O'Guin told Tech about the millions he'd generated from his furniture business, and suggested they go into business together.
#TOP DEPRESSING TECH N9NE SONGS FULL#
Tech felt that his tangled web of handlers were preventing him from reaching his full potential. O'Guin told the rapper he was a big fan of his music-and asked why Tech was never on television or radio while lesser rappers prospered. It wasn’t until he met O’Guin in 1999 that things began to change. But nobody could agree on a single, and Tech's career stalled.
That was enough to score him some success as he bounced between local labels, landing in 1997 at Quincy Jones’ Warner Brothers-backed Qwest Records. As s a rapper, he married the verbal dexterity of hip-hop's Golden Age with the tenacity of thrash metal. Tech always had a flair for the eccentric, whether it was hunting ghosts as a youth or donning dramatic face paint before shows as an adult. Born Aaron Dontez Yates to a single mother in a rough section of Kansas City, he started rapping as a youngster and earned his nickname for his rapidfire style (he now sees the name as a combination of "technique" and "nine, the number of completion"). “ in everything, he reaches for perfection.”įor Tech N9ne, aged 41, the results have been a long time coming. “What sets him apart is not only that his all-around work ethic is crazy, from the stage to the studio, to writing them rhymes,” says Lamar. As a result, Tech pulled in an estimated $7.5 million over the past year, up $1.5 million from his Cash Kings debut in 2012, topping better-known artists including 50 Cent, Mac Miller and Rick Ross. He and O'Guin have crafted a one of the most streamlined independent operations in hip-hop-perhaps of any genre-making Strange Music something a leaner, stealthier, Midwestern version of Cash Money.
All that hard work is finally paying off.