Backstage at the Louder Than Life festival, the prolific Tech N9ne spent a few minutes with Kat Mykals of Loudwire and 103GBF. Fortunately, the conversation was recorded and shared on Loudwire Nights on Monday (Oct. 13).
Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.
“I do sleep every once in awhile,” Tech N9ne told Kat about how busy he seems to always be, especially as he released his 25th album this year, 5816 Forest.
The album title references an old address in Tech N9ne’s life.
“[It’s] where we moved when my mom got married, age 12,” he explained.
“We moved to 5816 Forest with her husband, Abul Hassan Rasul Khalifah. And I tell the stories from 12 years old all the way up to 17 years old when I ran away from home on a quest to become Tech N9ne.”
Kat pressed him about running away from home, saying it no doubt shaped him into the empathetic and compassionate man he is today.
“When you’re 17, you think you know it all,” he admitted.
“I left and it could have been really bad for me out there in the streets, but my family took care of me. My aunt Izita let me move in with her and I just started working on my craft.”
READ MORE: Aaron Bruno Calls Barbarians of California ‘Anything But a Side Project’
The rest is history — though Tech N9ne isn’t ready to commit himself and his music to the history books just yet.
“Music is always changing and we always said in Strange Music, wherever music is being played, we will be there.”
Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below
Aaron Bruno joined Loudwire Nights on Thursday, Oct. 9; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.
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Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner