how the music is

save someone's life. And, and listen, let's assume, let's assume for this purpose that only that's only really true one time. That's okay. It's still worth it. If you could actually say something that you helped do, help you, you know, you work with an artist, they created this wonderful song and this help this person take the gun out of their mouth. Absolutely.

That's huge. And that's what therapeutic music should do. And that's the one thing that drew me so much to your husband was all of that, because knowing that, that, that people have that reaction to what he is saying on these tracks is,

is massive to me. Yes. And walking down, you know, I was telling him the story last night where me and jelly used to walk down Broadway when I came and visited and a few people knew who he was and that was a cool interaction. But then inside, I won't go with him anywhere. It turns into a meet and greet inside, inside the restaurants though, when people would come up crying to him and way back then, I'm like, like, there it is. This, this is why,

I have to help him grow this thing. At that point... You were there for Save Me. You are what helped Save Me get the notoriety that it got. Because he wasn't sure about it, I'm sure. I think I heard something. He wasn't sure how his fans would take him singing. Right. It was the very first time. We talked about...

we talked about the five-year plan. You've heard the five-year plan. And then we talked about, um, getting to the root of what it is he really wanted to do, which it took me a while to get him to open up to me and tell me about his mom and his dad and the music they played and his, his wanting to write songs and how he wanted to be a part of music grow and then how he wanted to get more into the singing. And, um,

We finally, you know, he does this song and then he sends it to me and he's like, can we just get this up real quick? He was afraid of that song. You know that, right? I mean, I know he talked to you. He told me about his conversations with you too. And you thought the song was beautiful. I told him it would be as big a song he ever did. Right, right, right. And as did I. You were right. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, as did I. I said, look, this is going to be, this is what we've been talking about. It doesn't, you know, he told me that it's the first song he ever did without a rap verse. And I'm like, okay. Now I can't get him to rap. Can you make him rap again, Ty, please? I miss rapper role, okay? Yeah, but that's the shit though.

Like, Save Me, though, that song, what are we at, 298 million video plays on a simple video.

That's because it connected, it touched, it means so much to so many people. And to be able to be a part of that, that's the only reason, honestly, Bunny, the only reason that I'm still doing this shit, I have no financial reasons to do this anymore. I haven't had for a long time, neither has he. But the reality is when you know that your music has such an impact on people, that's hard. If you help create the soundtrack to a lot of people's lives, and then what do you do? You just say, oh, never mind, and you fuck off.

What? So that's it. And I deal with the things like with McKinsey and all these other...

The mental health of our country is challenged pretty heavily. So heavily. And if we can create stuff that helps people and human beings and help them stay alive, we better do this. We better continue or else, like, I feel responsible. Like, it's like, it ain't even a job for money. It's like a responsibility is where I'm at with it. And to follow what Strange Music means, the S...

And the logo is taken from the rod of Asclepius. You know, you usually see it at the hospital. You see the snakes going around the rod, symbolizing medicine. Yes. And the bat being nocturnal. We are the medicine that navigate through the darkness. So...

we've fit that tight like a motherfucker, you know what I mean? - Yeah, absolutely. Your song "Fragile" is like saved me for me. - Oh yeah. - I was going through a really bad abusive relationship when that song dropped and it literally like saved me so many times. So, I mean, you guys are definitely making therapeutic music and-- - Totally. - Yeah.

No, it's amazing. Thank you for sitting in. I appreciate you being here so much. Yes. Thank you. Tech. We're going to move on, but I'm going to let you guys go. Cause I feel like I've kept you for so long, but we're going to move on just a little bit.

I want to touch base on one story that I heard before, though, because you were touring at a pace of doing 250 shows a year at one time. That's insane. Yes, it is. Like, how does somebody function to be able to do that many shows? Conditioned ourselves throughout the years to be able to know what to do with your voice, for one, you know, by cutting out the party after the show.

getting rest you know what i mean you had to go through the early on to know how you don't be hoarse during the show right you know what i'm saying and on that icp tour man i i lost my voice in kentucky man it was it was it was frightful and and ever since then i really start pacing myself you know what i mean you learned your lesson so we we've always been conditioned

To do it. We've done it so much that at the end of some tours, I've popped my gastrocnemius muscle on both sides. You know what I'm saying? From jumping? Yeah. All that. All that Michael Jackson sliding and shit from pop locking. You know what I'm saying? The shit I do on stage. No, it's high energy. You know what I'm saying? From the minute you start to the end. But I was fucking off and not stretching and not working out back then when I was popping shit. Yeah.

