You’ll be hard-pressed to find a fanbase more vocal than Tech N9ne’s.
One of the greatest things about Technicians is how close they follow their favorite emcee. When Tech (does something), chances are they know about it. This close eye leads to much speculation and debate and makes being a Tech N9ne fan much more than just seeing him live and bumping his albums.
We put a list together of what we think are the most-debated topics amongst the legion of Technicians across the world.
Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments box below and tell us what we got right and what we got wrong. More debate!
Old Tech N9ne vs. New Tech N9ne
“I like their old stuff,” is a phrase often heard from any diehard music fan, one who harks back to the day of a rawer sound, before it was “tainted” by newness or worn down inspiration. In Tech’s case it’s hard to say whether he was better back then or now, because it’s not a matter of better or worse, it’s just different. In the old days of Anghellic and Absolute Power, Tech exudes a raw, unpredictable energy, exhibiting more flows in one verse than some rappers do in their entire careers. Tech N9ne’s new music features more polish, with bigger production and more precise, intricate flows. Like a great jazz musician, Tech’s mastery of his instrument improves with age and experience, and he continues to surprise us with new tricks.
Tech Is Going Mainstream vs. Mainstream Is Going Tech
As Tech N9ne turns from hip hop’s best kept secret to somebody you can hear on the radio and see on TV, the debate is inevitable: is he going for the mainstream audience or is the mainstream finally catching on to this anomaly in the music business that’s managed to grow while the rest of the industry has sunk? “Is Mr. FTI himself really on BET right now? What?!”
You can’t expect a great artist to remain in obscurity forever, so the real debate ought to be: is Tech tailoring his music to sound like everything else, and is he doing it for the quick cash? Quick analysis would say “No.” With songs like “Unfair”, “Over It”, “American Horror Story”, “I’m Not A Saint”, and many more, Tech continues to push the creative and personal envelope with his music, reflecting his unending quest to put his life on wax and do it in a way that’s never been done before. However, when one listens to how downright eerie and particularly raw his early stuff was (especially Anghellic), one can understand the argument that Tech is changing with the times.
To the allegation that “Fragile” achieving radio success is a move towards the mainstream, Tech has repeatedly responded that a “fuck you” song achieving success on the radio is the most FTI thing that could possibly happen.
The Best Tech N9ne Album
This debate is pretty self-explanatory, but in our experience we’ve encountered some recurrent arguments: “K.O.D. is Tech’s best album, hands down,” says the fans who love Tech for exposing the deepest and darkest parts of his soul and psyche for us to hear. Others (including Tech himself) will make the argument for Everready, saying that it’s his most polished and complete piece of work. Fans that love Tech at his rawest form will go for Anghellic, while others that love the “bigger” sound of Tech will usually lean towards All 6’s and 7’s. With so much material, it’s easy for this debate to be a difficult one, with no clear winners.
Who Tech N9ne Should Collaborate With
With an artist that has an artistic repertoire as wide-ranging and expansive as Tech N9ne’s, the question of who he should work with could take all day to answer. The requested collaborations from fans range from mainstream hip hop (Jay Z, Nas, Eminem) to the underground (Immortal Technique, Jarren Benton, xxx) to EDM (Excision, Skrillex) to hard rock (Slipknot, Korn, Nine Inch Nails). Tech even collaborated with The Doors for pete’s sake, so we know by now that anything’s possible. Here’s to the next collaboration that will come out of left field and blow our mind.
Tech’s Best Verse
Surely this is the debate with no right answer. How do you rank awesomeness when there’s an over-abundance of it? One of the most prolific artists in hip hop, Tech N9ne has hopped on too many tracks to make it easy on anybody trying to pick his best bars. (Writer’s vote: second verse of “He’s A Mental Giant”…wait no “Strangeulation” cypher…actually “Unfair”…damnit).
Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!