Review Summary: Str8 outta killa city mane
Tech N9ne is a rapper from Kansas City that just recently hit mainstream success. Being from Kansas City myself I know for a fact your can’t live there without hearing something about Tech N9ne unless you’re living under a rock. He made a name for himself with his extremely fast style of rapping, to many this is considered his breakthrough album. Before this was released his flow was a lot slower and didn’t separate itself from the pack. He produces fun party songs, very dark songs, songs about the industry, drugs, religion, and misconceptions about his lifestyle. There are two versions of Anghellic, one from his past label JCOR and a reissue from Stange Music, I am reviewing the reissue. Tech N9ne had a fallout with his old label JCOR so the original version of this is very hard to find, but it does feature one song the reissue doesn't have to my knowledge, the reissue has a few different tracks as well.
Anghellic starts with a bang with “Devil Boy” it’s very unrelenting and is a good foreshadowing of what the album is going to be. There are many variations of lyrical themes, he adresses everything from abortion to suicide and religion. One of Tech N9ne’s more popular songs is “Psycho Bitch” this song is about a one night stand that goes very wrong, and soon after Tech seems to have himself a little stalker, this is quite a fun song, very fast paced in parts. The song has very horror movie sounding beats, which is something else you will notice sometimes Tech has a very odd choices in beats that separate him from the herd. One issue I had with this album is its excessive skits, at points it adds to the album but for the most part they are pointless, it doesn’t effect the album to the point were it isn’t enjoyable though.
One thing that is very noticable is that Tech will do anything to keep you interested, he has a very good vocal range for an mc, he does opera style vocals, raps low, high, and even sings at some points, this keeps the album flowing very well and creates a very high replay value for this cd. This is truly one of the only rap albums I can sit all the way through. Some of the lyrics can be very deep at times, the best example of this is on “Suicide Letters” which is a story that allows you to go on a journey through Tech N9ne’s head while he is contemplating suicide. A lot of rappers never seriously touch on the subjects that Tech touches on throughout Anghellic. The area that is out of most rappers comfort range is his comfort range. When the lyrics aren’t deep they typically have the themes of drugs, parties, and his pride of being from Kansas City, Missouri.
Another song that got Tech a lot of attention is “F.T.I.” which stands for *** the Industry, in the early 2000’s Tech was offered to play at Red White and Boom and he showed up with FTI on his forehead in warpant, given that this was a very mainstream concert this caused quite a bit of controversy. On “Tormented” it almost seems like your hearing him talking in the present and when his voice deepens you’re hearing his concience speaking. Another problem other than the skits is that the party songs that are on here seem kind of pointless most of the time, fun of course but they are not exactly the most intelligent on this album.
So the bottom line is that Tech N9ne is very different than any rapper I have ever heard before. Whether its in lyrical themes, beats, flow, or vocal approach Tech always has something in every aspect that makes him unique whether you like it or not. Another cool aspect of this that was cool for me was that I had never heard anyone before this representing where I am from, this of course would only be an important aspect of the album for me due to the fact that I don’t think any of you are from here, but that is to be honest the only reason I would of ever checked out this cd hopefully my review will get some of you interested. Overall I’m giving Anghellic a 4 out of 5, that album doesn’t exactly have many flaws but it most definetly isn’t perfect. Everyone should check this out, it is indeed very solid and unique rap.