Since I've been working out in my personal trainer, I ain't popped a motherfucking thing. Let's go. On that following verse tour, I didn't get sick not one time. Let's go. I didn't pop one fucking muscle. Let's go. That probably contributes to your sobriety too. Yeah. Touring that much, do you ever just get afraid that...

when you're at home, you're just going to get lost in your thoughts or is it that you just get antsy whenever you have time off? No, because I've never got like that because usually when I'm home is when I start working on records, you know, we tour, get home, work on music, tour, get home, work on music, you know what I mean? And, uh, it was, it was like, it was like that for a long time. You know what I'm saying? And, uh,

I never felt like I had to, you know, even though I have to do mantras to go to sleep, you know what I mean? I found that and it works for me, you know, but, uh, no, we, we, we pretty much have a, I have a, I have a regimen, you know what I'm saying? It's a schedule. I'm, I'm, I'm, uh, conditioned to do it. Let's talk about your sobriety. Can you take me on that journey? Because it says you almost died from alcohol poisoning one time.

That's not true, but something like that. So my life since my early teens, I've been drinking like a rock star because I've pretty much been a rock star. Yeah. I mean, you are a rock star, Tech. You deserve that title. I've been doing that since my teens. That's how I felt. That's how I built this to be. A hip hop rock star. So yeah.

Imagine every day I wake up, I have breakfast out somewhere or brunch or something. I start the day with maybe three mimosas, whether it be orange juice mimosa or a pineapple mimosa. Lunch, you know, you spend the day in studio, you know what I'm saying? Lunch, take lunch somewhere at a bar. I have maybe three cosmopolitans, top shelf. You know, dinner, you have your red wine, you

If you go to Capital Grill, you're going to have four Stoli Dolis. If you don't know what Stoli Dolis is, it's like they marinate pineapple in vodka and they pour it, you know, and it's fucking beautiful. That's one day. And then I come home, we might have a party. We drinking Caribou Loup, KCT, Hennessy Sprite and Lemon. This is daily. Right.

Because I'm a social drinker and I love to party. So I'm doing this for years, baby. I'm talking about this is like, fuck the drugs that I was doing. You know what I'm saying? I stopped that in 06 or was it 07? It was 06 or 07, one of them years, you know what I'm saying? Stopped. Ecstasy, shrooms, acid, GHB, what's it called? The red pills, the...

No, no, no, no. I'll remember in a minute, but I would do that shit all in one night. When was your first time taking drugs, like hard drugs? My first time with X, you know, was 98 when I came home. When I first met Travis, he didn't know I was on the shit though. Right. I met a dancer at this club. Mm-hmm.

She gave me my first... Nope, nope. She wasn't the first one. Nope, nope. I take that back. She wasn't the first one. It was a girlfriend I had before that. Was it 98? This is so hard to find. It's okay. But...

It was the Grant Rice era for sure. You know what I'm saying? So your first drug you ever tried was ecstasy? Yes. Wow. Most people like smoke weed. I don't call weed drug though. Right. Well, most people smoke weed or do blow. But it is classified as a drug. But to me, it's natural. Just like mushrooms. Sorry and shit. But I'm talking about drugs. You know what I'm saying? Molly and ecstasy. I found that first.

Yeah, I think the dancer was the first one to give it to me. My first one at a movie theater, she said, you're going to take this pill.

It's going to take 30 minutes. You're going to feel like you have to shit. Don't shit. You know what I'm saying? Fuck up the whole thing. Don't shit. So you're not allowed to shit on ecstasy? No, you ain't supposed to. Oh. Or mushrooms. You know what I'm saying? You're supposed to feel it and keep that shit in. You know what I'm saying? That's what I was told. I never knew. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you get that shit feeling. I was shitting all the time. You learn something new every day. So she did fart over there. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

But anyway, '98, I took my first pill and I was doing that shit all the way from '98 to 2006 or '07. You know what I'm saying? Wow. Yeah. What was it that made you want to get sober? Shit was happening.

You remember you came up to the house and they said somebody was outside eating pussy at 6 o'clock in the morning outside on the bench and all the people in the apartment complex could see it. You know what I'm saying? Police came, all kinds of shit. Was that you eating pussy on the bench? It was at my house. Oh, okay.

