It’s no secret Kansas City rap titan Tech N9ne is an independent music kingpin, one who has tirelessly built his Strange Music Inc. imprint from the ground up and done it in a way that protects the integrity of the music he wants to make. Simply stated — he’s always been in charge of his own destiny. A little over a year from releasing his Strangeulation Vol. II project, Tecca Nina rolls through with The Storm, a monster hurricane of a project boasting an unbelievable 33 tracks (with 20 of them relegated to a bonus disc). However, despite that exhaustive number, there’s a twist. The album is broken into three parts intended to represent the three sides of Tech’s personality.
Beginning with the “Kingdom” category, which is meant to signify his narcissistic side, songs like the radio friendly “Erbody But Me” with Bizzy and longtime collaborator Krizz Kaliko, the oddly intriguing “Get Off Me,” and the Logic-assisted “Sriracha” throw up the middle finger to anyone looking in his direction, and easily captures the cockiness he set out to emanate.
The “Clown Town” section, seemingly meant to reveal the depths of his creepy side, features Korn’s Jonathan Davis on “Starting To Turn,” a dark, moody track that manages to seamlessly blend Tech’s signature brand of rap with nu-metal, but with only four tracks in the category, it’s also the shortest.
Finally, the ego-powered, gangster-oriented “G.Zone” portion of the album is the most explosive and offers a highly diversified list of contributors. “Buss Serves” with Big Scoob and Young Devi D murder the thunderous beat while the deep, bass heavy “No Runnin To Ya Mama” brings levity to the album with 11-year-old Lace Jr., who helps out on the hook. “No runnin’ to ya mama/when you caught up in the drama/no runnin to ya mama when you caught up in the drama/cuz you give nobody honor,” he spits with the same fervor as a seasoned MC.
Unexpectedly, The Storm’s sole ode to weed, “Buddha,” finds the unmistakable harmonies of Boyz II Men, which is easily one of the record’s standout tracks. Starting with a harmonized countdown, it’s like it’s the early ‘90s all over again yet catapulted to 2016 with lyrics that revolve around vaping and (not surprisingly) legalizing marijuana. “No Gun Control” features the soul, blues and R&B stylings of Gary Clark, Jr., who contributes both additional vocals and a mean guitar as Krizz and Tech spill their feelings on the hot-button topic of guns in America.
Most telling, “The Needle” gets to the core of what is really bothering Tech, which seems to be that he’s not “mainstream” enough. During the melancholy song, he mentions his 2013 hit single “Fragile” with Kendrick Lamar and how he “sometimes feels like giving up,” even though he’s one of indie Hip Hop’s biggest success stories, which is truly more remarkable than any major label win.
While The Storm occasionally hits in all the right places, the sheer volume of the tracks dilutes what could have been a killer album from front to back. Similar to recently released albums like REKS’ The Greatest X or E-40’s The D-Boy Diary, it’s necessary to pluck out the slappers and leave the rest for a rainy day. While Tech rap his ass off and consistently puts his incredible rhyming prowess on display, The Storm could have benefited from a more concise execution. Nonetheless, it’s a massive undertaking and another reminder how committed Tech is to his career, one that constantly redefines itself with age.
One of those albums where one listen simply doesn’t do it justice
Truth
Like tech n9ne but man, I like the kod tech, these songs are mixing into this new music,ain’t no collaboration from strange but krizz, get ces cru, rittz on it, but still a badass album, strang music ?
K.O.D was probably one of Tech’s best albums, if you can even pick a “best” album, but he said he would never go that dark ever again for an album. He said that hr had no happiness and that K.O.D was one of the hardest albums he ever put out, because he had to go to such a dark place to write those songs. He said the only reason he made that album is because his fans wanted it. So, don’t expect an album that is that dark again.
I ain’t tryna hear 33 songs from Nobody
Your mom can take my 3.3 inches. I mean… um… my 10 inches BITCH!
Hahahahaha????
Over all an amazing album. Such fire verses from Tech N9ne.
