As part of HipHopDX’s series asking top artists about their 2012, we spoke to Tech N9ne. The Kansas City, Missouri mainstay has become one of the genre’s most successful artists, both commercially and critically, late in his nearly 20-year career. The emcee/label co-founder highlighted the last 12 months with a poignant News Years Eve 2011 and meeting an important goal. “The best time I had in 2012. It’s like, so much happened in 2012. I would say, it was ringing it in, New Years Eve on the Disney cruise with my children in the middle of the ocean,” Tech said. “And you know, the Disney Cruise is the only cruise line that can have fireworks at sea. So we did it. And I had Mac Miller with me, and everybody with me. It was so wonderful. Yeah man, yeah, it was a great way to bring in 2012 and because it started like that it’s ending wonderful too, you know what I mean?”
The Forbes Top Earning Rapper list member continued, “I’m over here in Europe with all these sold-out shows man. It started off wonderful and its ending wonderful also you know what I mean. But the worst thing about 2012 is having to pay back my stupid mistakes that I made back in the day when I first got married, um, with the IRS – not paying the IRS like I was supposed to. And I had to pay it all back in 2012. That’s the most fucked up thing that happened. [Laughs] This is from back when I was in my twenties. And I’m in my forties now. [Laughs] Yeah, when I was stupid you know what I mean? So now I’m smart and they caught up with me…when you get to making all that money, oh they gonna catch up with you. And you’re gonna get smart real quick or you’re going to jail. Yeah so I got smart, and thank God that I was making enough money to pay them. I paid them the equivalent amount of a brand new Maybach. Yeah, in three months: bom-bom-bom. So, I’ll say, thank God for Hip Hop, because when you think about it, if you’re paying the IRS back a brand new Maybach – which is close to $500,000 or more – that means you spent way more than that. So, thats your fault you know what I’m saying? Yeah, it’s all Jesus though, ’cause Tech N9ne will always prevail and thank God for Hip Hop, I was able to pay back my debt.”