You know what I'm saying? He's like, I'll never say if it was me or not. I had people over, you know what I'm saying? Right. Shit was going on. Right. You know what I'm saying? Upstairs, downstairs, outside. You know? Right. Because when you're on that shit, you know, you're staying up until four and five and six in the morning. Right. And, you know. Jaw grinding. You know? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So.

Adderall. That was the red pill. Adderall, okay. I'll put that on top of the X. It feels so good. Oh my goodness. I should have been Chris Farley, my nigga. I was putting shit on top of shit, Holmes. Praise God, man. You know what I'm saying? So around 2006, ever ready time, it starts slowing down. You know what I'm saying? Travis said, man, we had a meeting. Travis said, man, everybody's saying you're going to die just like Jim Morrison. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? I can't be involved. He said, I can't keep doing business with somebody that's going to kill themselves, man. I'm sorry. You know what I'm saying? I was like, oh, no, I ain't going to kill myself. You know what I'm saying? I ain't going to kill myself now. So, you know, I thought about that. I'm like, I see it every day. People seeing me fucked up. They're like, we're going to lose him just like we lost Jim Morrison. You know what I'm saying? Because that's who I attributed that.

idea to do strange music too you know what I'm saying I went to Père Lachaise in Paris and thanked them at the you know cemetery you know thank you for the inspiration brother you know I worked with the rest of the members after that you know yeah but uh

When Travis said, you know, man, it's getting bad, dude. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, I'm just kicking it. I don't do this shit all the time. I did do it all the time. You know, because we in the strip, we running a strip club. Right. Sat in dolls. We down there. I'm getting every bitch in the, you know, I'm like a house dad. You know, I can go in there where bitches are and.

I'm sorry. I talk like that bitches, but you know, I say it all the time too. Trust me. I get it. Like a bag of 60 rolls, you know what I'm saying? Like rolls ecstasy, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. That's what you just call them back then rolls, you know, you roll in people, you know, but anyway, um,

I'm putting them in bitches mouths. Like, you know, "Tech, you gave me my first pill." I see them now, I'm like, "Damn, I fucked up." You know what I'm saying? I started a lot of people. I used to put it on my tongue, behind and like pick it off my tongue, baby. You know what I'm saying? I was fucked up. You know what I'm saying? But I was partying, you know? And because I was going so hard, me and my partner had that meeting. I'm like, "We got motherfuckers eating pussy outside." You know what I'm saying?

I said, okay. I went home one night and my kid, this is when it starts slowing down. My kid, Rainbow at the time, she was probably like three, two, I don't fucking know. I saw that she saw me. I felt like she saw me being high. I used to sneak in and

Lay on the couch. You know what I'm saying? Like I've been there all night. You know what I mean? Sweating like a motherfucker. My wife at the time was like, when I sleep in the bed, she's like, why are you sweating so bad? I was like, it's hot in this motherfucker. He's like, ceiling fan on, it's wintertime. You know what I'm saying? What the fuck are you doing? I was dying over there, dude. You know what I'm saying? I didn't know. Is this the time that you took 15 Xanax?

No, I didn't take no 15. You didn't take 15? 15 pills in one night. I'm talking about X pills. Right. Or not Xanax, 15. No, not Xanax. I didn't find out about Xanax until the last day I rolled. I got it mixed up. This is when you took 15 ecstasy pills? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was out in L.A. That's something different. Okay, gotcha. We take three at a time. You know what I'm saying? That's something different. I was on one. You're wild. Oh, yeah.

I shouldn't even be alive right now. That's why I'm so animated and hype. That's why you are an angel. Because I ain't supposed to be here. You know what I'm saying? As much as I drank and I was fucking around, you know what I'm saying, with drugs. You know what I mean? I'm talking about we would take Ecstasy and the GHB together and just fall asleep on the stage in the club. When we get there, it's packed. Everybody let me in. I'm Tech N9ne.

cops waking us up. Tech, man, you gotta wake up, man. I'm on the stage with the business with me and my brother Dino Mac at the time. You know, we sleep on the stage fucking with GHB and Ecstasy and

Drinking Robitussin like it was cool. You know just doing stupid shit. Yeah, just trying to explode my heart I don't know. I wouldn't try into I'm just like fuck it. Let's just go. Let's go. We just didn't know I thought I had it in control You know saying then we had that meeting. I'm like, you know, I gotta I gotta calm down, you know saying and then rainbow I was like, okay, that's my little girl rainbow, you know, I'm like, nope can't do it no more So 2007 came I've been clean off all drugs since then, you know I'm saying but uh with the drinking

Four years ago, my doctor told me I was having a, you know, a physical. Dr. Strangelove DeAngelos said, you know, your blood pressure's through the roof and your cholesterol is, you need to cut that drinking out or your heart's going to explode like your dad, you know. And I was like, oh, I'm going to die? Okay, I quit. And my wife's like, I'll quit with you, please. Just please stop, you know.

