Krizz Kaliko
Interview by Black Dog Bone
What was it that made you so different as an artist? Were you creative when you were growing up?
I think first of all it comes from my diverse background, growing up in the suburbs of Kansas City. I hung around a bunch of Jewish kids and listened to what they were listening to until I became a young teenager and went into the inner-city. I got a lot of influence from what they were listening to there. Also, my mother being a choir director gave me a re
ally eclectic view of music. I have always been in talent shows singing, I always sang in the church choir and I always sang to impress people at the lunch table in school. I really just did it because I liked to, and I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would be something that I could do for an occupation until I met Tech N9ne.
You started off as more of a singer than a rapper?
Yeah, but I always rapped just for fun. I tell people that I never wanted to be seen as a singer who raps though. That’s why on my first album I rapped more because I wanted people to really respect me as an MC. I really feel like as an MC I can smash niggaz for real. I just played around with rap and I really sang because that was my background. My mother had me sing in the church choir and I have even done theatre before. My foundation is singing because we were always concentrating on chords, harmonies and things like that. I just rapped because I could, but once I really started developing my craft I realized that I could do both of them equally as good as the other; that is why you hear me doing both of them all of the time on all of Strange Music’s music.
Did you ever learn to play an instrument, or did you just sing and rap?
The funny thing is when I would pick stuff up I could feel my way around it and play it. When I lived with Tech in LA he bought his wife a bass guitar and nobody really messed with it, but I figured out notes on it and I would play the guitar for his kids before they went to bed. I wasn’t really good, but I’d play the guitar and sing for his daughters before they would go to bed.
You are probably really musical?
My greatest asset is not my singing or my rapping; it’s my ear and the ability to hear and understand music and how to do it. When I get a beat or instrumentation from somebody it just talks to me, so music is a really big part of me. Not just something I like; it’s really a part of my character.
A lot of rappers do music in hopes of making money, and their heart and soul is not in music at all. Then there are people like you who do it for the love of the music.
Every third nigga is a rapper. One out of every three niggaz is a rapper. I also hear a lot that they think they are gonna change the game, but it’s just popular to say. I really do have game changing material. What I do is game changing. Any time you hear somebody who can sing any type of music, who can sing R & B, who can sing Reggae, who can sing Country, and then also get on the mic and annihilate regular MC’s too—that is game changing material.
What is amazing about Strange Music is that you have a great team but you are not just doing music. I saw you performing at the Gathering of the Juggalos, and the whole camp moved as a unit. What you’re doing is totally different from what anyone else is doing in Rap music at this time.
It’s gonna stick out. On any platform that you stick us on we are going to stick out; it doesn’t matter if it is Rap or Rock. Naturally when it is Rock we stick out just because we’re rappers, but it’s more than that. When they put us on the “Rock the Bells” tour we knew we were gonna shine because we’re different from everything on that tour, even though we were all rappin. Our thing is we are not just rappin; we are entertaining. There are rappers that are naturally more popular than us and then there is rappers who are less popular than us and they will ask me “Yo, man what advice could you give me.” I always say, “No one wants to see you rap! You have to entertain them!” The only time people want to just see you rap is if you are a completely mega super star rapper like a Jay-Z. If you don’t have an enormous name in rap you really have to prove yourself, because nobody wants to see you there grabbin’ your nuts and rappin.
I feel like Strange Music is the last of the big giants, and I don’t feel that this will ever happen again in Rap.
I do too. But they said that about Death Row, they said that about No Limit, and they said that would never happen again. I think that we are that new thing that people are talking about that will never happen again, but you never know because there is always a younger person, there is always a better looking person, and there is always somebody who comes up new. When you think about sports you will say, “There will never be another Michael Jordan”, but there is an elite basketball player on the playground brewing somewhere. So I take that as a philosophy and that means I have to be at the top of my game until I am ready to leave.
What’s different now is how the music industry has changed. There is no money in the ghetto like it used to be. The money is dried out and Tech N9ne got through just in time, but it is not gonna happen like that as far as the music industry.
I know what you are saying. There will be talent in the music industry, but because of the decline within the music industry there will probably never be another Strange Music because while the industry is declining we are going up. We are inclining! You are right: there probably won’t be another opportunity for another company like Strange Music to rise up.
Master P will never happen again. Master P had a little record store selling records out of his trunk, like how E-40 did it or Cash Money Records. That is not gonna happen at this time.
The moms and pops don’t even exist anymore and the big retail record corporations are having a real hard time surviving. With that kind of a climate there will not be another opportunity for another Strange Music.
Strange Music artists all stand as unique individuals. Krizz Kaliko is very different from Tech N9ne and Kutt Calhoun is different from you. All of you are original and have your own sound. I think that is one of the successes of Strange Music.
I feel the same way. I know I make a lot of sports references and I do that because of the science of the team. Tech is the quarter back, but you can’t win the game with just a good quarter back. The wide receiver has to be talented, the running back has to be talented, and you have to have a good line to block. He is a great quarter back but to make a successful team everybody has got to be elite. I would consider myself either the running back or the wide receiver because my job for years is to support Tech and to help with making him as big as possible and making his music as elite as possible. I am not separating from him at all and I will always be a part of his show, but it’s also time for everybody to see me not as the Tech N9ne dude. Cause forever they be like, “Oh, the Tech N9ne dude!” Now it’s time for you to see Krizz Kaliko and for me to come out of his shadow and be like, “Oh, this dude can stand on his own two feet and show you some elite talent.” Tech always says, “You guys were surprised at Krizz Kaliko but I always knew and that is why I always have him with me.” He had influenced me so much that there would be no Krizz Kaliko without Tech N9ne. He influenced me so much, but not to the point to where I would have to mimic him. He is not an influence to copy off of, but more like a coach. He would say, “When you get on a song you have to annihilate them!” Before I was with him I went to his shows and I saw how super energetic he was and I was like, “I have to match his energy and even exceed his energy to keep his show going.” It taught me in the process of growing as a company and growing as a Tech N9ne act, and it taught me when I do my own shows I have to keep it turned up the entire time. I can’t wait for you to see my solo show. My solo show is like super energy the whole time.
When you watch artists like the Temptations, James Brown or the Supremes they were entertainers to the max the way they would dance and do the whole show. I always felt like in Rap that was missing. Strange Music brought it back.
We think the same way and we saw what was missing. I think that Strange Music was the missing link in Rap. There are a few people who are making their shows entertaining like Busta Rhymes, he is just giving it to them, and Black Eyed Peas are entertaining. I know some people are like, “Those acts are Pop,” but they are entertaining. Run DMC and Public Enemy use to be like that back in the day. That’s another reason why there probably won’t be another label like Strange Music or artists like the Strange Music artists because we are entertaining. You don’t even have to know our music to like the show.
That’s right. Anybody can just walk in to a Strange Music show and they’ll get blown away! I remember seeing Run DMC and Public Enemy a long time ago when I was just getting into rap; after seeing them I was sold on it. I would run to the record store and get all their records.
That’s what people do with Strange. If someone invites them to a concert they watch me, Tech N9ne or someone else, and they go out and buy our shit. They’re like, “I went to the merch booth and bought all your CD’s because I didn’t know. My friend told me it was the best concert I could ever go to and I didn’t believe them, so I had to come. Now I went to the merchandise booth and bought all the CD’s.” I hear that every single night that we’re on the road.
When Strange Music was first getting started a lot of people were closed minded and couldn’t get into what you were doing. A lot of Rap fans thought Tech N9ne was too weird, not street or Gangsta enough. Now everybody loves Strange Music. Now Tech doesn’t have to prove anything. He can just do what he does, and people know he can be street or gangsta and is a phenomenal entertainer.
