Dumb Blonde - Season 9: Best Of (Part 2)

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

In this unforgettable collection of highlights from Season 9, Part 2, the crew dives into everything from Mimi’s TikTok updates on hatching baby chicks to Bunnie’s wild catfishing story involving a disappearing guy. The conversation takes an inspiring turn as Tanner Adele opens up about her adoption journey and rise in the music industry.Tech N9ne shares a haunting story from his childhood involving a teacher, along with how his mother’s love of horror shaped his creative path. Travis O'Guin recalls how he began managing Tech N9ne and breaks down the challenges of their early music deals and the financial support they needed to get off the ground.The group reflects on personal growth, relationships, and life lessons. A powerful moment centers on the first time someone heard “This Ring” by a then-unknown artist named Don—later revealed as Tech N9ne. Moved by his passion for music and admiration for Jim Morrison, they offered to invest in what would eventually become the iconic Strange Music label.Bunnie also shares a candid story about early drug experiences, adding a raw and unexpected twist to the episode.Watch Full Episodes & More:www.dumbblondeunrated.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I don't think you guys even realize how much content we have on Patreon. Let me break it down for you. We have the bunny XO show. We have meet the defaults. We have propaganda. We have more shows that we're adding. And not to mention we have the visuals of the podcast. Head over to www.patreon.com backslash dumb blonde podcast and sign up. is this thing on? What's up you sexy motherfuckers. We are back baby, back in action. And right now Mimi has an egg cracking.

We have a child being born. We have decided to name him Bloom cause he's a late bloomer. He's the last of the eggs. If you guys have been following Mimi's TikTok, you would know that she has these eggs fucking being born every day. It was her first batch.

I don't know why it won't screencast. We're pulling it up on the TV right now. Slowly but surely. I don't want to miss my nephew's birth, okay? I know, I don't know what's happening. It won't let me screen mirror. I know. It's gonna happen so fast. Fuck. Just we all can watch.

Okay, we're all watching. He's going. He's a packet away. Does he use his beak to do that? Or is Yeah, there's like a calcium deposit on the tip of their beak that makes it a little bit stronger. Are their beaks soft when they're born? Mm-mm.

Bleh. I don't know why it won't work. That's all right. We can watch it while we record. So when they make the first little hole, it's called a pip. And then you know that they've broken through the membrane and they've broken through the egg and they can last like a good like one of mine pipped and didn't come out for 24 hours. This one pipped like while we were at lunch,

I thought was blowing up, Jason's like, get pipped. And then like now it's just starting to zippers. So zippering means that where the pip that they come through, they're going to pip all the way around the entire egg until, and then they'll like stretch their little wings and body until the end pops up. And then they just flop out. Oh, I want to see the flop.

Yeah, no, it's literally the sweetest thing ever. We just went on a wild adventure for the past few weeks. Shall we talk about it? I feel like we left everyone hanging. We did. What did we say last time? He responded back. Okay, okay, okay.

Yes, yes, yes. So the update that everybody has been waiting for, when he responded back, I can't remember verbatim what he said, didn't I send you a text message of it or no? No, but he said, who is this? He said, who is this? And I said, my name was. Immediately.

Yeah, immediately. He literally wasted no time. And then I made up a fake name and I was like, I met you at, oh my God, the chicken egg is right here. We get to watch it live. And then I said, I met you at a bar on Broadway or something like that. We plugged his like the bar

that we were supposed to have our date at. Yeah. And he's like, I don't remember you. And he's like, he's like, can you send a picture? And I was like, fuck. So I was like, Haley, let's use one of Taylor's pictures. Cause Taylor's like our hot friend. If you guys want to go check her out her, what's her TikTok?

I am Taylor or something like that. Hot little brunette. She's a musician. Super cute. Super cool. We call Taylor for the consent. And we're like, Taylor, we're about to catfish somebody with your pictures. And she's like, go ahead girls. So we found like a really cute picture of her that it was hard to find.

And I was trying to send it over this burner app but for some reason it would send but he said he never got it. So he's like, well do you- Twice we tried. Yeah, twice. He's like, well, do you have an Instagram? And then I went completely silent

because I was just like, what am I supposed to do? Yeah, I mean, at that point you can't send it in Instagram. But I mean, he was hook line and sinker. So this dude obviously talks- He was like, oh, I would have remembered you or something like that. Yeah. I'm like, what?

Yeah. Like this dude obviously is just a scumbag. Yeah. Like- I don't know if he had a girlfriend. I don't know. There's a part of me that doesn't think that thinks he was single. I think he figured out. I think it was me not telling him who my client was for a podcast. And I'm just doing a little research. And I feel like maybe he saw that Tick Tock of us saying we were going to blast.

Talk about the profiles on the podcast. I think she, Becken, you give this dude way too much credit. He's just a loser. I don't, yeah, he's a loser. I also thought I saw him last night. You don't just engage with somebody and then cut them off like that for no fucking reason. And then gaslight them, gaslight them.

Be like, you know what? I had a great time talking to you with you, but I just don't feel a connection. Like, let's just be like, you know what? I had a great time talking to you with you, but I just don't feel a connection. Like, let's just be cool, you know, not completely block you and like blocking. You just gaslighting you. You don't want children. It's like, bro, we haven't even fucked yet. What are you talking about?

I mean, this is weird. I had a first date and you also didn't want children. I literally didn't want children until fucking last year, you know? So you never know when you're going to want children. It's the it want children until fucking last year, you know, so you never know when you're gonna want children. It's the blocking though. Yeah, it was the blocking both phones. Yeah. And not giving you a lot of people were like, oh my god, Hailey went full crazy by texting him on the other phone. I want to get in the last fucking word. I feel like it wasn't as crazy because it's like he didn't give you a chance to even speak. Like that's some that's

some whack ass shit. Like you clearly are not a grownup if you cannot have a adult conversation and let someone speak their side. But then to try to pin it on her before he blocks her is where I'm like, fuck that dude. He doesn't deserve any sort of leniency. Like fuck that guy.

So it's not the fucking ending that you guys wanted, but we could have kept going with it if we really wanted to. Cause the comments on that were crazy though. Taylor circled back and she was just like, how did you know? It was like, I need the updates. Yeah. She commented on one of your videos and was like, should like, should I go message him? Just be like, Hey, long time no see. Yeah. We should have her with them. Yeah. Sorry. I was texting you the other day and I got wrapped up, but I just wanted to say hi. I mean, I don't know. Do you guys think we should pursue this

and like really set this dude up or just leave it alone? I say we leave it. She had already forgot about him. That clip went so viral that there's no way that dude doesn't know. I had people calling me and was like, what happened? Someone asked me at the bar a couple nights ago. They were like, what did he say?

And I was like, what? They're like, what did he say back to Bunny? I was like, oh my God.? And I was like, what? They're like, what did he say back to Bunny? I was like, oh my God. Yeah, no, people were invested. I think it got like what, two or three million views? Like it was a big flip. And you made a video and I made a video. Yeah, we all made videos.