So Valentine's Day just passed. That was my fourth year sober off of liquor. Congratulations. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's hard, man. I've been sober off liquor since 2018, sober off cocaine and pills since 2017. Yeah, man. Sobriety is a journey. Yeah, it is, man. It's a journey. Even the mocktails I take slow, you know, because it's still sugar. Mm-hmm.

You know, when I first stopped, I was on mocktail heaven. I was like, I'm still getting fat. It's sugar, motherfucker. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, I have one every once in a while. Do you feel better now? And are you sober off drugs or do you still smoke weed? You're sober off everything? I don't smoke weed, but I can. You know what I'm saying? I want to keep my lungs. So, you know, every once in a while I might hit it with my wife or something. You know what I'm saying? I don't smoke with nobody no more. That's how I got COVID.

Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Blunts. Oh, that's the worst. I tell my wife, I don't give a fuck who it is. Don't smoke with nobody. Don't bring that fucking sickness in our house, man. No. That's how it's happening. Motherfuckers just licking it. You know what I'm saying? Just sopping it up just to get it. Put the fire on it. No, nigga. No. No, sorry. No, no, no. So I haven't taken a blunt or if it's not pre-rolled in a dispensary, I'm not fucking with it. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So I very rarely smoke.

For a while, I was taking...

a shot of distillate juice. And like, I've got a person that can make like a lemonade distillate or strawberry distillate. You know what I'm saying? I'd put it in a shot glass and it's like, it's, it's, it's liquefied THC. You know what I'm saying? To put it in juice. It's called distillate. You're a savage, dude. You are a sav. What you mean? Dude, liquid THC. I'd go to the fucking hospital. No, but it's only, it's the drink is the, the, the shot is only,

20 milligrams or something like that. I can't go. I ate some freaking weed butter and called 911. Yeah. I'm saying that's cool. But beyond 20, nah. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? 10, 15, 20, that's it. You know what I'm saying? Keeps you regular. But the shot, the shot glass is like 20, you know, milligrams or whatever. And it's like a body massage.

I don't do it no more. I was doing it for a while. I don't do it no more because I don't got time. Right. You know what I'm saying? Do you feel better now that you're sober? Oh, yes. And like on this health journey? Oh, yes. I feel better. I'm just nine pounds over my target weight, which was 185 when I wanted to get in my suit for my wedding, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Which, congratulations, we were talking about that. I feel fat as fuck right now. Just nine pounds ahead of 185, you know?

You got to allow yourself grace, though. And, you know, I've been working on this fucking album, you know what I mean, 5816 Forest, for a long time. And, you know, I got a lot of deadlines and shit. I'm still writing verses for motherfuckers, and sometimes I miss my workout. I haven't seen my...

I haven't seen my trainer in almost a month. You know what I'm saying? So I got to get back with them because I'm in there from 11 to 12 and I get to the fucking studio at 12, 30 or 1 and when I get some food, you know what I'm saying? And round three and four, I got to get home. You know what I'm saying? It don't make no fucking sense. I need to be at the studio at 10 o'clock to get the time. So I've just been missing my workouts to try to get everything done. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

I feel fat as fuck. Have grace with yourself though. What'd you say? I said just have grace with yourself. Of course. I give myself grace. Yeah. You know, I get up in the morning every day and I flex my, I can still see my abs, but it's still like, you know, I love dessert. Yeah.

Dude, I used to hate blueberry muffins my whole life. I love them motherfuckers now. I'm like, keep them away from me. Please don't bring them in the house. Don't bring that fucking crumble cookie in here, please. But you're in your healing dad era too. You've been a dad for a long time, but now you have your little two-year-old. I'm sure she indulges with you too. Yeah, she does. I'm just saying.