Worst album I have heard from tech, he’s getting worse and worse shit is dissapointing as a tech fan
This nigga sucks for real King Cheesy
I thought I was buggin. Dude is wild overrated. Cheesy maybe the term.
same old same old from Tech. Lyrical monster though.
I throughly enjoyed the story line in this album. That has always been one of my favorite things about Tech, is his story telling threw out an entire album. There are some “filler” songs, hence why I’m giving it a 4 star rating. BUT there isnt a song that i didnt like. Another great album from Mr. Yates!
every time a rapper tries to tell a story or do a concept album it’s shit.
Wildly Overrated Musician. Original? That can be highly debated , EASILY. His core Fan base, white kids with identify issues, almost similar to his album catalog. Quality music? Depends on you’re taste. But I cannot list him as a highly ranked hip hop talent. I just cannot, Smart business moves? Definitely, dope music? Again Highly Debatable, dudes kinds wack. This album was clearly too long, but again I’m from the bay. Maybe Mac Dre still fires within me. But 9 is just another little man with a Napoleon complex. Luckiest Nicca in hip hop.
He had nothing to do with the death of Mac Dre. So while you weak minded fukks keep thinking that, the real killer gets off scott free while laughing at you.
Dude keeps dropping fire I keep coming back to this and ab soul but mostly this good job tech keep’em coming!
Last good Tech album was K.O.D. and that’s a FACT!
“I hope you guys like krizz kalico cause he’s on half the tracks” nobody does, tech. get that grotesque macy gray knockoff out of here.
fall throat first on something sharp when you get the chance
Bruh, Krizz is a musical genius. Even out shined Tech AND Marshall on WWC2, in my opinion anyway. Tech wouldn’t be as good as he is today if it wasn’t for Kali: FACTS
It might have been a better idea to review the regular release instead of the deluxe version, which featured bonus tracks from Tech as well as tracks from other members of Strange Music. To give an album a less than stellar review simply because of it’s length should be reserved for releases that come with this many tracks on the regular release. I give it a 4 out of 5. I am curious if those who gave it a bad rating even listened or just went off of a preconceived notion of what Tech N9ne is. I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the features from Young Devi D or Brandoshis, because they sound so much like what’s popular right now. My thoughts are that those who reviewed this negatively probably would enjoy those particular tracks, or similar music from those two “artists.”
We reviewed what the label sent us, which was the deluxe edition.
It’s an oversized portion of the same old shit.
Why review the Deluxe Edition though???
tech should take all these massive albums and distill them into one good 12 track record, there’s too many throwaway songs and half-cooked ideas. he’s been doing this his whole fucking career. he even divided it into 3 sections for each of his dumb personas, the “clown town” and “g-zone” stuff. just combine those dimensions into one single unique persona, you’re not interesting enough to be divided up. oh and by the way nobody likes skits.
The GREATEST FOR A REASON TECH N9NE !!! STRANGE MUSIC ALL DAY ALL NIGHT !!!
Agreed, his music is beautiful. He is his own man, no one can compare. I’m not saying everyone should think he is the best but he is not a replica of everyone else either
This nigga need to just tour and stop dropping music, I thought I was going to be a fan of his because I enjoyed 2 albums and then the next 5 or 6 albums have been extremely bad. He is extremely overrated I remember when people would try to put him on the same level as Em and Krayzie Bone, f that he ain’t close.
Everybody always got hate on this brother, but I got nothin’ but love for the Big Homie Te¢h. The man has been doing his thing for years and I think it’s bekuz of him that most independent rappers nowadays are even heard. His music is always dope, and I think that he is the GOAT right now. He needs to get working on that Legends album with Krayzie Bone and Eminem. That album would stop the world from spinning.
Tech is legit one of the best rappers alive. On that needle song I just don’t know why he don’t get it. My nigga you scaring our people away so bad they can’t even hear what you’re saying. Let the 3 dimensional shit go. We know you got different personas we all do. Let the music speak for itself its too good to be scaring niggas. We got enough scary shit to worry about out here blood. I love Tech but damn that mask he had on stage here in AZ was some bullshit. My girl wanted to leave after 1 song
Yo bitch sounds lame, bounce that ho!
