When it comes to the competitive nature of a Strange Music Collabos release, Rittz is right at home. 

While the first installment of Tech N9ne Collabos: Strangeulation introduced the idea of a Strange Music cypher, volume two is what has us really excited.

Through preview clips and interviews it’s been revealed that each Strange Music artist will be going in over a different throwback Strange beat, and in that regard it looks like Rittz has won the beat lottery.

We spoke to Rittz about the weight of writing to “Midwest Choppers”, the process behind his verse, and what other Tech N9ne beats he’d like to rip.

Check out the full interview below!

What did you think about the concept surrounding the Cypher series when you first heard about it?

I thought it was really dope. Last time everybody was kinda falling on the same track, and this time we got different tracks. So I got the track and I loved it. It was a “Midwest Choppers” song. Luckily, I talked to Kaliko. He called me one day. On one of Tech’s records, he said “I gave him the beats and I laid my verse first and I gave him the ups.” So Kaliko gave me the ups on that verse.

I had “Slow To Me” done and had “We Just Wanna Party” done. The only thing left I had to write was the Choppers song – which was the Cypher verse – and I was thinking, it would be so much easier if I knew where everybody was going and what to do here. Am I supposed to rap as fast as I can rap? Or am I supposed to do whatever. And Kali was like, “I’ll send you my verse.” So he sent me his verse over, and as soon as he did, I was like, “Okay, I see what’s going on,” and wrote my verse. It’s probably my favorite verse that I’ve done. I really love the Cypher record.

When I first heard they were doing Tech beats for the Cyphers, I immediately thought back to how you ripped “Questions” when you first got picked up. I’m assuming you didn’t get to pick which beat you’re on. So is there a Tech beat that you’ve always wanted to go in on, besides “Questions“?

There are so many Tech records I’d like to go in on. One of the Tech records I really wanted to rap over was “Delusional“. That was done by WillPower, who actually kind of introduced me to Strange. Not exactly introduced me, because Yelawolf introduced me to Strange. WillPower being Yelawolf’s pretty much exclusive producer.

WillPower came out here and showed us the whole video of how everything was going on: the label and everything. So when I got 6’s and 7s, it was just dope hearing WillPower and Tech over that. So that’d probably be a record I’d like to flow over the top of for sure.

But I’m happy with what I got. I think it was the perfect track for me. And like I said, I already did “Questions” and I got a dope ass track for Tech for my album that’s going to bring him back on some old “Questions” type shit.

Speaking of the beat that you got, obviously you got the original “Midwest Choppers“, which is crazy, and I think that’s a huge treat for the fans because they’ve wanted you on a Chopper track for a minute now. Did that placement carry any extra weight for you? When you’re in the writing process, did you know that this is going to be a big deal for the fans?

Yeah I did. And that was the thing. With the Chopper record, I was like, “What [beat] is this?” Then when I first heard it, I was like, “Oh shit, this is the ‘Midwest Choppers’ beat.” And I’m like, “Does this mean I have to rap as fast as I can? What’s Rittz going to do on a Choppers beat? How is Rittz going to be a Chopper? What’s his verse going to be like?”

So instead, I just kinda did the opposite. Well, not the opposite, but I went ahead and just wrote from the top of my head. There were a lot of punch lines and metaphors, and at the end, I was like, [raps part of verse].

I wrote about some regular shit and was like, “Oh shit! This is what ya’ll wanted to hear. Let me show you how easy I can do it real fast.” That’s not a downplay or anything. I was rapping and at the end I was like, “Oh shit I forgot this was a Chopper song”…and just started chopping it up for them real fast.

I actually like how you executed that. I think that’s what fans are going to experience when they hear it. They’re going to be like, “This is dope but this is a Choppers song” and you’re like, “Oh yeah, I forgot it was a Choppers song…” and they’ll be like, oh, he fuckin’ did it!”

• What’s your favorite verse from Rittz?
• What’s your favorite track from Rittz?

Let us know in the comments below.

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TECH N9NE COLLABOS: STRANGEULATION VOL. II!