Butter cake, wherever we go eat, if they got butter cake, we gotta have it. Butter cake is fire. Now, we used to get one each. Now we split it. Good. You know, you're like, fuck. Or just have one cheat day a week. That's what I do. Yeah, that's cool. You have one cheat day a week and then you just get it out of your system and, you know. Now we on the gluten-free Tate's cookies, you know what I'm saying, every once in a while, you know what I'm saying? I do.

I just had blueberry pancakes the other day. I said, look at me. She makes them, you know, gluten-free and all that kind of shit. I'm like, look at me. I'm eating blueberry pancakes. But they're gluten-free. She said, yeah. So you're doing good. But blueberries though. And it ain't got nothing to do with no blood gang shit or nothing. I just never liked it. You know what I'm saying? But I love them motherfuckers now. And I said, it's good for your brain.

It's crazy how your palate changes as you get older because I was never a fruit girl. I always loved vegetables. I love fruit now. Something fucked up is happening to me. Right now as we speak, I haven't had shrimp or lobster since my marriage. I had it. We eloped in Puerto Rico where her family's from.

And on July 14th. And then we had our second wedding for our family and everybody on July 20th in Kansas city. You know what I'm saying? That was a flex too. We had two weddings. Yeah. I love it. You know what I'm saying? But, um,

I haven't had shrimp or lobster. The shit just starts feeling weird in my mouth. No ditty. It starts feeling weird. The texture. Oh, okay. I was going to say, are you having an allergic reaction to it? No, the texture. It just, you outgrow things. It feels like now when I bite shrimp, it feels like I'm...

I don't fucking know. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, your taste buds have changed. Maybe because you're sober, though, too. I mean, that's been four years. I was just eating that shit last year. Like a motherfucker. I'm talking about, like, shrimp bowls and shit with sausage in it and potatoes and shrimp and...

You know, crab legs. I ain't even had no crab legs yet. I don't know if I'm weird on that. You gotta eat some crab legs. Because crab legs are bomb. I know. I've been eating them all my life. A shrimp I'm a little iffy with too. Something's fucking with me. You know what I'm saying? They call shrimp the roach of the sea or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cockroach of the sea. But I was just in New Orleans and wouldn't eat no goddamn shrimp. I didn't even have no crawfish. I love crawfish at Touffet. I love it.

You know what I mean? Your taste buds are just changing. Shit is changing. I'm eating chicken with skin on it now. I can't fucking do it. I'm taking the skin off now. I've been eating chicken all my life. There ain't no racist shit or nothing. Everybody eats chicken. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I've been eating chicken all my life, dude. You know what I'm saying? All my life. Chicken, chicken all my life. Sorry, shit. You know what I'm saying? But, uh...

Now, I'm eating this shit and I feel like that I'm eating human flesh. Oh, no. I don't fucking know. Steak was almost out like last year because I've been watching these documentaries saying they put glue in it and when you cut it, you... I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, no. So me and meat are having a time. No ditty. But...

I mean, pause. I'm sorry. No, dude. Your body is probably just trying to go through some sort of transformation. Something's happening to me. And it's purging. It's purging. And I'm still trying to eat. I ate a chicken sandwich at the airport yesterday. It was good as fuck. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, okay, chicken's not all the way out yet. You know what I'm saying? This don't have enough skin on it. You know what I'm saying? Right, right.

Yeah. Let your body purge. It's just part of growing. And it could be spiritual too. Have you ever tried to Google like the spiritual meaning of why your body is refusing these meats? No, I just think that I ain't supposed to be eating that shit. I don't think none of us are. I'm sorry. Yeah. No, I agree. It is what it is. I don't know what I'm going to turn into in the next years. I can't wait. But I can feel it coming. I'm like, why do I feel like I'm a savage eating meat these days? You know what I'm saying? Well, I can't wait to see the transition. My lady asked me...

The other day before I came here, she was like, "So when you get back, I want to have groceries and stuff, you know, some fresh groceries. What do you want?" I was like, "Salad stuff."

I go through phases like that too, though. Solid stuff, you know what I'm saying? I go through phases like that too, and sometimes it's just your body just needs a break from that shit. I don't know what's going on, man. It's like, I don't know if I'll ever eat shrimp or lobster. I used to fuck lobster up. I'm rich. You know what I'm saying? I love that Tech is so upset about the shrimp. Yeah, it's fucked up. Because the...