What that is, Black Dog, is the imagery. I would say that the regular typical Black Rap fan wants to see what you look like. If it’s not something that they are use to seeing, they reject it. I would have to say the White fans generally want to see wild and crazy and the Black fans typically like to see if you look like the last dude that they really liked. That is sad to say and I really hate to say it, but the bottom line is once they hear the music they are hooked whether they are Black, White or whatever. They are hooked! My new album cover is crazy; you might see it and think that it is not even Hip Hop. If you are the type that wants to see me with a big gold chain on in front of a car then you might be turned off, but if you listen to it you will be like, “That dude can for real rap!” The part that I think would scare your typical Rap fan is the imagery. That is one of the reasons why I named my album “Shock Treatment”, because I have to have a shocking affect on everything. The shows are shock treatment, the music is shock treatment, the imagery is shock treatment. I felt like that is what we have been giving them for years and that is why I named my album that.
A lot of people feel like they’re gangsta and tough because they carry a gun, but that is not gangsta. Gangsta to me comes from the inner. Any fool can have a gun and pull a trigger.
To me gangsta is being daring, being brave, and taking a chance. Anyone can have a gun, but are you really gonna shoot this nigga face to face in broad daylight? That’s what our music is. I’m not saying we are killing people on the music, but we are brave enough musically to pull it out in board daylight. We’re not just following conventions, we are stepping out there and doing what we believe. I think that the thing that associates us with being gangsta is one word and that is “fearless”. Our music is fearless, our stage show is fearless and our imagery is fearless.
You bring something different! When you first started to hear NWA, Too Short, C-Bo or Ice Cube it was exciting because you hadn’t heard anything like that before. Now twenty years later the ghetto stories have been told and retold many times. Let’s hear the ghetto stories presented in a new way. I feel Strange Music is bringing that, and Krizz Kaliko is bringing that.
I say we are gonna tell a ghetto story over a different sound in music to where you might talk about something in the hood, but we are gonna talk about it over a whole Rock song. That is daring and something that is fresh. People have seen Rock and Rap merged together, but the way that we do it is the whole Strange Music sound.
When you first met Tech N9ne how long ago was that?
That was in late 1999. They were first getting ready to start up Strange Music and I met Tech over at Icy Rock’s house. Icy Rock was the producer in town and he use to be Tech’s producer. Tech had got some deals and went out of town on his own. When he came back to Kansas City going to work with Icy Rock again I was Icy Rock’s protégé, and he was like, “Man you should put Krizz on something!” So I paid Tech to get on the song with me and he was really impressed and started to ask me to help him with his music and we kind of formed Strange Music with Travis at that time. I helped Tech with a couple of songs and it was inevitable that I become part of the camp at that time.
You go back to the beginning of Strange Music?
Yeah, Tech was already out at that time but this was the beginning of Strange Music. At that point and over the years I kind of became the glue of Strange Music. If you would ask, “What is your position at Strange Music?” of course I would say “artist” because that is the obvious answer, but what I really am is the glue at Strange Music, musically the glue. There is not a Strange Music album that comes out without me on several songs. I am responsible for writing for several artists too. They do hooks without me, but I am really responsible for coming up with the bulk of the hooks and especially the hits that are on everybody’s album. That’s what I like to do. I am like, “Hey man, if you are gonna have me on five songs on your album then give me the ones that you want to be the hits.” That is what I do. That is what I mean by when I say the glue. Travis holds the business together, Tech is the blueprint for artists on the label, and musically I feel like the glue because you can’t put all of these different pieces together without the glue.
How much input does Tech have with all the Strange Music artists behind the scenes?
He knows that every artist is different and he will say, “I don’t want Scooby to sound like me, or I don’t want Krizz to sound like me.” He knows what kind of artists they are and what they do. He use to be involved with a lot of the writing on the other artists albums, and I mean besides his own verses. But now he trusts the artists so much that he lets you do your own verses, and he might come in at the end and say, “Man you should add this!” and change stuff. He usually comes in and tries to put some butter on it. The influence that he has is that you have to be elite and murdering them on every song. We got a friendly competition here. We all push each other; it’s friendly competition because we push each other to be the best.
It seems like Tech has found the right artists to work with where he can be comfortable around you all. Sometimes if you are different and weird the people around you can’t understand your vision.
Everybody on Strange Music is not strange. I think everybody is a little crazy in their own way, but I would say that the Strange is when you put a street nigga on there with a dude like myself who is an eclectic musician, you put up a straight up rapper on the same label with that along with a Brotha Lynch Hung who is kind of a Horrorcore rapper—that’s strange. Putting all of these people together is the strange part. If you were to ask me if Kutt Calhoun’s music is crazy I would say, “No, it’s good and elite, but he’s not going to wear red spiked hair. Tech would.” Is Tech gonna do a super sounding Pop song like I would do? My music will sound kind of Pop, but it will be hardcore at the same time when he might not do that.
You are so different and unique from Tech, and Kutt Calhoun is so different from you, and then you get Big Scoob and he is way different. He is so gangsta and you have a totally different atmosphere. That makes the label interesting.
To me that is what makes us strange is that we are so different. The diversity is strange. I had another interview and they asked me what is the one word you would describe yourself as and I said “diverse!” I am not saying this to be arrogant, but there is no other artist in the world that is as diverse as Krizz Kaliko, or at least not that I’ve heard. Maybe there is somewhere out there and he is just popular in his country, but not that I have heard especially in the United States. There are dudes that sing and rap, but I don’t think there are dudes that do what I do. I think that Tech N9ne is the flagship and the reason for Strange Music, but Krizz Kaliko is the sound for Strange Music.
Your voice, your presence is on every CD. That’s amazing.
When you hear me rappin, Tech rappin, Lynch rappin, Scoob rappin, or Kutt rappin you know they gonna kill it. When you hear me on the song you know it’s Strange. That’s that Strange Music sound right there once you hear me come on the song.
I never realized it, but how I know what you mean.
I think it happened after my last album that everybody has been saying that, including fans and media, “I have just realized from back when ‘Anghellic’ came out how much music you’re on!” It is just like when you buy a car you all of a sudden see that there is a lot of those on the street. I have had this many albums and once you notice me you will be like, “Damn, he was on all of those songs!” I sat there and thought the other day of how many albums on Strange Music I have been on and there was twenty. There was not an album on Strange Music that has come out that I wasn’t all over, and I purposely try to make it like that because I just love doing music that much. I don’t want to be arrogant, but it ain’t the Strange Music sound if you don’t have Krizz Kaliko on it.
You said you like all kinds of music. Do you like Dancehall, Reggae, World Music, and all genres of music? What is your thing?
There is not that one thing that is my thing. Everything is my thing. I love Reggae, I love Dancehall and I love straight up Rap. I like Hip Hop . People try to make a difference between Hip Hop and Rap, but it is all the same thing. It is the Hip Hop culture! I like different types of cats, like I love Talib Kweli but I also enjoy Twiztid on Psychopathic. I even enjoy some Soulja Boy songs because they get the club cracking, but then again I like John Legend, I listen to Country music like that girl Carry Underwood from American Idol. I am also a super fan of Gnarls Barkley and Notorious BIG. I can’t say I just like this. Right now what I am listening to in my CD player is Rick Ross and Alicia Keys’ new CD as well as Big Boi. I was just listening to Jazz the other day on the radio and I was thinking, “I need to go take my wife to a Jazz festival where they are just playing Jazz with not any words, just instruments.” I love music and you could hear how much I love it by how diverse my music sounds.
When you are doing music how much of it is you and how much of it is not you. If I listen to your music will I get the real picture of what Krizz Kaliko is?
