This is part one of a three-part series of posts I will write on the best rapper out, Tech N9ne.
That’s right. I said it.
The best rapper alive is not Kanye West. It’s not Eminem (at least right now). It’s not Lil’ Weezy and it’s not Jay-Z. The best rapper alive for this guy’s money is Tech N9ne.
Considering all the rap posts I’ve put together since this blog started five weeks ago, you at least have to know I listen to a lot of rap. It’s my favorite kind of music — not just for listening, but for debating. And the greatest debate in this genre is “Who’s the best?”
For a long, long time, I said the best rapper alive was Eminem. Marshall was my favorite — not just because I was white and related to his stuff, but because I genuinely believed his rhyme scheme and his lyrical content was the best.
Then, a few years ago, I swore on my life Lil’ Wayne was the best rapper out there. Weezy busted into our lives using the mixtape circuit and put so much incredible material together it was hard to not believe him when he’d calmly say, “I’m the Best Rapper Alive since the best rapper retired (Jay-Z).” But with the way the Rebirth Fiasco (http://thekidisback.com/2010/01/08/rebirth) has gone, it’s only fair to say Lil’ Wayne just isn’t where he used to be.
Is there room to ascend? Sure there is. And maybe we’ll be writing about Drake as the biggest star alive after Thank Me Later drops in 2010. Maybe Em will re-ascend to the throne. There are a lot of maybes and ifs now in the rap game.
But the truth of the matter is the one artist who is continually putting out great music is Tech N9ne. There’s just indisputable evidence to prove it.
Some of you might be unfamiliar with the number one hip-hop independent artist in the world, but he’s been positively influencing my life since 2002, when he dropped the classic album Anghellic.
For whatever reason, Tech N9ne is incredibly popular in Northern California, where I grew up. I can remember riding around in my baseball teammate’s truck when he first threw Tech into the radio and told me I needed to hear him. And the first song I heard, of course, was his first original classic.
In college, you might have heard some of Tech’s classic bangers. The most famous song from Anghellic is, without doubt, Einstein Tech N9ne. Have a listen:
This song is a perfect example of what makes T9 one of the greatest rappers to be a fan of. He can rap as fast as Twista, only with significantly better lyrics and a more devilish, exciting quality to his music. He will throw in elements from theater and movies into his music (witnessed in the “KC, MO Rolllllll,” which is clearly an homage to The Wizard of Oz.)
Similar to Lil’ Wayne, I could link literally hundreds of Tech N9ne songs in this post because he’s developed such an amazing collection of records under his label, Strange Music. That’s not to mention one of his Kansas City protégés, Krizz Kaliko, has released two albums within the last two years under the label. Kali is featured on a number of Tech’s songs, including another of my favorites, I’m a Playa:
Kaliko is incredibly talented and his contributions to Tech’s music will be featured in another post on this site. That said, he’s been along for this incredible ride with Tech for the last few years as Strange Music’s popularity has exploded (relatively speaking, of course).
To give you an idea of where the Independent Hip-hop scene has taken this group of talented rappers, Tech’s last CD (my personal favorite of 2009), K.O.D. debuted at number 14 on the Billboard charts this past year.
That fact is incredible when you think about it. This guy literally doesn’t have a single on the radio at any point and makes such incredible music that his fans never miss a release. And there have been an unbelievable amount of releases over the past four years.
Starting in 2006, when Tech came out with his first full CD since the epic “Absolute Power,” he’s released FIVE full-length CDs (two as Tech N9ne Collabos, where he works with a number of Strange Music and other artists to create a number of songs, many of them with guest appearances).
Everready released in 2006. The album features an insane amount of classic jams – some of which were actually featured in the Justin Timberlake film, Alpha Dog. Of those, the one that may have defined my senior year of college and which resonates with even the most casual of rap fans has to be the incredible Caribou Lou:
I can almost guarantee you can play this song at any dance party across the United States and you’re going to get the party jumpin’ and the hotties humpin’.
Since Everready’s release, Tech’s come out with the aforementioned Tech N9ne Collabos albums, Misery Loves Kompany and Sickology 101. Both albums are incredible and feature 18 songs apiece, but of those 36, this song is the best in my opinion:
In any event, I’ll be spending a lot of time on this blog talking about Tech being underrated and alerting you any time he’s featured on a song because his talent needs to be more widespread.
Tech, at least this half of TKIB salutes you – and I’m hoping we can get more people to feel the way I do.
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