Shrimp they had at the restaurant we were at in New Orleans. It looked good. It was about $1,000. So fire. You know what I'm saying? And then I took my son. My son came with me for the first time. He came to the Super Bowl with me. My brothers was down there. My uncle. We all had brunch one morning, the morning of the Super Bowl down on Bourbon Street. It was fucking wonderful. And I saw that they had crawfish etouffee omelet. I'm like, oh, I got to try it.

But I said, damn, I can't even eat shrimp. And my brother said, I'll get it and you can taste it. I didn't even fucking taste it. You didn't have the urge. No. I don't know what the fuck is going on with the texture shit. You're just going through a phase right now. It makes me feel like I'm...

something I ain't supposed to eat. But my wife's like, we got to fucking eat. You got to eat something. I was like, I know. You got to get your protein in so you have to figure out a way to maybe like eating like beans and chickpeas. Yeah, she's been making a lot of beans with, you know, what should we call it? With the meat. They put it on the Mexican breakfast. What is it called? Uh,

There you go, chorizo. You got the chorizo and the beans. Chorizo is sausage. I know. I know. So it's grinded up. It's cool. I love her beans. You know what I'm saying? I love the beans. And I'm just... It's just weird. Yeah. I don't fucking know what's going on. I'm going to Google some stuff for you tonight, and I'm going to send it to Travis and see if we can connect the dots for you. Yeah. Because I really feel like it might be spiritual for you, too. I promise you. I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes there's certain...

things that your body rejects when you're going through like a spiritual awakening she still makes turkey tacos i fucking love them you know what i'm saying i'm fucking crazy she can make a turkey burger you can't even fucking tell dude i'll be fucking this shit up i love your love for your wife yeah man tech i have kept you for two and a half hours so i'm long-winded no you're good i'm gonna ask you one last question and i'm gonna let you go but

So imagine this. You walk off stage from your last show ever. The lights are off. The fans are gone. You're standing alone in the venue. What's the one thing you regret not doing? The one thing I regret not doing? Like just in anything. Life, career, anything. I thought you were talking about the show because I got it. That too? Or do you want to talk about the show? I always talk to Chris Calico and I always said,

When I accidentally tell a joke on stage and everybody laughs, it feels so good. I was like, maybe I should write some jokes. I said, I can't fucking do that. You know what I'm saying? I can't be tech guy and write the joke and I can do it. I can do what the fuck I want to, but I never fucking done it. You know what I'm saying? I think you could be a comedian. And it's like...

When I come out on stage, what I love so much is that when I walk out, everybody scream, everybody's smiling at me. It's the best fucking feeling. That's why when you see me rapping like Midwest Choppers and shit, I'm smiling behind the mic. Because everybody's fucking smiling at me and it's just a...

Beautiful feeling. But when I say something funny and the whole, you hear the crowd, I'm like, that shit is crazy. Now I know Dave Chappelle and Kevin Hart and all these people, Cat Williams, all these great people, Bill Burr, you know, I see. George Carlin, crazy. You know what I'm saying? But it's like Richard Pryor, all of them. I see what they talking about to make people laugh. Smiling is great, but to laugh. Yeah.

If he ever said something on stage and everybody laughed, it's a feeling. He wants to be a comedian right now. That's all he hangs out with is comedians. See what I mean? But I think it's because you guys have made people cry your entire careers with how deep your music is. Yeah, what was me music? We specialize in, yes. That now you're getting a different response and it's kind of like a high for you because it's something new. So if that was my last show, I'm walking out, I'm like, damn, it's over. I never fucking wrote a joke. I love that.

I really love that. But would you ever pursue a career in comedy? No, no, no. Because you're a funny motherfucker. I write music so well, and I'm not that funny. But I'm the kind of motherfucker that gets on the elevator. And when you put yourself in a box with strangers, it's weird. That's why everybody looks at the numbers. As they're going down, they just watch that or go on their phone because it's weird being in a box alone.

with strangers. Right. Especially with this stranger, strange music, you know what I'm saying? One of the cabos. So when I get on the elevator, I'm the kind of motherfucker to get on and say, okay, if I'm on a floor like five, and I was like, I would, I was going to tell a joke, but by the time I'm done with this long ass joke,

We'll be down at 4-1. Everybody will still laugh, you know, in the elevator. It breaks the monotony. Right. I do it all the time. Right. You know what I'm saying? Because I used to study like Rodney Dangerfield. It's like, take my wife and everybody will laugh. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. The OGs of the comedy world. Yeah, it's like one-liners. You know what I'm saying? I think you could do it. I think if you put your mind to it, you could actually. I'm sure. I could do anything. Your delivery is so funny. Mentally, I can do whatever the fuck.