Absolutely! That is one thing that I was influenced by Tech, being an inside out rapper, meaning what I am doing you can see. I have a skin disorder called Vitiligo, and I named my first album after that. That lets you know I don’t have nothing to hide right off the bat and that was the whole purpose of the album. You are going to get my personality in the album with my little skits in between with Shock because I am a person with a big sense of humor. I don’t come in the room quietly; I walk in like, “Hey, what’s up boy?” I am the elephant in the room and you are gonna get that on my album. You are also gonna get how musical I am, you will see that I love to party, and that I love women. But one thing I will say is, is it always me? Maybe not! If Tech N9ne is going through something and I am watching him go through something then I know how to tell the story through lyrics. Most of the time it’s going to be me, but I can also tell your story. My motivation for music and lyrics is just life and experience. I might just be going through what you are experiencing and be able to write about it.
A lot of rappers claim that everything they rap about is their true experience, but when you hear their stories you have to wonder if it is true or not.
I won’t do that! Everything I write about has got to be true. Like the song “Psycho Bitch” that Tech had, a lot of that is his experience, but some of that is about an experience that Icy Rock had with a crazy women. It is not an untruth but I am experiencing you experiencing it.
When you read a good book or see a great film the writer probably got some things in the story from truth and some were created. But it’s the way he put it together that makes the story amazing.
I’m a good storyteller and I can put it together but my problem is it would take me too long to put together something that is untrue. I am motivated by my life experiences and I might experience you going through something and I can still tell the story because I am still experiencing it. It all comes from my personal experiences.
Where did you grow up? Was it a totally different neighborhood in Kansas?
I grew up in a place that they call Out South. It is southern Kansas City, Missouri. Up here the slang for the area is there is Out South, and there is Down North. The reason they call it Down North is because the numbers on the streets go down. I grew up on 97th street and Tech grew up in the projects called Wayne Minor which is on 9th Street. Out South we would call it Out South because we’d be like, “That’s way out south!” That’s where I grew up at until I turned 15 and then I moved to 63rd Street. It didn’t start being Down North until you got under 40 blocks. It was kind of diverse out there for real. My father owned a company and he started making good money right before I got born and they lived in the hood. They didn’t want me to grow up there because they wanted me to have a chance because the neighborhood was getting bad. They wanted me to get a good education and not get involved with gangs and have a good opportunity, so they moved us way Out South. It started getting a little bit hood as I turned about 15. The White folks were moving further Out South and the Black folks were moving in Out South. So we moved north into the inner city into an upper class area. It was surrounded right by the hood where Tech and them grew up at. Just so happened that’s where Icy Rock lived and that’s how I ended up linking up with him doing music, but when I moved to the inner city that is when I got introduced to people selling dope around and the people around me were listening to different music. I always listened to Rap, but when I lived in the suburbs I was listening to Pop music like Duran Duran and Motley Crue because where I was going to school at when we had the school functions that is the kind of music they played, that is what my friends listened to. Then when I got down to the inner city Too Short was poppin back then and NWA was poppin back then. Also Spice-1 and Brotha Lynch were crackin at that time too. And E-40 and C-Bo! It was right at that era where C-Bo was at the height of his career. I was more influenced by that music. Plus I worked at a grocery store right in the middle of the hood called Happy Foods right in the heart of the hood on 31st street. The hustlers used to slang weed out of there and I was introduced to that lifestyle. I was still going to church at the same time, and after that I was going to college. I went to college and I thought I was going to be an attorney or at least work in the corporate world. After a while I started working in the corporate world in telecommunications. I was working in that field, so I had a super diverse background and in all these different chapters in my life you hear all these different types of music going on. That’s why you hear all that influence in my music today.
A lot of people in Kansas City grew up listening to Bay Area Rap, and the Kansas sound is very influenced by the Bay. It’s good music, but I feel Kansas City needs its own sound.
I think that is what separates us. I don’t think you can classify my music as just Kansas City. One thing I learned from Tech when I started was: Make your music to travel! Kansas City is gonna love you too, but make your music to travel around the world. And that is what I do.
That is one of the reasons I like Tech and the whole Strange Music camp. So many artists that I’ve heard out of Kansas City have had that Bay influence and that’s cool, but we have heard that forever. Let me hear something from Kansas that is different. Tech really brought that; I think Strange Music really put Kansas on the map.
Really it is because of that philosophy, because we make our music for the world including Kansas City, including California, Brazil, France and whatever. We make our music for the world and I think that is why the world is paying attention.
I know a lot of people who just love Strange Music. Then you have these Juggalo types who are just mad about Strange Music. I was at the Gathering of the Juggalos, and people were paying $25 for Murder Dog posters of Tech N9ne.
Everybody loves us, from the Juggalos to the Punk rockers to regular Rap fans. Everybody loves us and that is our advantage. I target everybody.
It is not one dimensional. You can do the biggest show at the Gathering and then do Rock the Bells and get that Rock crowd.
It is so exciting to be accepted everywhere. I saw this Visa commercial where they said MasterCard was not accepted and this was not accepted but Visa…Everywhere you want to be. I was like “That’s our philosophy too, that’s crazy!” I never thought about it until I saw that commercial. MasterCard is not accepted everywhere. There is something that is attached to them where retailers are not going to let you use that card there. That limits them! We need to be Visa!
This year all I hear anybody talk about is Strange Music. Where do you see this all heading? Do you think about it?
We see it! We planned for this! I saw an interview with Jim Carey several years ago where they asked him, “You are getting 7 million dollars a movie; are you surprised?” He said, “No, I was just wondering what day this was going to happen on!” That is the same philosophy that we have. We meant to be the biggest label in the world. We are the biggest independent label in the world and becoming the biggest label in the world. I want to be the biggest artist in the world. I say that with a little bit if hesitation because I see how Michael Jackson lived his life. I want to be the biggest artist in the world. I love Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Alicia Keys and I am not taking anything away from them, but I don’t think that there is anything better than us. I don’t think there is nobody better than us. We are operating on the same playing field as any elite artist that you love.
Jay-Z is a major Pop artist but he doesn’t have that underground feel, that “starting from nothing” feel. It is a whole different feeling.
You can’t put it in a box! You can categorize a lot of rappers but you cannot categorize us. I call my stuff “Hip Pop”. I mean the most popular Hip Hop there could be.
When you start doing your disco routine and getting naked on stage it’s over. I will come to see every Strange Music show.
Naw hell naw dog!! I might take my shirt off. I have to look like 50 Cent before I take my shirt off though. I dropped like 80 lbs and I need to drop another 60. I need that X-Factor.
When I saw you at the Gathering of the Juggalos you looked a lot thinner.
You probably never seen me in person before, plus I dropped like 80 lbs since the last photo shoot we did.
How did you lose all that weight?
I don’t eat beef or pork and I work out like 5 days a week. I want to enjoy life. I am raising a son and I want to be able to enjoy life with him. I want him to be able to play sports with me. That is probably the most important factor. I don’t want any road blocks. I want my stage show to be elite too.
I feel like the whole Strange Music camp really cares about the fans. When you go to see a Strange Music concert you know you will be entertained for real.
That is another reason why I wanted to work out. When I was 350 lbs we were still giving them a show, but I was super tired and was falling to the ground when we got off stage and I was sick. Now when I get off stage I feel like I can do that again. It takes some people several work hours to come up with enough money to be able to pay for a ticket at our show and I’m not about to be up there just slacking. I want you to feel like you got your money’s worth because you paid to come see me. I wanted to work out so I could be on top of my game, so I am not slacking. Even if we are doing 50 shows in a row I want the 48th night to be just as hype as the first night.
I hope that one day Tech N9ne and the whole Strange Music camp will do experimental new styles of Rap, even if you use different names, just break all the rules. That would show everybody how talented all of the artists in Strange Music are.
