After releasing Absolute Power to surprising sales success, retaining the rights to his masterpiece Anghellic, and kickstarting label Strange Music with the help of MSC Entertainment, Kansas City King Tech N9ne was in a pretty good place. He had artists, he had some financial stability, and most importantly he still had creative vision for the future even after creating two of my favourite hip-hop albums of the 2000s decade. Things were looking up, and for the first time Tech felt he could really take his time with crafting an album. His next project Everready [The Religion] was teased many times from as early as 2004, but it wasn't until late 2006 when the album was finally released, four years after Absolute Power. In case you didn't know, that's the longest time Tech has ever taken to release new music by quite some margin - from then on it's difficult to find a year when Tech didn't release two albums and an EP, let alone a year with nothing at all. This truly must have been a weird time for the Technicians.
Except it wasn't, because of course Tech had to put something out for the fans anyway.
After spending the year 2004 helping his new signees Kutt Calhoun, Project: Deadman and Skatterman & Snug Brim put out their debut albums through Strange Music, Tech decided that, since it was to be a while before another album of his would be complete, he would open up his vaults and unleash a compilation of previously unreleased tracks into the stratosphere - well, most of them weren't "unreleased" at all, but you get the gist. Vintage Tech came out in early 2005, the last Strange Music project to be released in conjunction with MSC before they went completely independent, and was an 18 track release of songs that featured Tech narrating from start to finish on each song's origin and its reason for not being released. This can make a listen to the project on shuffle a bit of a pain, but when you're going through the project as a whole it's clear that the idea is actually pretty bloody great - Tech's always been kind to his fans, and tell me what other artist actually narrates their own compilation? You didn't see Nas do that on The Lost Tapes, did you?
Since Tech obviously put a decent amount of work into putting this one together, I thought it only right to cover it on here, even though it's not really a studio album at all. I won't necessarily spend as long talking about the songs on this project (especially since there's quite a few I've already covered), but I do need the practice anyway for writing about the next few 30+ track Tech albums that are coming up in his catalogue. Man, this guy's albums are long. Tech, would it kill you to release a 10 track album once in a while? Because I seriously think that would help!
1. Lost Lair Of B'Zle (prod. Robert Rebeck)
The compilation begins with a ridiculous intro that aims to hype the rest of this project into oblivion. We go from two men sneaking into Brian B'Zle Dennis' house to find the masters for Tech's unreleased music, which ends in a stupidly dramatic way, to then suddenly being at a Tech concert, and then everything goes crazy. There's music, chanting, everything. This intro is absolutely ridiculous. It's cool, though, and quite incredibly creepy towards the end with the reversed vocal effects and intense music. After the rawkus dies down, Tech begins the narration, where he uses a staticky vocal effect to make it appear to the listener as though he is on the other side of a walkie-talkie. Why rappers like to do this I don't know, but whatever. This is a cool intro, but a bit overdramatic considering what this album is - a compilation.
2. Monster (prod. Don Juan)
Kicking things off with an actually unreleased song, this one was supposedly made for some soundtrack, but never made the cut because Tech wasn't mainstream enough. You can kind of see why this brutal song painting Tech as a drug-dealing, teacher fucking, reefer smoking "monster" was left off of the Wizard Of Oz soundtrack (I think that's what he said it was - the static made it difficult to tell), but nonetheless it's a good thing this song saw release eventually, as it is bloody great. Don Juan's instrumental is intense and sounds old-school in a great way, meanwhile Tech's slightly higher-pitched yet eerily robotic early years voice works perfectly on the song. The verses on this one are fantastic, as is the chorus, which has this dope pitched down voice reciting the title throughout. There's not much you can criticise here - the song is fantastic, and surprisingly blows a lot of The Calm Before the Storm: Part 1 and The Worst out of the water. This song is sick.
3. S.H.E. (Seductive Human Erotica) (prod. Robert Rebeck)
A shorter track that features the same metal-esque guitar riff you can hear in Ice Cube's "Limos, Demos & Bimbos" off of the War & Peace Vol. 1 album - any fan of early, pre-Anghellic Tech should without a doubt go check that album out by the way, as it has a similar vibe to that sound. This particular song isn't brilliant, however, as Tech's distorted vocals grate throughout, especially during the erratic chorus, and while the beat is cool it makes this song seem unintentionally horrifying, when the lyrics aren't scary at all - they're about Tech being seduced by strippers, causing his marriage to break down. The song isn't bad, but it's way too over-the-top to really be enjoyable to me. I would understand why the metalhead side of Tech's fanbase would enjoy this one, though.
4. Save Yourself (feat. Big Krizz Kaliko) (prod. Tech N9ne, Big Krizz Kaliko & Icy Roc Kravyn)
A quick interlude with Krizz telling a prostitute to save herself from that life, to the tune of one of those Christmas songs that everyone knows but can't tell you the name of. Shit is weird, man.