I'll break down barriers. I've done it my whole career. Yeah, absolutely. But I never fucking took the time to write some jokes about

In between my songs, like I always said I was going to do. Do it. Now you got to do it. Now you got to do it. Now they're going to expect it. And then you'll have fans like, I didn't fucking come and pay for a goddamn comedy show today. It was funny, but fuck that. Rap, motherfucker. No, I don't think so. I think as long as you're rapping in between the jokes, everybody's going to have the best of both worlds, you know? I don't know. When are we going to get a new album from you? June 13th.

My album, 5816 Forest, where we moved when my mom married Abul Hassan Rasool Khalifa, the Muslim. It's an audio series with 17 episodes about my life on 5816 Forest from age 12 to 17 when I ran away from home in the pursuit of

of becoming Technina. I love how you always go back to the nostalgia and the memories. And it's in chronological order, how we moved in and

all the shit that happened at school and yeah and it's music that's that's doing all of this yeah it's music it's all music but it's an audio series that's what I call it right because music is audio you know what I'm saying it's an audio series yeah of events that happen from 12 to 17 yeah when I'm running away you know what I'm saying and it's in chronological order from 12

My mother, years old, my mama fell in love with a Muslim. 58 block, she took them or some shit. You know what I'm saying? It's brand new music. I don't fucking know it all right now. But it's starting at the beginning. You know, the first song is called The Birth. Then the second song is called Friday to Sunday. You know what I'm saying? Triality. Where on 58, 16, 4th, I found the king, the clown, and the G. You know what I'm saying? How all three of my personalities were.

You know what I'm saying? So it's all the way to the age 17. And then after the strange music tag, we have a song called J6s after the tag. We ain't never put a song after the tag. You know what I'm saying? And it's called J6s and it's two years after I ran away. You know what I'm saying? Oh, I can't wait for that. And how my Jordan 6s...

or my good luck charm whenever I wore them. I wore them down here. You know what I mean? I don't have them on now, but I had them on yesterday. Have you ever thought about doing a documentary or like having... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we're still writing it. Yeah. We're still writing the Tech N9ne story, man. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Right now, you know what I'm saying? You have so much lore though. Like, I feel like you could have like a series of documentaries. It can be a movie. Literally. Yeah. It could be a fucking crazy ass movie. It's one of them three hour movies though. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like some Black Panther shit. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

No, absolutely. But yeah, man, I got a lot to talk about. And 5816 Forest is very informative, right?

Because I've told these stories in interviews before, you know what I'm saying? Like we talking, but you never heard them in rhyme form. In chronological order. Like I have down in the middle, it's a song called Excited where I talk about 14 years old, this black girl I was dating named Chanel Winfrey. Broke my heart because I went to her 14th birthday party. It was on the next block. And, you know, I went over there with my boy Snubby and

you know, we're dancing and when the lights went off, you know, in the hood, I had to go across the street to ask my stepfather and my mom, can I go back to the party? It won't be for too much longer. I know the lights are on. And he's like, yeah, you can go. When I came back, I was looking for her. Everybody was slow dancing. It was a red light and I couldn't really see. And I opened a room and my boy Snubby was on top of her kissing. She broke my heart. You know what I'm saying? And then I have the song right after that. It's called The Nice One.

how the white girls in the school, I was hanging with my thug homies from the hood. But whenever a new Caucasian girl would come into school, they would hear...

And find me at my locker. It's like, you're Aaron, right? I'm like, yeah, we hear you're the nice one. I'm like, okay. You know what I'm saying? Out of all the thug niggas I hang with. You were the nice one. So the nice one is right after, you know what I'm saying? It shows the duality of, you know what I'm saying? My taste has never been, okay, I'll just date this girl because she's black. I'll date this girl because she's white. I'll date this girl because she's Puerto Rican. I'll date this girl because she's Asian. I never had...

A type. Right. I was just love, you know what I'm saying? Yes. Whatever love, whatever that felt like, didn't matter what it looked like. You still lead with love in everything that you do. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So 5816 Forest is a journey. It's an audio series, 17 episodes, fucking crazy. June 13th, baby. Yeah. I can't wait. Tech. So the last song is...