We do talk about that. That is one of the things that we do where we push our talent even further. I will talk to Tech and we will be like, “Let’s do this, or let’s try to do a whole Rock album!” Believe me we have already talked about it, and those plans are already in the works.
It would be amazing if you and Tech would work with people like DJ Diplo out of Philadelphia. He did music with M.I.A. and remixed Gucci Mane’s album. The clubs would go crazy for that.
Hook me up with him! I’m ready. You need to plug me in with anybody who you think is elite. We need to be like the Super Friends.
Strange Music has got the crossover crowd, the Rock crowd, the Rap crowd, and I am just hoping you can get the club crowd.
I don’t want to stop until I got the world. I feel like I can get down with the Techno folks just like I can get down with the Juggalos, just like I can get down with the Metal-heads and just like I can get down with the Hip Hop heads and the R & B'er.
A lot of rappers shy away from anything tribal like face paint or tribal clothing, even dancing. All of those elements are in our roots in every race and culture. I wish African American people could be more comfortable with their roots.
That’s where Tech even got all of this from, from tribal people. When he paints his face he calls it “the war paint”, and when we go on stage it’s time to “go to war”. It’s time to be fearless. He talks about it in his songs, “My face paint is tribal.” It doesn’t represent a certain tribe, but it represents that whole feeling, cause that is our roots. But your typical Rap crowd is used to seeing the same looking people, the same dudes with the name brands on. We like all that too, but we want to show you something different in addition to that. We all got diamonds, we all got gold chains, watches, cars, all of that, but we don’t push that forward. When you see us on stage we got on work clothes. We got on scrubs. On the new tour we’ve got Dickies on with embroidered name patches like we work in a factory or something. We’re the hard blue collar workers of the Rap industry. We don’t come out on stage with chains and jewelry on. We have no jewelry when we hit that stage. We come on stage with face paint and with kick-ass mentality.
Jewelry and cars are cool, we know you have it, but show us something different.
The typical Rap fan expects that, and they’re measuring and prejudging the rapper off of the size of his chain. With us, once you’ve heard one song in our show you forget all about that stuff. We just did a show in Vegas with a bunch of superstar rappers, and I know we shined. I know we stood out from everybody else there because of our performance.
That’s what I’ve loved about Tech N9ne from the beginning. He’s in touch with the tribal roots. That’s his power. We all need to make that connection with our tribal roots, and Tech N9ne is the only rapper I see doing that.
Maybe the rest of the Rap community doesn’t think that’s important. But even if it’s not important to you when you see our show you’re gonna love it. No matter what your objective is when you go to a Strange Music show, we’re gonna entertain you and you’re gonna enjoy it.
Tech N9ne has a dark feel to his music. Does your music also have that kind of darkness?
The darkness in my music—I reflect on the mental balance that I’ve had throughout my life. When I have a song called “Bi-Polar”, I’ve been diagnosed as bi-polar and I’m gonna tell you what I experienced. There’s a way that I can tell you the story in song form. I have a song called “Anxiety” and guess what that song makes you feel when it comes on? It makes you anxious. Everybody turns up when I do that song in concert. Music is my therapy. I’ve been to psychologists and I’ve been on medication. I’m supposed to be on medication now, but I’m not as bad on tour. You know why I’m not as bad on tour? Because I have that outlet on stage where I can get out all the kicking and screaming that I need to do. I can do it on stage! That’s therapeutic to me. When I’m at home I don’t have that outlet and I usually need some help.
Better that you don’t take that medication. They can call you bi-polar or whatever; they call anything that’s not normal a sickness. What you have is powerful emotions and wild energy. You need to celebrate those qualities, not try to kill them and numb yourself with drugs.
I’ve never heard it put like that. That’s beautifully put, Black Dog! Now that I think about it, I only thought I was crazy because I was different from the norm. The way I think and act is not the regular way of thinking or being. When something’s not normal, when you can’t generalize something they say that’s crazy. They told me I was bi-polar, but once I started going to my group meetings with my psychologist, like group sessions, everybody in there that was supposedly “crazy” were all super creative people. Once we got to talking we figured out that all of us were artists of some type. Some of us painted, some of us wrote songs, some did crafty things. All of these creative people were considered crazy by society.
Creative people are wild and free thinking. Their minds haven’t been programmed to work in the system. People like that don’t work good with the system; they can’t be controlled or domesticated.
I tell my wife all the time, I hate to be away from my wife—she’s sitting right here next to me while I do this interview—I tell her all the time that I can’t work a 9 to 5. I used to work for what is now T Mobile for 5 years. I was going literally insane sitting in that cubical. Every morning hittin that alarm, I was going crazy dong that job. I did not fit there. Even though I did a good job and I made it to manager, but I never fit in there. That’s why I’m so happy I can live based on my creativity, cause I can never work another 9 to 5. I don’t blend in—I don’t look like I blend in and I don’t act like I blend in with anybody.
That medication they give is made to control you. It will suck all your creativity out of you. The drugs are made to normalize you so that you can do a 9 to 5.
I used to take a drug called Theraquil and it would make me mentally a zombie. I couldn’t even think of writing lyrics when I was on it. It zapped my personality. My personality does have its shortcoming. The flipside of my being creative is I’m really anxious and I react quickly. That’s how my mind works. I would have to sacrifice being creative in order to be normal in other ways.
It’s good to talk to you. You’re at a point where you’re taking off as a solo artist and stepping out of Tech N9ne’s shadow. Tech is probably really proud of you, to have a strong artist like you signed to Strange Music.
Yes sir. I’m not separating from Tech. I will always be a part of Tech Nn9ne. This is just the proverbial cutting of the umbilical cord. This is what he wanted. It’s almost like a father to child. You want to keep your child right there with you, but you also want him to grow up and be successful. That’s how Tech feels about me. He raised me in this music thing to be as big as him.
It’s what is best for Strange Music also. It’s not a strong label if one artist has to carry it all. It’s good when all of the artists are strong and carrying the label. I’m excited to hear your record when it comes out.
The record is super party time. If I had to describe the record quickly I’d say it’s really a good party record. You can play it from beginning to end. Every album that I do you can play it from one end to the next. This album is pretty sexual. If I had to describe this record in one sentence I’d say: it’s a damn good thang!
Who is doing the production? At Strange Music do you have a in-house producers you work with?
We have generally about 4 or 5 producers, the producers who’ve done the music on all of our albums. With me personally, I co-produce a lot of songs on my album. A lot of the songs on my album, the beats are mine. You see where it says, “produced by Krizz Kaliko and Michael ‘Seven’ Summers”. Seven is a dude that produces on all of our albums, but with my album he didn’t just give me beats, we created them from the ground up. I came up with a beat idea, I’d call up Seven here’s the melody, the bassline, here’s the snares, I want it to sound like this. He creates the beat within an hour or so, gives it back to me and I write the song and record it the next day. That’s mostly the process on my album. I want to get to the point where I can work with Seven and produce every song from scratch. Any time I have singles those are generally songs that Seven and I produced together. My first album I had “Do It Like I Do It”. We produced that together. My second album I had “Misunderstood”; we did that one together. This album I’ve got “Elevator”; we did that together. Usually the biggest songs from my album we did from scratch. That’s the difference. But the producers on my album, you’ll see them on all the Strange releases. Young Fire is pretty much exclusively T-Pain’s producer but he started out with us and we still do stuff with him. Another guy named Matic Lee, and there’s another producer he’s bringing out named OG. I work with a guy from Track Boys named Jay White. And I used a kid named Nardo. We all work with them dudes and another dude named MAD. We use all of them, cause they’re all diverse so we can get all different sounding beats from them.
Do you record in your own studio there at Strange Music?
We record at one studio. It’s not ours. It’s called Chapman Recording, owned by Chuck Chapman. That’s where we do it.