Yeah. Yeah, my God. Insane. Yeah. Well, there's the update for you guys, but if you guys think we should carry it on, let me know. Here it comes. Look at it.

Oh my God. There it goes. Oh my God. Perfect timing. It's little wing just popped out. Oh my goodness. Look at this. Oh my God, that is a sign. That is a sign. Jaime, I love you.

Jaime said that's a sign. Oh, here comes Chachi. He loves a party. Oh my gosh. Look, Chachi's shaking. He like a cat. Oh my gosh. Look, Tachi's shaking. He's so excited. Oh my goodness. Here we go.

So it's gonna kind of flop around for a little bit. Oh, I can't wait. The egg will hopefully fall off or it might drag the egg around. Poor guy, he's tired. Yeah, so they do come out. They are so tired. Look, look, look.

Oh my goodness. Oh, it's coming to say hi. Oh. Okay, can you see it's a little umbilical cord right there stuck to his butt? Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Where's his head?

On the other side over there. So where they pip is where their head is. Oh, there's a little wing. Oh, he's trying to get out. Oh my goodness. Josh is so excited right now. He doesn't even know, he's like, I'm ready to party and don't know what's going on.

Look, he's looking at it. Were you watching it, Chaj? That was wild. Today, I have my girl, Tanner Adele in the house, baby. Yay, hello. Hi, I feel like this has been a long time coming. For sure. Like, we've been talking about this for, I think,

like a year and a half. It's been a while, yeah. You have been so busy and I'm so fucking proud of you, girl. We're gonna get into like the whole journey and everything, but I just wanted to tell you face to face, like I'm so excited for you. Thank you. Couldn't happen to a better human.

Like, I'm just so excited for you. I appreciate that. It's like fun how mutual the feeling is and watching you just blossoming. I knew you before I knew Jelly Roll, but watching you guys, it's just, I mean, happy new year. Yeah, happy new year. But like last year was really amazing

for I feel like both of us. Yeah, yeah, no, it was crazy. My husband's so funny. He's like, tell Tanner, I said, what up? And he's like, tell her to tell the Jelly Roll story. I'm like, nobody wants to talk about you. Nobody wants to. It's true, he saved me, you know, he's such a good guy. But the jelly roll story. I'm like, nobody wants to talk about you. Nobody wants to. It's true.

He saved me, you know, he's such a good guy, but the jelly roll story. We'll get into that later. Is that how he calls it? I gotta start calling it that. Yeah, I was like, nobody wants to talk about you. We talk about you all the time on here. He's like, stop bombarding my freaking interviews, dude.

I learned some really cool stuff about you that I got to research whenever I was looking you up that I didn't know. And you have like a really cool stuff about you that I got to research whenever I was looking you up that I didn't know. And you have like a really cool story that I always knew about the fashion, the hair, the makeup, the voice, you know, I knew about all that, but I didn't know like what made you you

and where you came from. And I think that that would be really cool to kind of dive into with you. Yeah, I mean, it's, I think it's a story that I've kind of, I've been careful to tell and telling little things here and there and kind of gauging the temperature of my audience and honestly how safe it is, like how willing I'm to be or how vulnerable

I'm willing to be. Yeah. And I mean, what specifically are you? Talking about? Yeah, well, let's just take it all the way. So first of all, I just want to let you know, my audience is so safe. They are the sweetest humans. They will just embrace you if they haven't or if they're already not buckle bunnies. You know what I'm saying? Right, right.

But I hear people come here and they just tell their stories of like, you know, everything that's happened to them up to where they are. And I kind of take people on this journey to paint the picture of like, the person behind the music, you know, of course, your music speaks for itself, because obviously, I mean, we just saw you on the halftime show with Beyonce. So obviously, you're doing your th thizzle, you know, but I want people to connect with you on a personal level. So you were adopted as a child. Yes. Can you take us on that journey and like kind of through your childhood? It is a very long and windy road as to how I ended up here. Yeah. But yes, I was adopted. I was a baby. I was like a day old. You know, it was an agreement that my parents already knew that I was adopted. I was a baby. I was like a day old.

You know, it was an agreement that my parents already knew that I was gonna be born sometime soon. So they were ready for it. But I am adopted. I have four siblings who are also all adopted. I'm the middle child. Are they all blood? Yes, all of us are biracial.

None of us are like blood related at all. All from different families, but my parents couldn't have their own children. All of us are biracial. None of us are like blood related at all. Okay. All from different families, but my parents couldn't have their own children. My mom had wanted to adopt for a really long time. She would say as a kid, like she always said, I want to adopt her little brothers adopted. And so she had always wanted to adopt. And then, you know, she's very religious.

I was also raised Mormon. I was adopted into a Mormon family. And so she always says, she just feels like God was telling her when it was time to adopt after she found out she wouldn't be able to have children. So I grew up in a really unique kind of households with just that little bit. But on top of all of that,

I grew up kind of between two places. I kind of had two homes, and a lot of my friends in California had no idea that all of my family and my summer times were spent in Wyoming. So my mom grew up with horses, and she did rodeo, she was a rodeo queen and she would do a year of school in California and Santa Barbara

and then a year of school in Wyoming where my grandma's from and where my grandpa's from and flip-flopped back and forth between school years as a kid. And she said that was really rough on her and didn't want it to be as intense for me and my siblings. So I grew up going from school year in California and all my like school friends

to immediately going to Wyoming as soon as school was out and kind of living a completely different life out there. It was, you know, maybe around the time that I was 14 or 15 that I started realizing that I was very different from a lot of my friends. And I only had one friend that was adopted and she was the same race as her parents. She was white, they were white.

And I just realized there was a lot of things that I was kind of going through that I wasn't sure was totally normal. Did you ever get to meet your biological parents? So that's a whole... I'll tie that now into this whole of me getting here, I guess, too. here, I guess, too. So I, as a teenager, I was very different from my mom and dad are my mom wears the pants in my family. Okay. She's very alpha. Yes. My mom wears the pants. And she is like Ralph Lauren. I am like three people. We could not be any more different.

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as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. I wanted to just, like, not have to wear shoes to school and just wanted to sit on the beach and hang out with my friends and do, you know, fashion design. My grandma taught me how to sew at a really young age. So I was sewing my clothes and I was just more of a free spirit. So we really, really like bumped

heads as I was growing up. I grew up in a extremely religious household too. We were Southern Pentecostal and it was like a cult and I had to wear dresses down the ankles like Oh, yeah, yeah super super religious I went to private school and everything. How do you think I turned out the way I did? I mean, I mean but I was like, yeah But I'm just saying I relate to that because I don't think a lot of people realize how Traumatizing. Yes religion being pushed on you, especially as a child is. That's what developed my anxiety as an adult

is because I was told you're going to hell. If you act like this, you're going to hell. You know, and I couldn't imagine, you know, all of those things that you're going through as a child. You know, you were adopted. You're trying to find your place in this world and trying to fit in and you don't feel like you fit in. And then you have that religious trauma on top of it.