Hands down period, techs flow is dope as fuck. He does pack too many ideas in his albums and his talent gets lost in it sometimes. But thats tech, hes super diverse and can spit on almost anything with that ability to do that with his flow. Think hes underrated but understand the lack of respect due.
Tech N9ne and E-40 need to do an album together and put 93 tracks on there.
LOL I don’t know who is cornier tech or e40
This is a classic f@&# them haters
This was far from classic bro, as a strange music fan I can tell you tech is no longer even the best rapper on strange it’s Ritz
Just because certain fans feel like tech nine is cheesy and not that good doesn’t mean we are showing a lack of respect that’s just some of our opinion, to me he is not good I have listened to his albums the production imo is often extremely horrible subject matter is on weirdo. He just doesn’t connect with your hardcore hiphop black fans that prefer Nas, Bone thugs, Old Jay, Wu, Outkast, Tupac, Big, Pun, Snoop. He connects more with white punk rock kids.
Ummm don’t assume people of that color are the only people who listen to a certain artist, that’s not helping any situation
Didn’t say they only listen to a certain type I said that’s who tech 9 connects more with.
He’s very creative and never ceases to please his fans, even if you don’t listen to him that much.
Not good another disappointing effort by tech, he does what most people that build up a decent fan base does, just drops garbage bc he knows it will make money.
You obviously know nothing about rap. Or music at all
OMGOODNESS I PRAY 1 DAY SOON I MEET TECH N9NE B4 MY X UP I HAD 3 BRAIN SURGERY DONE DUE TUMORS ANURSYN I JUST TURNED 51ST SEPTEMBER 6 I DIED 6X GOD BLESS ME 100 PERCENT TECH N9NE OFF DA HOOK I LIVE TACOMA WASHINGTON NOT DC
Mr. Yates is the pinnacle of what rap has always needed “strange as vy at most and originality and shun of clown rap icp since the carnival of carnage to the new tech Nina delivers. And yes people wll always fear what they don’t understand,none the less it’s what you don’t understand that won’t let you see tech for all tha he has been doing in its enter entirely…..nuff sed….cha!!
It’s beyond me how Tech considers this his ‘best album yet’. Tech USED to be my favorite rapper, but with the release of this, I’m hard pressed to go out & purchase another. This album was an EXTREME disappointment & was disrespectful to even call it a ‘much anticipated sequel’s to The Calm Before the Storm. SO much filler. Unoriginal BASIC, monotonous production. I’m convinced Tech doesn’t have anything else to say.
It isn’t the best tech album, but it’s incredibly diverse and I appreciate how he’s using his fanbase to promote slept on talent. As always some love it and some hate it, but when it’s all over Tech is one of the greatest!
Not techs best album however it far surpasses my expectations
Great job, length was a bit much though
Good
Amazing job by tech and his team on this one
!!!!!SIIKKK!!!!!
Is now and have always been a lyrical gymnast with every variety in rhyme scheme known to the rap game. Tech is just getting started. The Storm is the bomb.
So wait.. does his song “Wet” have the same beach as Kendrick’s “untitled 07” only sped up?
They sound similar, but no, they are not the same beat.
This album has truly opened my eyes to what hip-hop is. Rock has the guitar and drums and country has the nitty-gritty feel and jazz has the tuba in the background, but hip-hop can be all these things in one. Listen to Track 11, Poisoning the Well, that sounds kind of bluegrass. Listen to Track 14, Buddha with Boyz II Men, with the R&B chorus. Listen to not only Track 10, Starting to Turn with Jonathan Davis of KoRn, but also listen to all the other rock slash acid rap Tech has done over the years with the Deftones and Slipknot and System of a Down. Listen to the dubstep-esque Roadkill song he did with Excision on Special Effects. Listen to him do the psychadellic crossover with the Doors on Something Else. Listen to him do that kind of funny/kind of true Autotune joke on Godspeed, the first track of this album. Hip-hop is just a genre, but its also shown that it can be so much more, and there’s no better example than Tech N9ne. Other rappers are just rappers. They do their 24 bars, a chorus in between every 8, over a repeating rhythm that to this day still sounds like 8 Mile. Tech isn’t breaking the mold, he’s just stretching it out and making more room for everyone to work upon. The Storm is a godsend. Album of the year. 11/10 IGN.