Interview by Black Dog Bone
What was it that made you so different as an artist? Were you creative when you were growing up?
I think first of all it comes from my diverse background, growing up in the suburbs of Kansas City. I hung around a bunch of Jewish kids and listened to what they were listening to until I became a young teenager and went into the inner-city. I got a lot of influence from what they were listening to there. Also, my mother being a choir director gave me a re
ally eclectic view of music. I have always been in talent shows singing, I always sang in the church choir and I always sang to impress people at the lunch table in school. I really just did it because I liked to, and I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would be something that I could do for an occupation until I met Tech N9ne. You started off as more of a singer than a rapper?
Yeah, but I always rapped just for fun. I tell people that I never wanted to be seen as a singer who raps though. That’s why on my first album I rapped more because I wanted people to really respect me as an MC. I really feel like as an MC I can smash niggaz for real. I just played around with rap and I really sang because that was my background. My mother had me sing in the church choir and I have even done theatre before. My foundation is singing because we were always concentrating on chords, harmonies and things like that. I just rapped because I could, but once I really started developing my craft I realized that I could do both of them equally as good as the other; that is why you hear me doing both of them all of the time on all of Strange Music’s music.
Did you ever learn to play an instrument, or did you just sing and rap?
The funny thing is when I would pick stuff up I could feel my way around it and play it. When I lived with Tech in LA he bought his wife a bass guitar and nobody really messed with it, but I figured out notes on it and I would play the guitar for his kids before they went to bed. I wasn’t really good, but I’d play the guitar and sing for his daughters before they would go to bed.
You are probably really musical?
My greatest asset is not my singing or my rapping; it’s my ear and the ability to hear and understand music and how to do it. When I get a beat or instrumentation from somebody it just talks to me, so music is a really big part of me. Not just something I like; it’s really a part of my character.
A lot of rappers do music in hopes of making money, and their heart and soul is not in music at all. Then there are people like you who do it for the love of the music.
Every third nigga is a rapper. One out of every three niggaz is a rapper. I also hear a lot that they think they are gonna change the game, but it’s just popular to say. I really do have game changing material. What I do is game changing. Any time you hear somebody who can sing any type of music, who can sing R & B, who can sing Reggae, who can sing Country, and then also get on the mic and annihilate regular MC’s too—that is game changing material.
What is amazing about Strange Music is that you have a great team but you are not just doing music. I saw you performing at the Gathering of the Juggalos, and the whole camp moved as a unit. What you’re doing is totally different from what anyone else is doing in Rap music at this time.
It’s gonna stick out. On any platform that you stick us on we are going to stick out; it doesn’t matter if it is Rap or Rock. Naturally when it is Rock we stick out just because we’re rappers, but it’s more than that. When they put us on the “Rock the Bells” tour we knew we were gonna shine because we’re different from everything on that tour, even though we were all rappin. Our thing is we are not just rappin; we are entertaining. There are rappers that are naturally more popular than us and then there is rappers who are less popular than us and they will ask me “Yo, man what advice could you give me.” I always say, “No one wants to see you rap! You have to entertain them!” The only time people want to just see you rap is if you are a completely mega super star rapper like a Jay-Z. If you don’t have an enormous name in rap you really have to prove yourself, because nobody wants to see you there grabbin’ your nuts and rappin.
I feel like Strange Music is the last of the big giants, and I don’t feel that this will ever happen again in Rap.
I do too. But they said that about Death Row, they said that about No Limit, and they said that would never happen again. I think that we are that new thing that people are talking about that will never happen again, but you never know because there is always a younger person, there is always a better looking person, and there is always somebody who comes up new. When you think about sports you will say, “There will never be another Michael Jordan”, but there is an elite basketball player on the playground brewing somewhere. So I take that as a philosophy and that means I have to be at the top of my game until I am ready to leave.
What’s different now is how the music industry has changed. There is no money in the ghetto like it used to be. The money is dried out and Tech N9ne got through just in time, but it is not gonna happen like that as far as the music industry.
I know what you are saying. There will be talent in the music industry, but because of the decline within the music industry there will probably never be another Strange Music because while the industry is declining we are going up. We are inclining! You are right: there probably won’t be another opportunity for another company like Strange Music to rise up.
Master P will never happen again. Master P had a little record store selling records out of his trunk, like how E-40 did it or Cash Money Records. That is not gonna happen at this time.
The moms and pops don’t even exist anymore and the big retail record corporations are having a real hard time surviving. With that kind of a climate there will not be another opportunity for another Strange Music.
Strange Music artists all stand as unique individuals. Krizz Kaliko is very different from Tech N9ne and Kutt Calhoun is different from you. All of you are original and have your own sound. I think that is one of the successes of Strange Music.
I feel the same way. I know I make a lot of sports references and I do that because of the science of the team. Tech is the quarter back, but you can’t win the game with just a good quarter back. The wide receiver has to be talented, the running back has to be talented, and you have to have a good line to block. He is a great quarter back but to make a successful team everybody has got to be elite. I would consider myself either the running back or the wide receiver because my job for years is to support Tech and to help with making him as big as possible and making his music as elite as possible. I am not separating from him at all and I will always be a part of his show, but it’s also time for everybody to see me not as the Tech N9ne dude. Cause forever they be like, “Oh, the Tech N9ne dude!” Now it’s time for you to see Krizz Kaliko and for me to come out of his shadow and be like, “Oh, this dude can stand on his own two feet and show you some elite talent.” Tech always says, “You guys were surprised at Krizz Kaliko but I always knew and that is why I always have him with me.” He had influenced me so much that there would be no Krizz Kaliko without Tech N9ne. He influenced me so much, but not to the point to where I would have to mimic him. He is not an influence to copy off of, but more like a coach. He would say, “When you get on a song you have to annihilate them!” Before I was with him I went to his shows and I saw how super energetic he was and I was like, “I have to match his energy and even exceed his energy to keep his show going.” It taught me in the process of growing as a company and growing as a Tech N9ne act, and it taught me when I do my own shows I have to keep it turned up the entire time. I can’t wait for you to see my solo show. My solo show is like super energy the whole time.
When you watch artists like the Temptations, James Brown or the Supremes they were entertainers to the max the way they would dance and do the whole show. I always felt like in Rap that was missing. Strange Music brought it back.
We think the same way and we saw what was missing. I think that Strange Music was the missing link in Rap. There are a few people who are making their shows entertaining like Busta Rhymes, he is just giving it to them, and Black Eyed Peas are entertaining. I know some people are like, “Those acts are Pop,” but they are entertaining. Run DMC and Public Enemy use to be like that back in the day. That’s another reason why there probably won’t be another label like Strange Music or artists like the Strange Music artists because we are entertaining. You don’t even have to know our music to like the show.
That’s right. Anybody can just walk in to a Strange Music show and they’ll get blown away! I remember seeing Run DMC and Public Enemy a long time ago when I was just getting into rap; after seeing them I was sold on it. I would run to the record store and get all their records.
That’s what people do with Strange. If someone invites them to a concert they watch me, Tech N9ne or someone else, and they go out and buy our shit. They’re like, “I went to the merch booth and bought all your CD’s because I didn’t know. My friend told me it was the best concert I could ever go to and I didn’t believe them, so I had to come. Now I went to the merchandise booth and bought all the CD’s.” I hear that every single night that we’re on the road.
When Strange Music was first getting started a lot of people were closed minded and couldn’t get into what you were doing. A lot of Rap fans thought Tech N9ne was too weird, not street or Gangsta enough. Now everybody loves Strange Music. Now Tech doesn’t have to prove anything. He can just do what he does, and people know he can be street or gangsta and is a phenomenal entertainer.
