Summer may be ending. But having fun while living life on your own terms is always in season for Tech N9ne. And the indie hip-hop pioneer illustrates how he does just that in the video for his latest single, “Pull Out” featuring Head Da Don.
Sliding into a brand new red Maserati with butterfly doors, Tech N9ne and fellow passenger Head Da Don cruise around Tech’s Kansas City, Missouri stomping ground, meeting women and handing out CD-styled invitations for a fly pool party at a mansion. Along the way, the pair rap to a head-boppin’, banging beat.
On the no-holds-barred first verse, Tech totes up his creds: “They said, ‘Tech N9na washed up.’ / I gotta tell ‘em, ‘Pull out the facts’ / Lot of ‘em stuck on planet rock / like I can’t pull out some plaques / What I scripted makes me tickets / Now I pull out the stacks / Cause I brought Independence, Overland Park and every hood out for rap.”
“When I heard that beat from Goodro, then that [pull out] hook from Head Da Don, I knew immediately that the song would get us back up on radio and the charts,” Tech N9ne tells Billboard. “This is just the beginning of the fire songs coming off my Bliss LP.”
Released in July in the midst of celebrations for hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, Bliss is the follow-up to 2021 album Asin9ne. Describing Bliss as “a mirror to society,” the project marks Tech’s 24th album via his Strange Music label — which will celebrate its own 25th anniversary in 2024.
With its forays into R&B, soul, alternative and heavy metal plus a host of guests including Joyner Lucas, Durand Bernarr, RMR and Qveen Herby, the 25-track Bliss finds the prolific Tech still in full command of his signature fast-rhyming flow and fearless genre fusion.
In addition to “Pull Out,” album highlights include “Fatha Fig Ya (Food for Thought)” featuring RMR, “W H A T (We’re Hungry and Thirsty)” featuring Kim Dracula and Hu$h and “Knock,” a master seminar in lyricism with Tech (Kansas City), Conway the Machine (Buffalo), X-Raided (Sacramento) and Joyner Lucas (Boston).
“You’ve got a quartet of MCs from different regions just crushing it,” Tech says about the track in his recent bio. “My East Coast fans are always like, ‘We want to hear you on some boom bap!’ So we got this incredible beat from Dame The Producer. ‘Knock’ is amazing for 50 years of hip-hip.”
Between operating his successful merchandise empire and teaming with Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewery for his craft beer Bou Lou, Tech N9ne will be co-headlining a North America tour with rock band — and fellow genre-busters — the Hollywood Undead this fall.
The Hollywood & N9ne trek kicks off Oct. 16 in Chesterfield, Missouri and wraps in Nashville on Nov. 19. Stops along the way include Chicago (Oct. 18), Las Vegas (Oct. 27), New York (Nov. 8) and Atlanta (Nov. 14). For more information, visit hollywoodandn9netour.com.