5. Now It's On (feat. Lejo) (prod. The Weirdo)
I know I made it clear that there's a lot of songs on here that had already been released, but I will say that the first half of this thing doesn't make that clear at all - up to track seven, there's only one song that had previously appeared on a Tech album, that being this track right here. I already covered this song when I did my The Calm Before the Storm: Part 1 review (all my Tech reviews will be linked at the bottom), so go check that out for a more detailed analysis. If you can't be bothered to do that though, I'll give you the run down now - this song is fuckin' dope! "Don't test me BEATRICE!"
6. Be Jealous (prod. Super Dave)
Intended for some incredibly obscure compilation, this is easily one of the least polished songs in the entire Tech catalogue. And it's.... pretty good. After a weird sung opening that sounds jokey and tacky (like a lot of singing in hip-hop until the mid-2000s, if we're being honest), Tech comes in and absolutely murks this beat, which is pretty good, even if it sounds like it was made using whatever piece of tat Super Dave could find in the local charity shop (do they have charity shops in America? Am I an idiot for asking that?). Some of Tech's better flows on this whole compilation come on here, especially on lines such as "here the pain come, nigga with a bang, I'm a killer, better duck motherfucker", and the lyrics about Agginy are pretty interesting too - it seems they had squashed their beef by 2007, since she showed up on Tech's Misery Loves Kompany album. However, the song is held back by the terrible chorus, and surprisingly by being a little too intense - tension is great, but when it doesn't let up through the whole thing this song can start to feel like a barrage of noise more than a rap song. I still like it a lot, but it's definitely got it's flaws.
7. Red Necro (prod. The Weirdo)
This song was presumably recorded for Tech's unreleased Be Warned album (since he actually says "be warned" during the song), and the controversial subject matter on the track was probably one of the reasons why that album was blocked from being released. This song is still probably the best song here though, at least out of the tracks not on other Tech albums. The instrumental from The Weirdo on here is perfectly bleak and disturbing for Tech's verses, which talk about his pure hatred for racist fucks who plague the United States Of America. During the first two, he tells two (presumably fictional) tales of running across racists, trying to remain calm, but eventually snapping after they get too physical with him and his friends. "I heard racists were dying, and I'm about to increase the ratio" is all you need to know about that. Then, the third verse laments on racism as a whole, and talks about the dire state the world must be in if there are still racists walking amongst us. This song is so good that it makes me wonder how the hell Tech doesn't get more props. Because let's be honest, if 2Pac, Nas or even The Game made this song, it would widely be regarded as one of the best hip-hop songs ever. Instead, it remains as one of the many bonuses of being a Tech fan - you get exposed to incredible, yet mostly unkown music like this. Seriously, check this out.
8. The Grench (feat. Boy Big & Big Krizz Kaliko) (prod. RonnZfromBerlin)
This song was originally on the bonus DVD from Absolute Power as Tech explains at length on the preceding interlude, and once again I've already reviewed this song. It is interesting, however, that Krizz gets credit this time for his chants in the background, which definitely help the song. Also, the song is phenomenal. Enough said.
9. I'm a Playa (Remix) (feat. Big Krizz Kaliko) (prod. Robert Rebeck)
A more club-friendly (read: worse) take on Tech's classic "I'm a Playa". Yeah, there's not a whole lot of point to this, but it's still enjoyable since we've got the excellent Tech and Krizz vocals from the original.
10. Trapped In a Psycho's Body (prod. RonnZfromBerlin)
According to the tracklisting, you may think that this was just the exact same song that appeared on Absolute Power, but thankfully it's not (as Tech explains in the song's preceding interlude) - instead, this one features the original version of the chorus, before it was backmasked after the singer tragically passed away. I actually kind of prefer the original reversed vocals, as it gives the chorus a more creepy feeling, but it is true that these vocals mesh perfectly with the rest of the song. As for the track itself, it remains in my top 5 Tech songs, and most likely won't be leaving anytime soon. Go ahead and read the Absolute Power review for more detail.
11. Freaky (prod. Don Juan)
Even though it says in the liner notes here that every unreleased song on this album was recorded between 1995 and 1999, I feel more like this particular one was made for the 2001 album Anghellic - it just has that sound to it, and the production sounds way different to anything on The Calm Before the Storm or The Worst. This track is about Tech's first exposures to the world of sex - from being taken to the cinema by his uncle to see an adult film at a very young age, to having sex when he was just 12 (!) years old. If you've seen interviews, then you'd know that this part is actually true. Most songs of this nature don't tend to work very well, but this one surprisingly does, and to a very large degree, all thanks to Tech's willingness to get as personal and specific as possible, which makes these lyrics always interesting, even if they're reversed for long portions of time. The chorus on here is dope too, with that chant of "Scorpios!" hitting a sweet spot, and the beat from Don Juan goes hard. Tech does kinda ruin things at the end by chanting out all of the star signs for some reason, and his flow towards the start of this song is admittedly a bit awkward, but that doesn't take away from its overall impact. This track is a banger.