What that is, Black Dog, is the imagery. I would say that the regular typical Black Rap fan wants to see what you look like. If it’s not something that they are use to seeing, they reject it. I would have to say the White fans generally want to see wild and crazy and the Black fans typically like to see if you look like the last dude that they really liked. That is sad to say and I really hate to say it, but the bottom line is once they hear the music they are hooked whether they are Black, White or whatever. They are hooked! My new album cover is crazy; you might see it and think that it is not even Hip Hop. If you are the type that wants to see me with a big gold chain on in front of a car then you might be turned off, but if you listen to it you will be like, “That dude can for real rap!” The part that I think would scare your typical Rap fan is the imagery. That is one of the reasons why I named my album “Shock Treatment”, because I have to have a shocking affect on everything. The shows are shock treatment, the music is shock treatment, the imagery is shock treatment. I felt like that is what we have been giving them for years and that is why I named my album that.
A lot of people feel like they’re gangsta and tough because they carry a gun, but that is not gangsta. Gangsta to me comes from the inner. Any fool can have a gun and pull a trigger.
To me gangsta is being daring, being brave, and taking a chance. Anyone can have a gun, but are you really gonna shoot this nigga face to face in broad daylight? That’s what our music is. I’m not saying we are killing people on the music, but we are brave enough musically to pull it out in board daylight. We’re not just following conventions, we are stepping out there and doing what we believe. I think that the thing that associates us with being gangsta is one word and that is “fearless”. Our music is fearless, our stage show is fearless and our imagery is fearless.
You bring something different! When you first started to hear NWA, Too Short, C-Bo or Ice Cube it was exciting because you hadn’t heard anything like that before. Now twenty years later the ghetto stories have been told and retold many times. Let’s hear the ghetto stories presented in a new way. I feel Strange Music is bringing that, and Krizz Kaliko is bringing that.
I say we are gonna tell a ghetto story over a different sound in music to where you might talk about something in the hood, but we are gonna talk about it over a whole Rock song. That is daring and something that is fresh. People have seen Rock and Rap merged together, but the way that we do it is the whole Strange Music sound.
When you first met Tech N9ne how long ago was that?
That was in late 1999. They were first getting ready to start up Strange Music and I met Tech over at Icy Rock’s house. Icy Rock was the producer in town and he use to be Tech’s producer. Tech had got some deals and went out of town on his own. When he came back to Kansas City going to work with Icy Rock again I was Icy Rock’s protégé, and he was like, “Man you should put Krizz on something!” So I paid Tech to get on the song with me and he was really impressed and started to ask me to help him with his music and we kind of formed Strange Music with Travis at that time. I helped Tech with a couple of songs and it was inevitable that I become part of the camp at that time.
You go back to the beginning of Strange Music?
Yeah, Tech was already out at that time but this was the beginning of Strange Music. At that point and over the years I kind of became the glue of Strange Music. If you would ask, “What is your position at Strange Music?” of course I would say “artist” because that is the obvious answer, but what I really am is the glue at Strange Music, musically the glue. There is not a Strange Music album that comes out without me on several songs. I am responsible for writing for several artists too. They do hooks without me, but I am really responsible for coming up with the bulk of the hooks and especially the hits that are on everybody’s album. That’s what I like to do. I am like, “Hey man, if you are gonna have me on five songs on your album then give me the ones that you want to be the hits.” That is what I do. That is what I mean by when I say the glue. Travis holds the business together, Tech is the blueprint for artists on the label, and musically I feel like the glue because you can’t put all of these different pieces together without the glue.
How much input does Tech have with all the Strange Music artists behind the scenes?
He knows that every artist is different and he will say, “I don’t want Scooby to sound like me, or I don’t want Krizz to sound like me.” He knows what kind of artists they are and what they do. He use to be involved with a lot of the writing on the other artists albums, and I mean besides his own verses. But now he trusts the artists so much that he lets you do your own verses, and he might come in at the end and say, “Man you should add this!” and change stuff. He usually comes in and tries to put some butter on it. The influence that he has is that you have to be elite and murdering them on every song. We got a friendly competition here. We all push each other; it’s friendly competition because we push each other to be the best.
It seems like Tech has found the right artists to work with where he can be comfortable around you all. Sometimes if you are different and weird the people around you can’t understand your vision.
Everybody on Strange Music is not strange. I think everybody is a little crazy in their own way, but I would say that the Strange is when you put a street nigga on there with a dude like myself who is an eclectic musician, you put up a straight up rapper on the same label with that along with a Brotha Lynch Hung who is kind of a Horrorcore rapper—that’s strange. Putting all of these people together is the strange part. If you were to ask me if Kutt Calhoun’s music is crazy I would say, “No, it’s good and elite, but he’s not going to wear red spiked hair. Tech would.” Is Tech gonna do a super sounding Pop song like I would do? My music will sound kind of Pop, but it will be hardcore at the same time when he might not do that.
You are so different and unique from Tech, and Kutt Calhoun is so different from you, and then you get Big Scoob and he is way different. He is so gangsta and you have a totally different atmosphere. That makes the label interesting.
To me that is what makes us strange is that we are so different. The diversity is strange. I had another interview and they asked me what is the one word you would describe yourself as and I said “diverse!” I am not saying this to be arrogant, but there is no other artist in the world that is as diverse as Krizz Kaliko, or at least not that I’ve heard. Maybe there is somewhere out there and he is just popular in his country, but not that I have heard especially in the United States. There are dudes that sing and rap, but I don’t think there are dudes that do what I do. I think that Tech N9ne is the flagship and the reason for Strange Music, but Krizz Kaliko is the sound for Strange Music.
Your voice, your presence is on every CD. That’s amazing.
When you hear me rappin, Tech rappin, Lynch rappin, Scoob rappin, or Kutt rappin you know they gonna kill it. When you hear me on the song you know it’s Strange. That’s that Strange Music sound right there once you hear me come on the song.
I never realized it, but how I know what you mean.
I think it happened after my last album that everybody has been saying that, including fans and media, “I have just realized from back when ‘Anghellic’ came out how much music you’re on!” It is just like when you buy a car you all of a sudden see that there is a lot of those on the street. I have had this many albums and once you notice me you will be like, “Damn, he was on all of those songs!” I sat there and thought the other day of how many albums on Strange Music I have been on and there was twenty. There was not an album on Strange Music that has come out that I wasn’t all over, and I purposely try to make it like that because I just love doing music that much. I don’t want to be arrogant, but it ain’t the Strange Music sound if you don’t have Krizz Kaliko on it.
You said you like all kinds of music. Do you like Dancehall, Reggae, World Music, and all genres of music? What is your thing?
There is not that one thing that is my thing. Everything is my thing. I love Reggae, I love Dancehall and I love straight up Rap. I like Hip Hop . People try to make a difference between Hip Hop and Rap, but it is all the same thing. It is the Hip Hop culture! I like different types of cats, like I love Talib Kweli but I also enjoy Twiztid on Psychopathic. I even enjoy some Soulja Boy songs because they get the club cracking, but then again I like John Legend, I listen to Country music like that girl Carry Underwood from American Idol. I am also a super fan of Gnarls Barkley and Notorious BIG. I can’t say I just like this. Right now what I am listening to in my CD player is Rick Ross and Alicia Keys’ new CD as well as Big Boi. I was just listening to Jazz the other day on the radio and I was thinking, “I need to go take my wife to a Jazz festival where they are just playing Jazz with not any words, just instruments.” I love music and you could hear how much I love it by how diverse my music sounds.
When you are doing music how much of it is you and how much of it is not you. If I listen to your music will I get the real picture of what Krizz Kaliko is?