It's pretty fucking heavy, dude. And it's it's like I said, it wasn't until a little bit later that I realized it's a little bit different to be biracial and adopted, but then also into a Caucasian Mormon family, but also with four siblings who were also biracial, but adopted. Like it was such a like, and obviously I was a teenager. So all of this at once just made me feel so displaced. And that was the first time that I reached out to a birth family member, my birth father. How did you find them? How were you able to find them?

I mean, I didn't have really any information about him until one year, it was my 16th birthday and I got a present in the mail. I had been at like a summer camp or something and my mom was like, there's something on your bed. Like someone sent you something. And I opened it and there was a little bracelet in it and it just said, like, been thinking about you,

happy 16th birthday, like, love Gilbert. And I was like, who, who is that? And kind of started, I mean, I ran outside, called my best friend and I was like, I just got a weird package and a present and I don't know, I think it's like someone from my birth family. And it was, it wasn't just like freely talked about in our home.

Yeah, that's what that was going to be my next question. So your adoptive parents never really talked about your biological parents? No. Okay. Yeah, I, my, my little siblings had a little bit of contact with their like birth families. But yeah, it was never really a conversation that I had. And although my gut kind of told me like, is this wrong? Like, or is this someone from my family?

And I went back inside and my mom was standing in the bedroom and was holding the note that had his name on it. And she was like, like, so we should talk. So working with Wentworth and Bayless, how did you like get such notoriety? Because I feel like, and I know everybody says this about my husband, so I know it's not true,

but I feel like you popped up on the scene all of a sudden. And it was just like, okay, who is this girl? I followed you and I was just like, oh my God, she's adorable. I love your aesthetic. I love how original you are. I love that because in a world full of people who are so unoriginal,

it's the ones that actually have their own shit stand out totally and you totally were like that to me How did this come about? I mean after I wrote with Andrew and Michael I Who I I don't even know why I called them that because I call them both Baylis I don't even know why I called them that because I call them both Bayliss and Witworth. So I don't know why I even said their first name. You're good. But after that, Country Girl Commandments

kind of got like sent around a little bit. And I had my publishing deal in about six months after I moved to Nashville. And I feel like from there on, it was TikTok. It was just putting my original music on TikTok and people were like, we like this. Yeah, TikTok has such a stepping stone for people. I get so mad at people when they're like,

oh, you guys are just TikTokers. Like when they say that to other people and I'm like, it's exhausting. I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm like, do you understand how hard it is to keep people's attention day after day, time after time, like that's not easy. Not everybody can do that. So was Buckle Bunny your first song that took off?

No. Really, which one was it? Love You A Little Bit was the first song and it wasn't through TikTok really, like it did, numbers on TikTok, but it like blew up on Twitter or X. Yes. That's hard to do.

I know. And it was like positive. It like wasn't hate. I was like, that part scares me. Yeah, it was like really good. That actually was my first kind of splash. And then by the time Buckle Bunny came around, it was like, Oh, that's our girl that's in country that's doing that. Wow. Yeah, that's amazing.

Very cool. Yeah. Because I remember seeing Buckle Bunny come on and I was just like, Oh my God, this is amazing. I loved it. And just glad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I still bump it to like all the time. Thank you. It did definitely bring a fresh, you know, genre blending sound to country music. What inspired the mixtape concept and what message did you want to send with that? So I wanted it to be... I still haven't had my debut album come out. I had Last Call, which is my first EP, and then my second EP is Buckle Bunny with a few singles in between. I called it a mixtape because I felt like I wanted it to be like every spot on the spectrum that I can shine.

And I wanted it to all have kind of a country foundation because that is who I am at the core. But then pinpointing things that I love in other genres and not even really while trying just that those are my moods. Yeah. And I wanted it to truly feel like a mix, but also still cohesive, but something that didn't box me in and I could go whatever direction I wanted after that.

We're back, baby. The foursome, because now Momo's here too. Hey, Mo. Hello. Over here in the corner. Yeah, she's like, let me be in the corner. Dude, I have been working out so hard trying to get this fucking IVF weight off.

I literally came straight to the studio from the gym and I'm still sweating with a full face of makeup on. Can we talk about how like everything you prepared to be hard in this journey was the easiest parts for you and everything that everyone said was going to be the easiest is like the hardest for you. So last time we had a podcast, I gave you guys an IVF update all the way up to the egg retrieval.

I do have some news for you guys after the egg retrieval. Okay, I just would like to let you guys know that it fucking sucked. I think I ended up with like a little bit of OHSS, like a mild case of it. And if I'm sorry, but the women who get the severe cases of that, holy freaking moly. What is that?

So if you, it's because you get overstimulated, your body like starts filling up with fluid, which is why my stomach was like out to here. No way. And that can start going into your lungs and like people have to have it drained and stuff. And it's so fucking painful. I remember how I kept saying, I'm like in so much pain

and like just nothing was getting better. I'm a little over two weeks out now and I'm feeling so much better. I had my first period. Like everybody said, they're like, oh, the stems is the hardest part and blah, blah, blah, blah. And like the Sims for me was so easy and everybody's like, oh, the agar tree was a breeze after two days, you're going to be

recovered and feeling great. No, no, no, sir. I was not. It took like day 11. I was concerned I messaged my clinic and I was like, hello. Not only have I gained fucking six pounds on this shit, when does that start coming off? And secondly, why am I in so much pain? And like, I took pictures, I looked like I was four months pregnant. Like Mimi's like, let me see.

I'm like, fuck no. I was like send them. I'm like, those are not circulating in the fucking, in the fucking atmosphere at all. I was like, this is not happening. But my first period came, everybody said the first period is so bad. This one has been a breeze.

I was working out by day two, you know? And it's day four and my period's almost over. So I've dropped two of the six pounds, but I still have a little to go. But man, hormones put some fucking weight on you, man. I don't know how girls do back to back cycles. No. They are, the women who do this IVF journey

are a different breed. They're strong. No. Everything from physical to mental is insane. It's crazy. Like these women are just fucking straight up soldiers, man. I get it. They're on a mission for a goal,

but how bad do I want that goal? You know, like I don't know if I'm built like them. Maybe that's why I don't have kids, because I'm not built like them, you know? Mo loves a married man. That is her shit. But we're gonna break you that habit though, okay? Yeah, we're leveling up.

So Mo has agreed to go to therapy. I told her, I'm gonna fucking pay for it. I just want you to go once a week and start working through all your shit so that you can stop meeting these same men in different bodies. Like let's fucking level up, bro. We are on the next wave of our life

and we don't have time for this shit. Life is peaceful and fun and we just need to fucking, you know, level up from here. Me and Jason were just talking the other day how happy we are that you're back. Aw, thanks. I'm honestly, I've never been happier. I've woken up, I'm actually waking up early.

I don't feel stressed out. I'm not froggy. I need to do something. Yes, I love it. I'm so happy for you. Like wake up with energy. Jay said the same thing. Jay was like, I'm really happy Mo's back.

