![]() But Tech’s new partner also helped him get lawyered up and started cutting deals O’Guin would eventually pour in $2 million of his own cash before he started getting money back.īefore that happened, the duo encountered more than their share of adversity. It certainly didn’t hurt having O’Guin, a defensive lineman-sized force of nature, at meetings with some of the more questionable local labels with which Tech had become entangled. "He took this idea I had in my head, the snake and the bat … Travis is such a shrewd businessman, he took this idea and put it everywhere.” Says O’Guin: “I realized this was a lot more interesting than furniture.”īut before Tech could get to the point where he was selling Strange Music beer coozies for $4.99 and pendants bearing his logo for $74.99, he had to get out of his existing deals. “We did a 50/50 partnership of Strange Music, and it was the best move I could make," Tech recalls. O'Guin told Tech about the millions he'd generated from his furniture business, and suggested they go into business together. Tech felt that his tangled web of handlers were preventing him from reaching his full potential. O'Guin told the rapper he was a big fan of his music-and asked why Tech was never on television or radio while lesser rappers prospered. ![]() It wasn’t until he met O’Guin in 1999 that things began to change. But nobody could agree on a single, and Tech's career stalled. That was enough to score him some success as he bounced between local labels, landing in 1997 at Quincy Jones’ Warner Brothers-backed Qwest Records. As s a rapper, he married the verbal dexterity of hip-hop's Golden Age with the tenacity of thrash metal. Tech always had a flair for the eccentric, whether it was hunting ghosts as a youth or donning dramatic face paint before shows as an adult. Born Aaron Dontez Yates to a single mother in a rough section of Kansas City, he started rapping as a youngster and earned his nickname for his rapidfire style (he now sees the name as a combination of "technique" and "nine, the number of completion"). “ in everything, he reaches for perfection.”įor Tech N9ne, aged 41, the results have been a long time coming. ![]() “What sets him apart is not only that his all-around work ethic is crazy, from the stage to the studio, to writing them rhymes,” says Lamar. ![]() As a result, Tech pulled in an estimated $7.5 million over the past year, up $1.5 million from his Cash Kings debut in 2012, topping better-known artists including 50 Cent, Mac Miller and Rick Ross. He and O'Guin have crafted a one of the most streamlined independent operations in hip-hop-perhaps of any genre-making Strange Music something a leaner, stealthier, Midwestern version of Cash Money. All that hard work is finally paying off. ![]()
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