You’re obviously no music expert (“jazz has the tuba in the background”? Come on now). Everything Tech’s done, he’s copied from someone before him. If you want a bluegrass-y rap artist, there’s Raury. If you want country rap, there’s Bubba, Yela, and a whole bunch of other white artists who do it. RnB chorus? Soooooo many radio rap artists do this, and is part of the reason why Tech is called a sell-out. Fuck, rap with RnB choruses have been done for almost as long as hip-hop has been a thing. Rock rap, well Run DMC and countless others have so it. Dubstep rap? Basically a sonic evolution of grime music from the UK (Skepta, Wiley, JME, Dizzee Rascal), not to mention that Tech and Krizz already did it before Special Effects. Psychedelic rap? Check out Kool Keith, he’s been doing it forever. Tech is good, but your comment shows you haven’t been paying attention to hip hop history. Especially if you think that every song now sounds like 8 Mile, because (1) that implies that every song now sounds like 8 Mile (the soundtrack?) which isn’t true, and (2) that you need to listen to hip hop that came out before Eminem.
No one can redefine music anymore. What tech does is he can incorporate all the various types of rap and do it well. Obviously every rapper took rap,rock from Run DMC and so on and so forth, but you don’t see many people combine all sorts of different types on one album like T9.
I guess the point that we disagree on is whether he does it well. Tech will always be a lyrical monster, but for me, I just don’t feel him anymore for two reasons. The first is that he’s repetitive. He’s been doing variations of the same three songs for most of his career now: the club song, the “I’m dark” song, and rap fast song. The qualities of the songs have run the gamut, but the sheer volume of repetition makes his music tedious to listen to. The second problem with Tech for me is that, yes, he incorporates a lot of different influences into one album, but the end result ultimately lack cohesiveness. I understand that Tech divided this album into his three personas, but even that seems like an empty gimmick. The album, while it does have some good songs, resembles a mixtape or lazy pop record: a collection of songs lumped together in a collection rather than a cohesive album.
This is exactly what I felt about this particular album. I just was not feeling it this time around. See, for me, what Tech has done so well over the years is that even though he goes through those exact three kinds of songs, he’s always been one to mix it up in a variety of interesting ways. First and foremost, his choruses were absolutely terrible this time around. Just way too plain. Most of the stuff on his latest album just didn’t go anywhere. They felt humdrum, one-note. The only song that I really enjoyed was “I Get it Now” which felt incredibly refreshing. It introduced horns, slowed and sped up the tempo, the chorus was exciting, and it felt entirely original. It felt truly inspired. There are WAY too much songs on this as well, and so many of them felt lazy, the bass would overwhelm EVERYTHING else on the song, and there was no flow, no cadence.
In short, like you’ve mentioned, it felt tedious to listen to you. And autotune on a tech n9ne song, and not any song, but the FIRST song? I felt at that point that I was in for a wild ride of plummeting expectations.
All of this, is coming from an absolute die hard “technician” who has been to his concerts, and owns all of his albums, this one was a rather large misfire. Not to mention, his song “the needle” fell on deaf ears knowing that he turned down a 60 million dollar record deal…
You obviously don’t understand the disrespect to Auto tune that Tech was portraying then. “Speak in a language, that the MAJORITY will understand.” And he was smart to turn down that deal. Not only would he no longer be independent, but Strange will be worth twice that in the coming years and it’s his baby. Some “technician” you are guy.