Yeah, me and Jason. And I'm still like, I'm happy she's back, but. Is she staying? Well, I don't care.e's back. Yeah. And I'm still like, you know, I'm happy she's back, but. Is she staying? Well, I don't care. It's like, you're either gonna come or go and that's up to you. I'm not here to control that situation. I learned with the last situation.

You're just gonna enjoy the time that she's here. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but legit, we're all so happy. Yeah, everybody's happy you're back. I mean, this is your family, Moe, you know? Like I said, you guys have been more family than anything. Yeah. I feel like we all found family in each other

because we all have like different broken parts of our family. And like, it's so cool to like, we all were like a piece in each other. Yeah, we're all each other. I'll hold each other's hands. Okay. I love, you guys want to sleep on an air mattress together?

I believe we have. We share beds. We admit it. Today is really special for me because the first guest that I ever had on the podcast is now sitting on my couch in the new studio in season nine. My dear friend, Miss Fifi Dobson. Oh, hey girl. Dude, I'm so happy you're here. Me too.

It's very, very exciting to be here and to see the studio. It's crazy, right? Yeah. I can't believe you and I have known each other almost a decade now. It's wild. It's crazy. It's wild.

Yeah. We've had a lot of fun times, a lot of parties, you know? Yeah. It's been an interesting ride. But through it all, I think one of the one things that I love so much about you is just how sweet you are. Thanks girl. I really wish people knew your heart and just like what a sweet woman you are.

Thank you. Even when I was mad at you, you're always so sweet. I'm never really mad at you, but it was just like, you know, even when we've had disagreements, you're just always so sweet. And I just love that. I love you. I truly do. So, you know, I just, I don't know, I just, I love being here and your heart is so amazing as well. And you're a strong woman. So I love you. We're going

to go to dinner and catch up too, but I want to know what's going on with you. Like catch me up. We're good. So I'm going to do this interview a little bit different. And I know that people who listen to me regularly are going to pick up on that. Um, since Phoebe was on my podcast nine years ago, almost, um, if you guys want to go back to that episode and find out about her background, her upbringing and everything we talked about in that podcast, that would be season one, episode one, I believe. Right, Mimi? And, um, but this one will be like kind of us just catching up and just, um, more of like an interview style. So tell me what's been going on with you.

Well, I took some time off and was just writing for other people and then, you know, going through life and love and all the craziness. And then I decided to get back in the studio and I released a record, not last September, but this September before that called Emotion Sickness. And yeah, it just kind of took me time, took me time. I needed a break. I'd been working since I was 17. I'm about to be 40 at the end of the month. And you still look so young.

I'm so jealous. I'm looking at you, I'm like, she hasn't aged one fucking bit, dude. Thanks, girl. So yeah, I just needed some time to, I don't know, get things together. I mean, in this industry, mental health is a really big thing.

Yes. And taking a break is needed. Taking a break is so needed. I'm trying to teach my husband that because he's go, go, go, go, go. You know how Jay is, he's always been like that. And even more so now, and I'm just like, you have to take time to like, just for you.

Or else it's just, it can cause wreak havoc. Yeah, you do. I needed time with even my pets, you know, because I was always on the road and I just, I had lost two pets in the last like, I had a bunch, like I have like a, like a coven of, of little fur girls. Like they're just the best. And so-

I love that you said coven. Cause I use that word all the time. That's what I call us. Oh really? Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I lost two of them and I was just like, man, I need to take time to spend time with them. Oh my God.

I couldn't imagine this one is with me. He's been with me the past seven years and I couldn't imagine losing a fur baby. Like, no. It's the worst. We don't deserve animals. Like their souls are so pure and so sweet. They're unconditional love. Like they are the epitome of unconditional love.

They don't care if you're sleeping in a fucking box. They are riding with you. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty amazing. I mean, how much they love you. Your music has always been unapolog with you. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty amazing, I mean, how much they love you. Your music has always been, unapologetically you, was there ever a time you felt pressured to be someone else in the industry?

Oh, all the time. I mean, I still do at times, you know, where you're like, should I be doing this kind of TikTok or should I be doing, you know what I mean? Like you still feel that pressure in just a different way. Yeah. But I never felt doing, you know what I mean? Like you still feel that pressure in just a different way. But I never felt comfortable, you know, if I didn't have like my leather jacket or, you know. Would you still have it on?

You still have some sort of leather on. Or like eyeliner or like just something that was kind of like my signature. Yeah, yeah, I always felt like I wasn't being myself if I tried something different. Where does your style stem from? If you could have maybe three role models. Yeah. Probably like, I have a few, like Joan Jett, Slash.

Yes. I see it all as you're saying it. I'm like, yep, yep. When I get like, when I do glam, like I always look at like old Kate Moss. She was fire. Even Kate Moss now. I know she's amazing. How do you not age on cocaine?

I don't understand that. I don't understand. I love Kate Moss. She is a fucking icon dude. She like, even when she's hammered, I'm like, how do I get that look? Yeah, literally. I just saw a video of her on TikTok

outside of some place falling over and she did it so gracefully in a mini skirt and heels. Didn't show anything. If that was me, I'd have looked like a fricking wombat. Just, I would have had 10 people trying to pick me up. Like I'd have had a broken hip. It would have been fucked up. But I mean, she's literally almost 50

and still just slanted. She looks amazing. No, it's crazy. It's crazy. Like I love the smudge liner. You've always done the smudge liner too. I have fun with it. I, it's like, I've been fortunate.

The one thing that's been fortunate is like one of my friends always says to me like, he's like, girl, you can look disheveled. That's your brand. I'm like, yeah, exactly. I, you can look disheveled. That's your brand. I'm like, yeah, exactly. I love that though, disheveled. I love that. That's fucking hot though.

Yeah. Phoebe's bringing back the disheveled look. All right, so we're gonna take it back to the early days for a little bit. Okay. The 2000s were such an iconic time in music. When you look back at that era, what's a memory that instantly makes you smile?

that era, what's a memory that instantly makes you smile? I loved hanging out with like the bands, you know, like when girls could rock out with the dudes and I loved, you know, seeing Avril and and Simple Plan and I don't know, there was something about that time that was just like pure. Yeah, yeah. And it was rock and roll. Yeah. Bring it the fuck back. I am tired of this mumble rap. I'm like, can we bring it back?

Bring the band back. Right? I'm so ready for it. It just felt so, I don't know, raw and, you know, and even for the girls at that time, it was like for the females, we were just like, fuck it. You know, we didn't, we didn't care. We were in like Dickies and Converse and no makeup and.

Still beautiful though. And holding your own next to these other, these men, you know? Yeah, it was, it was, I wanted to be on tour with the dudes because I wanted to like make them freaked out that I could rock or, you know, know rock circles around and that was a big deal for me. I always love to like put me with the dudes man that meant a lot. Did you thrive on shock value as a youngster? Yeah. I think I did too. Yeah yeah like I love to look at people like

in the eye and make them uncomfortable that was like when I was a kid. Yeah. Just like to see when they would turn their heads because they were uncomfortable with my stare yeah that was fun what's the one thing fans might not know about the making of Sunday love or joy well Sunday love was like my second album off the first one and like I was really wanted to make wanted to make an authentic rock record so we got like a bunch of amazing rockers like Nina Gordon from Ruka Salt and John Five and just like awesome rad artists. And it was weird making the album because I named it at Sunday Love because it was my mom's stripper name. It was her name.

