Remember like twenty years ago, when you heard the name Tech N9ne and you thought, "oh man that album is gonna go hard!!"? No? Yeah, me neither. I'm a pretty big rap fan, and I've heard of Tech N9ne probably literally since he started dropping music in 1991. He does a lot of collabo work with others artists, and some of those mixes are really solid. I'm not sure I ever really listened to one of his self releases to this point in my life, so I guess this is relatively exciting. Name obviously comes from the gun, the Tec-9 automatic handgun. Which also shows his age, since you probably wouldn't use that gun today - as the advancements in technology have made that gun tame by current standards. He's from Kansas City, Missouri, and I can tell you first hand - certain areas of KC have a huge hip hop influence. He used to be part of a group called Black Mafia, but that was fairly short lived. He focuses a lot on complex rhyming at quick speeds. So his music (similar to Twista or Busta Rhymes) can have tremendous flow and he shows incredible lyrical skills, but can be hard to follow as a casual listener. He's also heavily influenced by other old school hip hop artists - but in addition to that, he's inspired by old school rock acts. He lists acts like The Doors and Led Zeppelin as musical influences. Which to me, is awesome. I'd love to hear a rapper drop a mix of old school classic rock and hip hop. This isn't that, and it's one of those forgettably good rap albums. What do I mean? It's a solid record. It's got good flow, good beats and a nice overall feel. But would I actively listen to this again tomorrow? Probably not. It's really long (24 tracks) and all of them start to blend together toward the end. It tends to be a little overhyped, meaning the beats and arrangements are always going hard - and it gets to be too much. I think the production studio worked a little too hard on this one. Anyways, worth a listen to all my rap peeps out there, but skippable for my non rap moguls.
TRACK LISTING:
1. The Pledge (Intro)
2. Technicians
3. Military (Skit)
4. Am I A Psycho?
5. He's A Mental Giant
6. Worldwide Choppers
7. We Miss You Man (Skit)
8. I Love Music
9. Strangeland
10. Call From Richie (Skit)
11. The Boogieman
12. Cult Leader
13. Call From KC Poet Camile (Skit)
14. Fuck Food
15. Overtime
16. Pornographic
17. You Owe Like Pookie
18. Delusional
19. So Lonely
20. If I Could
21. Angry Caller (Skit)
22. Love Me Tomorrow
23. Mama Nem
24. Promiseland
Listen To Samples
Top 3 Tracks:
1. He's A Mental Giant
2. F**k Food
3. Am I A Psycho?
FINAL RATING:
2.25 out of 5 stars
Dag, I think that's the longest track listing I've ever seen that wasn't apart of a compilation set. Whoo...
ReplyDeleteLots of skits, but still. Lots of mediocre rap music.
ReplyDelete