Sacrifice is the only one that ain't done. That's the jelly roll hook. Yeah. Son of a bitch. I'm going to go home and spank him. You know what? He's actually downtown. That's the last song we haven't finished. You know what I'm saying? You guys can probably find him downtown. He's doing a whole bunch of interviews today. I don't know exactly. I'll call him and see what he's up. Everything else is done. That's the one that don't have a hook. I will get on his ass for you. I promise. He said he was going to do it. You know what I'm saying? If he says he's going to do it, he'll do it. If I would have had it...

when he was on, when he came to visit me on the Falling in Reverse tour, he got on my bus. He said, what you working on? I was like, I'm working on this album called 5864. He said, you got anything for me? I said, nope, but I will find it. Yeah. So,

I found sacrifice, you know, so I got that across my chest, you know what I'm saying? Years ago, you know, everything I had to do to sacrifice, the time I spent, it was perfect because it was some woes me shit, but, you know, the shit I had to do, I couldn't, you know, go be with everybody else because I had to sacrifice. And while I was...

being on punishment and shit like that, I worked on my craft, you know what I mean? I became Tech N9ne, you know, and it saved my life, you know? Yeah. So that's the last song, you know what I'm saying? Sacrifice. And it's beautiful. The album is crazy. I can't wait to hear it. I'm so excited. Yeah, we used one producer on this one. Producer I've never worked with. His name is Jay Peasy. He brought that fucking ghetto funk that I ain't had in a long time. You know what I'm saying? Like, like.

Like that I had like back in the Rogue Dog Villain days and Let's Get Fucked Up and Mitch Bae days. It's those kind of beats, you know? And I was fucking scared at first. I told Black Walk because he's the one who told me, man, your fans want to hear all you. Nobody else rapping on it. Just people. If you want to put some people on the hook, that's cool. Wayne did a hook, you know what I'm saying? And his dope is called Yoda. And then- Lil Wayne? Yeah. Then Jelly got sent one, you know what I'm saying? Got a couple of people that's doing hooks, but I'm all the verses and it's never been done.

while we've been doing this, you know what I'm saying? So when Black Walt first brought me the idea, I was like, I've been hearing fans say they tired of me doing

you know collaborations all this time you know i'm saying they just want to hear all me on the song i think that's boring as and he's like nah and i told travis that's what black wall said and he said travis said he's right tech you know they want to hear you rap it you know saying and doing your thing you know i love that black walt is still around black walt is still around i love that yeah he just he just he just got out of jail some years ago you know what i'm saying he was

you know, clocking much dollars on the first of 15. Sorry. But I got into it, the album and doing all the verses and, you know, a lot of the hooks too, you know? And I was like, holy fucking shit is so, it relieved me. Yeah. What's therapeutic for you? I found, I found, I found solace.

And talking about my stepfather and me running away when he was trying to make me a real man, I didn't understand it when I was 17, but when I got out in the world, I understand he was trying to make me better. Mm-hmm.

And I said, I love him and thank you. And I played him, my brother Hakeem played him the song and he said he was so happy. And I said, Donnie, I said, thank you. You know what I'm saying? Because I probably fucked with him. I never came back. Did your stepfather, is your stepfather still alive? Yeah. Oh, good. We played him a song. Yeah. You know, it's called The Punishment. He used to have me on Punishment all the time because I lived in a blood neighborhood and he knew when I was around my homies, shit was happening. Yeah.

You know? So he's like, I fuck up in school. I'm in punishment for the whole summer. Summer's on punishment. I can't wait to hear this album. And I think that it's going to, I think it's actually innovative what you guys are doing. Because I don't think anybody's ever really done this. I ain't never heard nobody else call their upcoming album an audio series with 17 episodes. Yeah. No, it's huge. You guys are just creating your own wave again. Yeah. So.

Yeah. Thank you so much for being here, Ty. Thank you for having me. It was so natural and so comfortable. I appreciate you being here, Travis. I appreciate you being here. And I just, I can't wait to see, you know, your growth and your journey just continue like it has been for all these years. Three decades, right? Yes. Like you have just been moving and shaking. Yes. And you don't plan on stopping. And I love that. So thank you. Come back and see me.

Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of Dumb Blonde. I'll see you guys next week. Bye.