That's what she would go by. And she told me about it years when I was younger and it stuck with me and I was like, well, I wanna name this for her. So I did. And she was just amazing that way. I don't know. So. I love that.

So mom was a stripper. Yeah, she and many other things. And We love that. Shout out mom. Yeah. That's so fitting for this podcast. Yeah, she's a single mom and just like made it work.

And I don't know. I just loved even like if she just danced at home, like just like being like, you know, just put on something and was just grooving around, like I always looked up to her. Can we talk about you and Yela for a little bit? Okay, you guys have been together for how long now? Off and on, 15 years.

Yeah, no, it's been crazy. Can you tell us a little bit about that ride, that journey? Hi, well, I met him when I was 25, he was 30. And I think he just got signed to Interscope and or Shady. And no one ever tells you when we met at the fantasy factory, Rob Dyrdek's spot. And that's some lore right there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And no one ever tells you, like, being with another artist is a lot. It's a lot. Because they're dealing with their own things. And he's a man in the industry, a good looking man. And I'm a woman that, at this this point at 25, I'm like,

I'm ready for something serious, which was probably because I had started so young that I lived, you know, I'd lived this life in the industry. And he was just starting. So he was getting his wiggles out when we started dating. So we went through a lot. I mean, 15 years in this industry is something we got to tip our hat to that because not a lot of people can do that.

Jay and I are just barely creeping up on a decade. And you know, we've been through shit too. But it's like, you just hit the nail on the head because I just talked about this in a recent podcast where I said, if you are with an artist you have to be a really strong human. Like for one, there's, you know just forget about all the traveling

and the separation and all that stuff. It's the emotional side of it. There's a reason that you're an artist. So to have two artists in the same relationship has got to be so tricky to navigate because there's got to be just a sea of emotions. Yeah and working through like making sure that we're not competing with each other that's a big one. Yeah. It's like being supportive and and you know I've

you know I've was side stage for many years to see a show and support that way. And you kind of have to put your, your own artist ego at the door, which is a big, big important thing to do. Have you ever felt like you guys are in competition at any time? Well, when we play NBA 2K20 before, at this point 25, yes. Someone's sleeping on the couch.

Who is it? But we're very different, which was, we've probably had moments where it was like, someone has a, you know, I think the only time it kind of feels that way is if we're not close, you know? And, but when we're close and we're in tune, we don't feel that way. But it's it's difficult. It's difficult, you know, the man loves you. I see him through all of it.

And every time I see him and you're not by his side, he's not himself. That means a lot. I mean, it's it's wild because I've been very private online and he's a little bit more open about when he is going through whatever and or if we're not together. And I've had to see a lot of things that, you know, fans might be like, how can you get back with him or how can you do this? And the truth is, unless you're in it, you just don't know.

That and the heart wants what the heart wants. You guys have something special. That's why I said I think you guys have done numerous lifetimes together because you guys just have this moth to a flame type draw to each other and that's undeniable, you know? And no matter what you guys go through, it's just, you guys are always gonna circle back to each other.

Yeah. Do you think you guys will ever get married? Like again, are you guys like, did you guys ever fully divorce? No. Oh, okay, okay. All right, I didn't know. No, I couldn't do it.

Oh. I mean, we'd always. I didn't know. No, I couldn't do it. I mean, we'd always threatened to do it and be like, Oh yeah. Oh, she's having the papers right now. And no one would do it, you know? Yeah. So that's just even more proof that you guys just literally are each other's persons.

Yeah. Yeah. And he always makes jokes too. Cause he's always like, what am I going to do? Your name's on my face. Cause you know, it's like, Fifi, you're gross. It's like, okay. Yeah, true.

That's your dude, man. You guys are super cute. And I mean, you guys aesthetically are just a gorgeous couple. Thank you. Yeah, for sure. How do you like, how do you navigate through, you know, you and jelly and like, you know, well, I was actually going to ask you guys how you guys navigate so privately because Jay and I have literally poured our entire relationship online. I mean, we've since day one have just been like, here we are, you know, and like, just kind of like, we got outed in the beginning, so we had to out ourselves, you know, and it was like, since then we don't really have anything that's a

secret and I admire how you guys navigate because now that we're in the public eye a little bit more to like how you guys are, it's like there are some things I want to for ourselves, you know, and I would love for you to give me any pointers on that. Because the way we navigate is we just fucking word vomit all over. I'm always I always say there's an annoying person that's online. And then there's the one that's like very crafty and like only appears when they need to. And I'm the annoying one that's online that tells everybody everything. And then Jay's the one who's like, yeah, this man has built an empire,

pushed the boundaries of independent rap and outworked nearly everybody in the game. Mr. Tech Nine is in the house. Happy to be here, mama. Dude, I'm so stoked you're here. I had a bucket list and it was Dolly Parton, Joyce Myers and Tech Nine. Whoa. I've done Dolly, haven't done Joyce yet.

And then I finally got you here. So I'm just like so stoked. I know. You're a busy man. Oh yeah, gotta keep it that way. You know what I mean? You know, time waits for no man. Ever.

My dad always says, rolling stones gather no moss. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've always lived my life by that. But I finally, and you know, now that I've gotten a little bit older, have learned how to kind of like slow it down a little bit. Yeah, we were just talking about vacationing,

and taking some time for yourself. Yeah, I'm gonna go to Monaco and see the hairy bush ladies that you were telling me about. Yeah, they might not be alive now, you know, they were pretty old. Tech was telling me he just went to Monaco and I was like, or he told me he went to Ibiza

or something, I was like, did they have any nude beaches? And he's like, no, but we did go to one in Monaco. Yeah, we went to one in Monaco. And it's always really old people on there that are free. You know, it's not like on the movies, you see it's all young people with perky. Listen, the geezers have no shame, all right? And I think once you hit that age,

you're allowed to just let it, you let your freak flag fly. And the dudes are never ends. We always see the dudes from the back, you know? Yeah. So we don't, you know. Oh man. Just ass on the knees. We don't just walk the nude beach.

It's like a place like right on the nude beach where you can sit down and eat and drink, you know what I mean? Oh my goodness. And people are like walking by, you're like, what? Who the fuck is eating on a nude beach? Us. You know what? I can't even talk because I used to go to Swinger's clubs in Vegas and eat

the fucking buffet there. Well, let me tell you something about strip clubs, you know, strip club food. Yeah. I used to eat strip club food. You know, they have chefs in there making those steaks. Yeah. So I used to, I grew up in Vegas. So I used to work in the strip clubs in Vegas and some of them would have five star restaurants where we would have to wear like gowns to go sit with our guests in there. Food was fucking fire, dude. Of course, it's an establishment. They gotta have the right food.