Absolutely! That is one thing that I was influenced by Tech, being an inside out rapper, meaning what I am doing you can see. I have a skin disorder called Vitiligo, and I named my first album after that. That lets you know I don’t have nothing to hide right off the bat and that was the whole purpose of the album. You are going to get my personality in the album with my little skits in between with Shock because I am a person with a big sense of humor. I don’t come in the room quietly; I walk in like, “Hey, what’s up boy?” I am the elephant in the room and you are gonna get that on my album. You are also gonna get how musical I am, you will see that I love to party, and that I love women. But one thing I will say is, is it always me? Maybe not! If Tech N9ne is going through something and I am watching him go through something then I know how to tell the story through lyrics. Most of the time it’s going to be me, but I can also tell your story. My motivation for music and lyrics is just life and experience. I might just be going through what you are experiencing and be able to write about it.
A lot of rappers claim that everything they rap about is their true experience, but when you hear their stories you have to wonder if it is true or not.
I won’t do that! Everything I write about has got to be true. Like the song “Psycho Bitch” that Tech had, a lot of that is his experience, but some of that is about an experience that Icy Rock had with a crazy women. It is not an untruth but I am experiencing you experiencing it.
When you read a good book or see a great film the writer probably got some things in the story from truth and some were created. But it’s the way he put it together that makes the story amazing.
I’m a good storyteller and I can put it together but my problem is it would take me too long to put together something that is untrue. I am motivated by my life experiences and I might experience you going through something and I can still tell the story because I am still experiencing it. It all comes from my personal experiences.
Where did you grow up? Was it a totally different neighborhood in Kansas?
I grew up in a place that they call Out South. It is southern Kansas City, Missouri. Up here the slang for the area is there is Out South, and there is Down North. The reason they call it Down North is because the numbers on the streets go down. I grew up on 97th street and Tech grew up in the projects called Wayne Minor which is on 9th Street. Out South we would call it Out South because we’d be like, “That’s way out south!” That’s where I grew up at until I turned 15 and then I moved to 63rd Street. It didn’t start being Down North until you got under 40 blocks. It was kind of diverse out there for real. My father owned a company and he started making good money right before I got born and they lived in the hood. They didn’t want me to grow up there because they wanted me to have a chance because the neighborhood was getting bad. They wanted me to get a good education and not get involved with gangs and have a good opportunity, so they moved us way Out South. It started getting a little bit hood as I turned about 15. The White folks were moving further Out South and the Black folks were moving in Out South. So we moved north into the inner city into an upper class area. It was surrounded right by the hood where Tech and them grew up at. Just so happened that’s where Icy Rock lived and that’s how I ended up linking up with him doing music, but when I moved to the inner city that is when I got introduced to people selling dope around and the people around me were listening to different music. I always listened to Rap, but when I lived in the suburbs I was listening to Pop music like Duran Duran and Motley Crue because where I was going to school at when we had the school functions that is the kind of music they played, that is what my friends listened to. Then when I got down to the inner city Too Short was poppin back then and NWA was poppin back then. Also Spice-1 and Brotha Lynch were crackin at that time too. And E-40 and C-Bo! It was right at that era where C-Bo was at the height of his career. I was more influenced by that music. Plus I worked at a grocery store right in the middle of the hood called Happy Foods right in the heart of the hood on 31st street. The hustlers used to slang weed out of there and I was introduced to that lifestyle. I was still going to church at the same time, and after that I was going to college. I went to college and I thought I was going to be an attorney or at least work in the corporate world. After a while I started working in the corporate world in telecommunications. I was working in that field, so I had a super diverse background and in all these different chapters in my life you hear all these different types of music going on. That’s why you hear all that influence in my music today.
A lot of people in Kansas City grew up listening to Bay Area Rap, and the Kansas sound is very influenced by the Bay. It’s good music, but I feel Kansas City needs its own sound.
I think that is what separates us. I don’t think you can classify my music as just Kansas City. One thing I learned from Tech when I started was: Make your music to travel! Kansas City is gonna love you too, but make your music to travel around the world. And that is what I do.
That is one of the reasons I like Tech and the whole Strange Music camp. So many artists that I’ve heard out of Kansas City have had that Bay influence and that’s cool, but we have heard that forever. Let me hear something from Kansas that is different. Tech really brought that; I think Strange Music really put Kansas on the map.
Really it is because of that philosophy, because we make our music for the world including Kansas City, including California, Brazil, France and whatever. We make our music for the world and I think that is why the world is paying attention.
I know a lot of people who just love Strange Music. Then you have these Juggalo types who are just mad about Strange Music. I was at the Gathering of the Juggalos, and people were paying $25 for Murder Dog posters of Tech N9ne.
Everybody loves us, from the Juggalos to the Punk rockers to regular Rap fans. Everybody loves us and that is our advantage. I target everybody.
It is not one dimensional. You can do the biggest show at the Gathering and then do Rock the Bells and get that Rock crowd.
It is so exciting to be accepted everywhere. I saw this Visa commercial where they said MasterCard was not accepted and this was not accepted but Visa…Everywhere you want to be. I was like “That’s our philosophy too, that’s crazy!” I never thought about it until I saw that commercial. MasterCard is not accepted everywhere. There is something that is attached to them where retailers are not going to let you use that card there. That limits them! We need to be Visa!
This year all I hear anybody talk about is Strange Music. Where do you see this all heading? Do you think about it?
We see it! We planned for this! I saw an interview with Jim Carey several years ago where they asked him, “You are getting 7 million dollars a movie; are you surprised?” He said, “No, I was just wondering what day this was going to happen on!” That is the same philosophy that we have. We meant to be the biggest label in the world. We are the biggest independent label in the world and becoming the biggest label in the world. I want to be the biggest artist in the world. I say that with a little bit if hesitation because I see how Michael Jackson lived his life. I want to be the biggest artist in the world. I love Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Alicia Keys and I am not taking anything away from them, but I don’t think that there is anything better than us. I don’t think there is nobody better than us. We are operating on the same playing field as any elite artist that you love.
Jay-Z is a major Pop artist but he doesn’t have that underground feel, that “starting from nothing” feel. It is a whole different feeling.
You can’t put it in a box! You can categorize a lot of rappers but you cannot categorize us. I call my stuff “Hip Pop”. I mean the most popular Hip Hop there could be.
When you start doing your disco routine and getting naked on stage it’s over. I will come to see every Strange Music show.
Naw hell naw dog!! I might take my shirt off. I have to look like 50 Cent before I take my shirt off though. I dropped like 80 lbs and I need to drop another 60. I need that X-Factor.
When I saw you at the Gathering of the Juggalos you looked a lot thinner.
You probably never seen me in person before, plus I dropped like 80 lbs since the last photo shoot we did.
How did you lose all that weight?
I don’t eat beef or pork and I work out like 5 days a week. I want to enjoy life. I am raising a son and I want to be able to enjoy life with him. I want him to be able to play sports with me. That is probably the most important factor. I don’t want any road blocks. I want my stage show to be elite too.
I feel like the whole Strange Music camp really cares about the fans. When you go to see a Strange Music concert you know you will be entertained for real.
That is another reason why I wanted to work out. When I was 350 lbs we were still giving them a show, but I was super tired and was falling to the ground when we got off stage and I was sick. Now when I get off stage I feel like I can do that again. It takes some people several work hours to come up with enough money to be able to pay for a ticket at our show and I’m not about to be up there just slacking. I want you to feel like you got your money’s worth because you paid to come see me. I wanted to work out so I could be on top of my game, so I am not slacking. Even if we are doing 50 shows in a row I want the 48th night to be just as hype as the first night.
I hope that one day Tech N9ne and the whole Strange Music camp will do experimental new styles of Rap, even if you use different names, just break all the rules. That would show everybody how talented all of the artists in Strange Music are.