12. My Own Hell (prod. Don Juan)
One of the more personal and vulnerable songs of Tech's early career, this unreleased cut covers his plights with having multiple record labels fighting over him, having his friends want to go their separate ways, and having to deal with conflicts between his wife and his other female friends. There's quite a bit of pain and anxiety put into this one, which I appreciate, and it's very easy to see why the track never saw the light of day for years - because it happens to mention all of the labels Tech was affiliated with by name, so none of them would be willing to release it for fear of starting more fights with the other labels. The best thing about this one for me is the constant switch ups between the really laid-back instrumentals and vocals, going into far more intense anger and then back to calm for the chorus. It's a really creative song structure, made all the better by Tech's great lyrics and strong production from Don Juan. This song is really great. Also, this final line is sick: "But I'm tired of mediating, I'ma sit back and watch y'all kill each motherfuckin' other".
13. Victory (prod. RonnZfromBerlin)
The second of three songs on here to be taken from the Absolute Power bonus disc, and also one of the best bangers in the Tech catalogue - I mean, just listen to the opening of this. Nuff said.
14. Mitchell Bade (feat. Bakarii) (prod. Don Juan)
Now we're really just getting into the bit at the end of the album where nearly every song was already released. This song still bangs, but it's not like the hardcore Tech fans listening to this hadn't ever heard this before. Still, it is nice to have this track on CD.
15. Strange (prod. Quincy D. Jones III)
The preceding interlude on this one serves as proof that Tech wasn't aware of the existence of The Worst: 2K Edition, the re-release of The Worst that came out in 2001 on MidWestSide Records. I mean, this song appeared on that project, but Tech certainly fails to mention the fact here. Whatever - this is yet another song I've already reviewed.
16. Snake Ya (feat. Big Krizz Kaliko) (prod. Tekneko Bros. Productions)
Hey look! It's a song I haven't ever written about before! Great! Although Tech fans may well have heard this one anyway, since it's one of two songs he recorded for the soundtrack to the 2003 film Beef. The other song on there was actually called "Beef", but it's not one I've heard yet - maybe I'll check it out someday soon. That film was a documentary on the many beefs up to that point in hip-hop, but you wouldn't know that from this track, which is all about stealing your girl at the club, with a few references to snake charming to tie in with the weird, hypnotic beat used for the track. Aside from Tech's insistence on using a stupid voice for the chorus, this is actually a cool club banger, and could have been a minor hit had it appeared on one of Tech's actual albums. Krizz also drops a proper verse on here, which is cool - that guy is a good singer, but he's a seriously underrated rapper too. Yeah, as a whole this song is dope.
17. Shocked (feat. Kutt Calhoun) (prod. RUBONYX)
The final song on here is another taken from the Absolute Power bonus disc, but I'm confused as to why - this really does not sound like a song to end an album. In fact, it's borderline album filler. I mean, it's not bad, but it most certainly isn't essential Tech music either. Still, whatever - at least the "sittin' in your ass water" intro is pretty hilarious.
18. Outro
Using the staticky vocal effect he's used to introduce every song on here, Tech closes us out quickly and easily. There's also the sound of a vault being closed at the very end of this, which is cool. This is a fine way to end the project.
Even if almost half of the songs on here were already released in not-so-secret places, I'd still recommend giving this compilation your full attention if you're a fan of early Tech N9ne music. This thing is great. I mean, there are only six actual new songs if you don't count interludes or tracks from The Calm Before the Storm: Part 1, The Worst: 2K Edition, Absolute Power and Beef Soundtrack, but nonetheless, these six songs are all pretty bloody great in their own ways. Plus, it's not like many people have The Calm Before the Storm on CD, nor can anyone play the Absolute Power bonus disc. AND Tech makes sure to give commentary throughout the album to let you know where exactly all these songs are from, and why they weren't or were released. I'm actually a big fan of this compilation, and would take it over a greatest hits any day. Why can't more artists do things like this? Ya hear me Jay-Z? Common? Anyone? Yeah, this is great.
No point giving a best tracks: just make sure to track down "Monster", "S.H.E.", "Be Jealous", "Red Necro", "Freaky", "My Own Hell" and "Snake Ya" if you haven't heard them.
Worst Track: "I'm a Playa (Remix)" - this really wasn't necessary
Catch up on all of my other Tech write-ups by clicking over here.
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