I just feel like a nude beach, you know, with just all the bush flying around would be a little weird. That's exactly what you'll see, bush, bush. Yeah, appetizer. You'd see no young folks, no people in shape. I'm talking, this is my experience, what I've seen over the years. Cause I'm usually with people that say,

hey man, let's go to the new beach. I'm like, you don't want to see the new beach. Please tech, come on, let's go to the new beach. Okay, let's go. You know what I mean? You know what, you don't gotta twist my arm. You don't want to do it. It's not what they think.

The ones I've seen. I've seen one, what's that place over there, Travis? Was St. Thomas, and it starts with an M. St. Martin. St. Martin, there you go. I've seen one in St. Martin. Oh, we're going. We were actually gonna go there for my birthday.

See, we gotta go. The nude beach is calling me. They said they have one in St. Martin? Yeah, we call it, I'm black, they call it St. Martin. Okay, oh I don't know, is it Martin or Martin? I don't know. It's spelled like Martin. Okay, I see, I might be pronouncing it wrong.

We were in St. Martin, keep it in, you know what I mean? I'm not with the bougie shit, so I don't know. I've never been there, so it could be St. Martin too. That's all good, a lot of people call it St. Martin, we call it St. Martin, sorry. So did you go to the nude beach there? I'm so curious. We were at the place eating that's off the beach.

Okay. You're always eating at these nude beaches, Tech. I'm seeing a pattern here. That's funny. I'm Scorpio, but it has nothing to do with that. Usually people with me, I know it sounds like an excuse, as soon as it's just me zeroing in on the nude beaches, nah, nah, nah.

People with me that I take on tour with me. OK, let's pause right there. So seventh grade, something happens in seventh grade with the teacher. Can we go on that journey? Because that's about 12 years old too, right? 13? Well, I was going on 13. As I said, I was fucking up 13, 14. Yeah. She, I won't say no names. Yeah. She was young. She was 21. And whenever

it all started when I showed her a picture of my father as a cop, you know what I'm saying? I had a picture of him in his LAPD outfit. And after that, after class, whenever everybody's leaving out, I'll be in there and she used to say, Erin is so cute. Cause my first name is Erin, of course. Erin Dantez Yates, that's Donny. Erin is so cute.

And she was beautiful, you know? And I was like, oh, thank you. But she used to do it every day. Erin is so cute. I'm like, okay. Then I got to skipping lunch to go visit her while she's by herself, you know? And I'm just gonna leave it at that, you know, to be safe.

Right. But I was in love. Right. Just, she got married. But you guys ended up, and we can always cut this too if you want to, but you guys ended up getting caught, right? We got caught by a student walking by.

She said, she told my six hour teacher, no, it wasn't my sixth hour teacher, it was sixth hour upstairs, Miss Glenn's room was like courtroom class. So whenever something happened in school, they would have to come to court in her class in front of her big student body, you know? Right.

So they called me up to court class one day, not knowing what they want to talk to me about. I've never been to court class one day, not knowing what they want to talk to me about. I've never been to court class, you know? And Ms. Glenn, she's a black lady. She didn't want no fuck shit, you know what I'm saying? So she say, Erin, there's a student in here, the student was sitting right there, that says they walked

by Ms. So-and-so's room and saw both of you kissing and the whole crowd, the whole student body said, ooh. I said, huh? Why would I be kissing a grown up? I'm smart. She's like, I saw you, Erin. I saw you. I said, you didn what I'm saying? She's like, I saw you, Aaron, I saw you. I said, you didn't see me, I was in lunch.

No, you were in there kissing, I said, it's her story against mine. You know what I mean? And they called us to the office and called the teacher to the office too. Yeah. And I was sweating. I bet.

And they say her name, this is alarming. And she's like, I would never with a student, you know, I remember her, you know, like pleading her case and being real serious, you know. And nothing happened. We didn't get in trouble, cause I didn't tell. But you guys were having, were you guys having sex? Yes. In the classroom? No.

Okay. After school, that's another story. You know what I'm saying? On school campuses though? No, no, no, no, no. Okay. Call home, see if you can help me after school. Can I help my teacher after school

and she'll bring me home, da da da da, go to her house. It's so hard for me to wrap my brain around that because I know coming from a man's point of view, it's like, oh, you got to bag the teacher, the older chick. Like I said, I was in love. Right, but if we switched places and it was a man doing that to a little girl.

It's over. You know, like it's hard for me to kind of wrap my head around that and not be mad at her for what happened to you. Yeah, yeah. You know? I appreciated it. Right. She got married in my eighth grade year and after that we didn't talk anymore. You know what I'm saying? After, you know what I'm saying? Because we did our thing before we got busted. You know what I mean? Right. So we didn't talk anymore after being in the principal's office, you know what I'm saying? Out of like...

Well, because you guys were being watched, I'm sure, like heavily. So I remember the last day of school in eighth grade walking by her room, her classroom. And I walked by, I could see her in my peripheral. She had been married already and everything, changed her name. When I passed her room, I heard a voice say, hey, I'm going back.

She's like, you're not going to give me a hug. I'm not going to see you again. You're going to the high school. Yeah. When I gave her a hug, never seen her again. She never tried to reach out to you or anything after that? No. I ran away like years after that, you know what I mean?

From home and on a quest to become Tecnina, you know what I'm saying? Let's dive into your love for horror. That's a dark story. I didn't realize how dark it was. You know what I'm saying? Now it's dark to me. It's like the darkest fuck. But you know what?

I think this is why I say you have such a beautiful testimony because you really are what you rap about. And it's like a lot of people can't say that they are. I've read my life, you know what I'm saying? And I found that out early on. Quincy Jones, he told me, rap what you know and people will forever feel you. And what I know better than anything is myself, you know?

Yes. And I wrote about myself and my stories. And what people have in common and they don't really know is emotion. Right. So I tapped into emotion. That's how I got fans, you know? All my stories are true.

Yes, absolutely they are. You know what I'm saying? Except when you get to Black in the Sun, it turns they are. You know what I'm saying? Except when you get to black in the sun, it turns into imagination, you know what I'm saying? Nipples and noodles and all that kind of shit with trapped in the cycles body. It has a bit of imagination in there, you know what I mean?

Yes. But it comes from a place. Yes. I don't blame my teacher for anything that's happened to me in my life because I didn't look at it as molesting because I was in love. You know what I'm saying? But true it is.

And she groomed you. Yeah. And I mean, I'm sorry, but a 21 year old looking at a 13, 14 year old like that is. There's no, but I already came at 12 though with Marlene. Right, no, and I get that. And I love that you-

I was ready, you know what I'm saying? But- I love that you didn't internalize it as being molested, you know? But responsibly, I have to say, you know, like if that was a man doing that to a little girl, we would all fucking lose our minds, you know? I heard stories later on that I wasn't the only one.

See what I'm saying? It's predatory. It's very predatory. I heard some of my homies say, you know, so and so hit too. I'm like, huh? What? She was just getting it in.