Truth all truth
You do realize on the bonus cd it is not all songs. It’s only about 12 songs with the rest being intros. Plus, it’s not even really part of the album. It’s only included with the deluxe version and it’s a calleborative effort to show off his other artists on the label. The review seems to heavily dock him for “to many songs” on what is essentially not part of the main album.
what a legend
really good
First album I heard was everready and have bumped tech ever since. Music changes and if you don’t keep up you will fall off. Comparing Tech to Nas and Jay is like trying to compare apples and oranges man. Completely different fan base. Still both have respect from a broad variety of people.
All albums up to Everready were incredible. Killer was good. KOD was trash, save for about three songs on it. 6s and 7s was pretty good. Something Else was enjoyable. Special Effects was the beginning of the end of the good Tech N9NE. This was the first time, other than KOD, that I felt like the majority of Tech N9NE album was unlistenable. It had two or three good songs, the ones that felt like they were made for the radio, but something about the rest of them just wasn’t any good. This trend has continued, unfortunately, on Tech N9ne’s latest release, the storm. It has a few good tracks on it, but overall, it all sounds the same and there are too many features. Either Tech has truly decided to change the way he does music, or he’s just bored and lazy and is writing sloppy music now. I know he feels like it is his best work, but I just can’t go along with that. The collabos albums bring more to the table now then an actual Tech N9ne release! It really hurts me to say this as a guy who’s been a fan of his since 2001 when I discovered him. I wish he would get back to making a truly great album again.
was disappointed. but i admire his dedication. honestly i expected a lot more. the calm before the storm was his first real release and i don’t think anything after EverReady was all that good as a whole album. since then I’ve had to take 1-3 songs from his many albums and collaborations and make my own personal play list. and sadly enough less than 5 tracks from his newest album really isn’t what i expected. i pre ordered the storm because i,m a huge fan. was let down. i understand that he is trying to broaden his fan base, but is it worth losing the technicians he already has?
You’re a fucking idiot. Less than 5 songs? This album is KILLER. And if you think shit went down hill after everready. Then you ARE NOT a technician and you can get the hell on. Everready lol he barely even started in 2005.
Everready is considered by many long time Tech fans to be Tech’s best album to date, as well as by Tech himself. If you think Tech hadn’t started before 2005, you’re the one who can get the hell on. The Calm Before the Storm, Anghellic, Absolute Power, Celsius (even though it’s not an official release by Strange Music), Vintage Tech, the shit Tech did with 57 RDVs. Dude has been rapping since the early 90’s, and in the 12 years since Everready, Tech has released a shit load of music. That doesn’t diminish the quality of music dude put out in the beginning of his career.
Tech does not consider Everready to be his best. If he did, he would have stopped after Killer in 2008. If you listen to his interviews, he believes that every album is a challenge to do better than the last.
I think the album is excellent. I love everything this man puts out. Fuck all the haters this shit bangs!
shit album. deserves a 2 tops but gonna rate 1 just because all of the mindless fucks are artificially upvoting this piece of shit. you people would probably give 5 stars to cd of tech taking a dump
Tech N9NE is dedicated and talented at what he does. His speed and his albums are top of the line good (my favorites being All 6’s And 7’s, Something Else, and Special Effects, still yet to discover his back-catalog). Another thing I like about him is that he releases albums in a very quick period of time. I like artists who release a lot of albums. Listening to this album though, some songs are worth skipping, which is why it dropped to a 4 for me. However, I enjoyed a lot of the songs. He’s getting older in age, but still pretty good albums. And I’ve had no problems with the auto-tune, just hope he doesn’t do it as much as T-Pain. I’ll give this album more listens, which is another strength that Tech N9NE albums do for me. Well done, Tech, well done. Favorite Songs: Godspeed, Erbody But Me, Get Off Me, I Get It Now, Starting To Turn, Buss Serves, No Runnin’ To Ya Mama, Buddha, What If It Was Me, The Needle and The Long Way
The auto tune was just him making fun of the rappers that need to use auto tune to make money. Listening to what he says in all the songs for his message not just the what sounds good. -KingTurxNashty
This album was destined to be lit before it even came out. The Calm Before The Storm? Well this is The Storm.
Tech is the 2nd best rapper out there. And to think the best is one on his own label.
RITTZ…. biotch