We do talk about that. That is one of the things that we do where we push our talent even further. I will talk to Tech and we will be like, “Let’s do this, or let’s try to do a whole Rock album!” Believe me we have already talked about it, and those plans are already in the works.
It would be amazing if you and Tech would work with people like DJ Diplo out of Philadelphia. He did music with M.I.A. and remixed Gucci Mane’s album. The clubs would go crazy for that.
Hook me up with him! I’m ready. You need to plug me in with anybody who you think is elite. We need to be like the Super Friends.
Strange Music has got the crossover crowd, the Rock crowd, the Rap crowd, and I am just hoping you can get the club crowd.
I don’t want to stop until I got the world. I feel like I can get down with the Techno folks just like I can get down with the Juggalos, just like I can get down with the Metal-heads and just like I can get down with the Hip Hop heads and the R & B'er.
A lot of rappers shy away from anything tribal like face paint or tribal clothing, even dancing. All of those elements are in our roots in every race and culture. I wish African American people could be more comfortable with their roots.
That’s where Tech even got all of this from, from tribal people. When he paints his face he calls it “the war paint”, and when we go on stage it’s time to “go to war”. It’s time to be fearless. He talks about it in his songs, “My face paint is tribal.” It doesn’t represent a certain tribe, but it represents that whole feeling, cause that is our roots. But your typical Rap crowd is used to seeing the same looking people, the same dudes with the name brands on. We like all that too, but we want to show you something different in addition to that. We all got diamonds, we all got gold chains, watches, cars, all of that, but we don’t push that forward. When you see us on stage we got on work clothes. We got on scrubs. On the new tour we’ve got Dickies on with embroidered name patches like we work in a factory or something. We’re the hard blue collar workers of the Rap industry. We don’t come out on stage with chains and jewelry on. We have no jewelry when we hit that stage. We come on stage with face paint and with kick-ass mentality.
Jewelry and cars are cool, we know you have it, but show us something different.
The typical Rap fan expects that, and they’re measuring and prejudging the rapper off of the size of his chain. With us, once you’ve heard one song in our show you forget all about that stuff. We just did a show in Vegas with a bunch of superstar rappers, and I know we shined. I know we stood out from everybody else there because of our performance.
That’s what I’ve loved about Tech N9ne from the beginning. He’s in touch with the tribal roots. That’s his power. We all need to make that connection with our tribal roots, and Tech N9ne is the only rapper I see doing that.
Maybe the rest of the Rap community doesn’t think that’s important. But even if it’s not important to you when you see our show you’re gonna love it. No matter what your objective is when you go to a Strange Music show, we’re gonna entertain you and you’re gonna enjoy it.
Tech N9ne has a dark feel to his music. Does your music also have that kind of darkness?
The darkness in my music—I reflect on the mental balance that I’ve had throughout my life. When I have a song called “Bi-Polar”, I’ve been diagnosed as bi-polar and I’m gonna tell you what I experienced. There’s a way that I can tell you the story in song form. I have a song called “Anxiety” and guess what that song makes you feel when it comes on? It makes you anxious. Everybody turns up when I do that song in concert. Music is my therapy. I’ve been to psychologists and I’ve been on medication. I’m supposed to be on medication now, but I’m not as bad on tour. You know why I’m not as bad on tour? Because I have that outlet on stage where I can get out all the kicking and screaming that I need to do. I can do it on stage! That’s therapeutic to me. When I’m at home I don’t have that outlet and I usually need some help.
Better that you don’t take that medication. They can call you bi-polar or whatever; they call anything that’s not normal a sickness. What you have is powerful emotions and wild energy. You need to celebrate those qualities, not try to kill them and numb yourself with drugs.
I’ve never heard it put like that. That’s beautifully put, Black Dog! Now that I think about it, I only thought I was crazy because I was different from the norm. The way I think and act is not the regular way of thinking or being. When something’s not normal, when you can’t generalize something they say that’s crazy. They told me I was bi-polar, but once I started going to my group meetings with my psychologist, like group sessions, everybody in there that was supposedly “crazy” were all super creative people. Once we got to talking we figured out that all of us were artists of some type. Some of us painted, some of us wrote songs, some did crafty things. All of these creative people were considered crazy by society.
Creative people are wild and free thinking. Their minds haven’t been programmed to work in the system. People like that don’t work good with the system; they can’t be controlled or domesticated.
I tell my wife all the time, I hate to be away from my wife—she’s sitting right here next to me while I do this interview—I tell her all the time that I can’t work a 9 to 5. I used to work for what is now T Mobile for 5 years. I was going literally insane sitting in that cubical. Every morning hittin that alarm, I was going crazy dong that job. I did not fit there. Even though I did a good job and I made it to manager, but I never fit in there. That’s why I’m so happy I can live based on my creativity, cause I can never work another 9 to 5. I don’t blend in—I don’t look like I blend in and I don’t act like I blend in with anybody.
That medication they give is made to control you. It will suck all your creativity out of you. The drugs are made to normalize you so that you can do a 9 to 5.
I used to take a drug called Theraquil and it would make me mentally a zombie. I couldn’t even think of writing lyrics when I was on it. It zapped my personality. My personality does have its shortcoming. The flipside of my being creative is I’m really anxious and I react quickly. That’s how my mind works. I would have to sacrifice being creative in order to be normal in other ways.
It’s good to talk to you. You’re at a point where you’re taking off as a solo artist and stepping out of Tech N9ne’s shadow. Tech is probably really proud of you, to have a strong artist like you signed to Strange Music.
Yes sir. I’m not separating from Tech. I will always be a part of Tech Nn9ne. This is just the proverbial cutting of the umbilical cord. This is what he wanted. It’s almost like a father to child. You want to keep your child right there with you, but you also want him to grow up and be successful. That’s how Tech feels about me. He raised me in this music thing to be as big as him.
It’s what is best for Strange Music also. It’s not a strong label if one artist has to carry it all. It’s good when all of the artists are strong and carrying the label. I’m excited to hear your record when it comes out.
The record is super party time. If I had to describe the record quickly I’d say it’s really a good party record. You can play it from beginning to end. Every album that I do you can play it from one end to the next. This album is pretty sexual. If I had to describe this record in one sentence I’d say: it’s a damn good thang!
Who is doing the production? At Strange Music do you have a in-house producers you work with?
We have generally about 4 or 5 producers, the producers who’ve done the music on all of our albums. With me personally, I co-produce a lot of songs on my album. A lot of the songs on my album, the beats are mine. You see where it says, “produced by Krizz Kaliko and Michael ‘Seven’ Summers”. Seven is a dude that produces on all of our albums, but with my album he didn’t just give me beats, we created them from the ground up. I came up with a beat idea, I’d call up Seven here’s the melody, the bassline, here’s the snares, I want it to sound like this. He creates the beat within an hour or so, gives it back to me and I write the song and record it the next day. That’s mostly the process on my album. I want to get to the point where I can work with Seven and produce every song from scratch. Any time I have singles those are generally songs that Seven and I produced together. My first album I had “Do It Like I Do It”. We produced that together. My second album I had “Misunderstood”; we did that one together. This album I’ve got “Elevator”; we did that together. Usually the biggest songs from my album we did from scratch. That’s the difference. But the producers on my album, you’ll see them on all the Strange releases. Young Fire is pretty much exclusively T-Pain’s producer but he started out with us and we still do stuff with him. Another guy named Matic Lee, and there’s another producer he’s bringing out named OG. I work with a guy from Track Boys named Jay White. And I used a kid named Nardo. We all work with them dudes and another dude named MAD. We use all of them, cause they’re all diverse so we can get all different sounding beats from them.
Do you record in your own studio there at Strange Music?
We record at one studio. It’s not ours. It’s called Chapman Recording, owned by Chuck Chapman. That’s where we do it.