Yeah, that's what I heard. The fact that they even still let her work at the school is just wild. But- Like I said, she was 21. Yeah. Well, but what I'm saying is like, after you guys got caught

and them still letting her work there, that would never fly this time. Because it was written off like that student was just talking some shit. Right, yeah, absolutely. And they didn't see that. Yeah. They seen me give her a hug or something.

Yeah, for sure. You know what I mean? I don't recall what we said, but. Yeah, no I get that. Whatever we said was like, okay. Yeah. You know. Well, let's switch gears to a lighter okay. Yeah. You know. Well, let's switch gears to a lighter subject

and let's talk about- No, it's cool. We can go dark as much as you want to. We're gonna go through phases. So let's talk about your love for horror. You got introduced to it by your mom. My Christian mama. How, that blew my mind whenever I read that fact.

She was so cool. I miss her so much, man. She was so cool. I miss her so much, man. She was so cool. Aw. Maudie Sue Yates, before she became Maudie Sue Yates Khalifa. You know? Let me see. I was born in 71.

She took me to go see Carrie in 76. Yes. You know? Halloween. Halloween premiered in Kansas City in 78. I was there, she took me. Yes. My Christian mama took me to, you know, Kansas City has haunted houses around

late September, October, Halloween. We have Main Street Morgue, we have Dr. Deadly's, we used to have Dr. Deadly's haunted hospital, the edge of hell, we still got the edge of hell, the beast, all these haunted houses for, you know, attractions for people who like the darkness, you know. She took me to all that when I was young. That's amazing to me because I grew up strict Pentecostal

and we were not allowed to listen to secular music. Anything that had to do with Halloween could never partake in it. So that was really cool of her to let you be able to experience some sort of like... I remember her dating my Uncle Ike's friend, Daniel Whitney, and him being the one taking us to this haunted house, Main

Street Morgue. And I remember us walking in. I was young, young, man. You know what I'm saying? I keep on going back to five. A lot of shit happened when I was five, dude. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Really early on. I remember walking into Main Street Morgue, and when you come in, you turn right, and you go up some stairs. They had a black light. I didn't know what a black light was when I was young. And I looked at their faces faces and their eyes were glowing and their face looked crazy and it kind of scared me but I appreciated it because I was already going to the movies and stuff like that you know what I mean on

the scary tip my mom showed me all the things that scared me as a kid, like clowns at the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus, or the Ararat Shrine Circus. She took me to all that. I had a fear for clowns when I was younger. Do you think that's why you wore face paint later on in life? Cause it was like embracing a fear.

Yeah, that's exactly what it was. I became everything that Maudie Souye's Khalifa showed me. Her having epilepsy. When she married Hassan, when she started having seizures, he put her in a psychiatric ward and my Christian family hated him for it because we've dealt with it since she was 18 and she never had to go to a psychiatric ward.

So he thought that was the best thing for her because after you have a grandma seizure, the after effects is you talking out of your mind. You know what I'm saying? So I used to have to come visit her there at Western Missouri when Menorah had one off 63rd, research psychiatric center, all of them in Kansas City. I went to go visit my mom.

Wow. And when they see me wearing hospital scrubs on stage, you know what I mean? All that, the clown, the hospital scrubs, the darkness, all that. The nut house. The lyrically Michael Myers and all that kind of shit is from Marty Suyez-Khalifa. It created TechNine. Thank you, mama. You know what I'm saying?

Because it saved my life. Everything I built from her and her pain, I internalized that shit and turned it into TechNine. You know what I mean? And when people come to my house now and they see my clown shrine with all the Michael Myers stuff and all the, you know, I have Reagan, like a life-size Reagan from the extras is right there. It says, sorry, we're dead on her hand. She's holding a sign that says, sorry, we're dead. I have this in my house and people like, what's up with all this devil shit? I said, it ain't devil shit. My mom taught me early on when I was younger, that these toys, these dark toys

me early on when I was younger that these toys, these dark toys that you see, don't think of them any other kind of way than you think of your G.I. Joe toys or your Star Wars toys or when you see Barbie and Ken, it's plastic and you can't give it any energy at all and people believe that you can, that you'll have dark energy in your house. And when you look at my shrine, that's Maudi Suyais Khalifa right there. And it reminds me, her birthday is October 26th. She's in that kind of fall kind of feel.

So when the fall comes and Halloween, it's just a reminder of my mom. I became the clown, painted my face early on in 94. I painted my face for the first time. You know what I mean? I got my face painted, that is. And now when you see the clown with the red nose on a stage, the mask I use now is just what that clown, what that paint

and that clown in my head has transformed into and it gets worse and worse over the years, you know what I mean? Not within me, though. I just know what that darkness feels like of my mom being in a psychiatric ward and having the seizures and seeing her busting her head wide open from falling out on the floor and hitting her head on the bathroom, I mean the bathtub, you know what I mean? I've seen the puddles of blood, her laying in them, getting beat up, all that stuff.

I can, I know what that darkness is. Yeah. So I make the clown look like something hideous like that. You know what I mean? You turned your trauma into triumph. Yes I did. Is pretty much what you did. I did the same thing, but in a different way,

not with the clowns and stuff like that. But it's like you alchemized your pain and that's so beautiful that you were able to have that consciousness to do that instead of letting it consume you. Or drive me crazy, right? Did you ever fear that you would end up in a place like your mom if you let the if you let it know I never felt like I would end up in a psychiatric ward because I've always been super cerebral

Right. I'm saying like a thinker. Mm-hmm. you know? And I was so, I've always been so into thoughts and stuff like that, that I always feared having an aneurysm or something, you know? Because it never stops. Sometimes I have to do mantras to go to sleep to make it stop, you know? But I never thought I would end up in a psychiatric ward.

I wanted to be a psychiatrist. To figure people out. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I wanted to understand a lot of things. I studied serial killers early on in school. I bought books, Manson and Ted Bundy and the 44 caliber killer. You know what I'm saying?

It's all these things I studied because my mom said I was her angel sitting down to help people you know, so I wanted to Find out about my opposition which would be evil because I am angel, you know what I'm saying? what you what I got right there, you know and I never thought I would lose my mind and I never lost my mind. I don't think I lost my mind Travels would know if I lost my mind. Not intentionally maybe on a party night Maybe some things I do in life, like what's going on in his brain, but I ain't never lost my mind. Right, right, gotcha

So can we talk about I read somewhere that you have an obsession with the number nine and the birth of tech nine Did that come from that? When I got my name in 88 from the gangster named Black Walt, I didn't have a name when I wrote my first three verse rhyme, you know what I'm saying? The new breed, my first rhyme, I was just going with my middle name, D-O-N-T-E-Z-Z. I didn't have nothing, you know? So he was in a group called Black Mafia.

He had Mac-10, not Mac-10 Ice Cube. This is Kansas City. Oh, I was in a group called Black Mafia. He had Mac 10, not Mac 10 Ice Cube. This is Kansas City. Oh, I was like, I love Mac 10. Backyard, boogie, boogie, boogie. That's my brother too, though. Love that. This was a Mac 10 early on in Kansas City, you know, before Mac 10 came out, you know. Right. The OG.

Yeah. The original. We started calling him Shorty Mac, you know what I'm saying, later on in life, you know what I'm saying. Gotcha. But when they heard me do New Breed, my three verse rhyme, my first three verse rhyme, they were like, man, we got to find you a name, bro. Black Mafia, man, we already got one gun,

let me look in the Guns and Elmo books and try to find you another one, you know? And they looked at Uzi, you know what I'm saying? It was like, nah, now you got Lil Uzi Vert, you know? Yeah, yeah. 12 gauge. But because you spit like little Uzi Vert, you know? Yeah, yeah. 12 gauge. But because you spit like an Uzi though, huh? Because like so fast.

You know, they're trying to find something, you know? 12 gauge, I'm like, nah, then 12 gauge is loaded gun and I'm done by now. So shake that donkey butt and them big old legs. I ain't too hard to beat, you know what I'm saying? People got that too, you know what I'm saying? We went AK-47, nah, nah, nah, nah. We went through the whole book and there was no,

nothing in there, we didn't find anything, but it was a picture of a Tech-9 on the back. He's like, Tech-9? He said, because the way you spit, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, you know, I'm like, okay. He said, that's gonna be your name till we find something else.

But the way we spelled it, T-E-C-H, was short for technique. And after I started studying numerology, I found out that nine was the number of completion, nine months complete the pregnancy. They said, Cass, I have nine lives. After nine, there's nothing that's like it, it's double and triple or whatever.

You know what I'm saying? I became the complete technique of rhyme, tech nine, technique number nine, you know what I'm saying? Everything to be able to, I'm rooted in rap, but be able to adjust to any musical situation. You know what I mean? Your fan base shows that. Yes. Your fan base, you have metal fans, you have juggalo fans, you have hip hop heads. I got gangsters, I got all of it.

You've got it all. It covers every... That's how I wanted it to be. I wanted to make Tech N9ne the MC that can do anything. So Travis, I'm happy that you're here. And like we were just saying, I'm so honored that you guys are doing this together. Because I have so many questions, especially with you guys being like the biggest independent label pretty much in the world.

You guys really built something from the ground up. What was, you were already involved in music before you found tech? Because you were funding the fashion show? Well, so I was actually involved in a clothing company, Paradise Originals, how we met. I wasn't really into the music business at all. As a matter of fact, I had no experience, no background at all. Wow. And so, but I, I, when I went to high school, I grew up in a, in a very diverse neighborhood, but more importantly, it was my school was about 80% black. So I grew up around hip hop my entire life.

I mean, from grade school, middle school, and then into high school. So I was always into hip hop. So whenever we wanted to do this fashion show, Tech had a buzz because of those songs that he talked about being on the radio. And I'm like, okay, yeah, let's do this. Let's find him. Let's get him in there and see if he'll do it.

And he did, which was awesome. And, but afterwards, like I knew of him and I knew of several of his songs. And I always heard about how he was about to be the next biggest rapper and everything else. And then after we did the fashion show, I really wanted to talk to him to understand what that journey was because it wasn't,

a lot of the things that I heard were going to happen weren't happening. So I just wanted to understand why, like, okay, you know, what's your story? And he came and he was really, really, really open with me. And he told me every detail. He told me about the managers that he had, which there was a lot of them, by the way, I think he had like five managers or something. I'm like, damn. And so, and then, you know, all the people that were involved. And at first I was like, okay, you know, he told me about the, the,

the deal that he had with quest and how that was through Warner Brothers. And he had a publishing deal through windswept and, and it seemed pretty complicated. And at first I thought I could go in and say, you know, maybe I can give some advice. I was really good at business. I had a really successful furniture business at the time, successful with the clothing, successful with real estate. I was doing my thing and I thought maybe I could offer some advice. And after I met with him, I realized advice isn't what he needed. He needed some money and he needed somebody that would go in there and kind of clean up a few things because it got a little

up a few things because it got it got a little it got a little to be a little bit too much. It was gridlock amongst the label and then the local label Midwest Side Records and then Quest and then Warner Brothers. And at that time, I'm like, dude, that's crazy, man. Good luck. Cool story. Good luck and wish you the best. And, but I didn't think that I could offer any words that was gonna change anything. And, but we stayed in touch. And then there was a time when he reached out to me and I got an opportunity to go down to, it was Icy Rocks house and he played me a song

because we were together at a restaurant when they were writing a song, this restaurant, what was it called, Hops? Hops. Yeah, and so, and I was intrigued by it. And then after it got done, I got an opportunity to go down there and listen to it. And that song was called This Ring.

Yes. And I was blown away by it. He was nice enough to let me have a copy of it. And I must've played that song a thousand times in my life. He was nice enough to let me have a copy of it. And I must have played that song a thousand times in my life. Dawn was like over. She was like, what are you doing? Shout out Dawn. And not only that, but it's like, wait a minute. He's trying to balance being tech nine and being married. Are you trying to say something? Like, why do you keep playing this damn song? And it was, I couldn't leave it alone.

And then that's when we ended up meeting again. And I'm like, hey man, tell me what you want to do. I heard what everybody else has in mind for you, but fuck all of that. Like, what do you want to do? And that's when he told me that he had a publishing company called EGN Arts. And I'm like, okay.

And then I tried to put together. It was a group not an art. Yeah, and then I was like, okay. And then I try to put together. You're saying the group Nodd Art. Yeah, yeah. And then I was like, he goes, that's strange backwards. And I'm like, oh, okay. And I said, why is that? And he goes, well, because if I ever have an opportunity to do my own label, I want to call it strange music.

And I'm like, oh. And then he told me about his love for Jim Morrison and the Doors and all of this stuff. And so I took a leap and said, okay, well listen, man, I don't know the music business, but I'm a quick learner. And I have the means, the financial means to help out. And I think I have a good business acumen

and I know how to move forward relatively quickly. So I said, if you wanna truly do that, I'm in, man. 50-50 and we'll go and we'll figure this thing out. Your first drug you ever tried was ecstasy? Yes. Wow. Yes. Most people like smoke weed or-

I don't call weed drug though. Right, well most people smoke weed or do blow. But it is classified as a drug, but to me, it's natural. Just like most rooms, sorry and shit. But I'm talking about drugs, you know what I'm saying? Molly and ecstasy, I found that first. Yeah, I think the dancer was the first one to give it to me, my first one at a movie theater.

She said, you're gonna take this pill, it's gonna take 30 minutes, you're gonna feel like you have to shit. Don't shit Fuck up the whole thing Shit on ecstasy. No, you ain't supposed to or mushrooms, you know, so you supposed to fill it and keep that shit in You know, that's what I never knew. Yeah. Yeah, you know you get that shit all the time You learn something new every day. She's not a child so she did fart over there. You know what I'm saying?