Prepare yourselves: Tech N9ne has finally released his Special Effects LP,and its punch yields no mercy. The 15th studio album by Kansas City’s own Tech N9ne (yes you read that right, the fifteenth) is undeniably the most significant project of his career.
Not only has Tech maintained his stamp on music, he has consistently gotten more skilled and recognized throughout his entire career. And like he would always say, “Tech won’t go mainstream, mainstream will go Tech”, Special Effects seems to be the epitome of this saying. This album has big-name features like Lil Wayne, Eminem, 2 Chainz, T.I., E-40, B.o.B., Yo Gotti, Big Scoop, Corey Taylor, Audio Push and even more. Crazy right? That’s a mouthful for any artist, and especially one for an artist who isn’t signed to a major label. With everything in place, Tech N9ne had the platform to deliver a classic album.
Special Effects equals out to be 18 full-length songs and 6 short interludes that work as an adhesive to the tracks and concepts on the album. The deluxe version also comes with a 40-minute “Making of Special Effects” DVD which significantly increases the understanding of this project as a whole. Tech divvies up his tracks on Special Effects into a 9-section week, listing some songs under “Sunday Morning”, “Monday”, “Tuesday”, etc. The meaning of this listing method isn’t very clear and leaves it up to the listener to find out.
The biggest theme of Special Effects is pain and darkness. This isn’t surprising considering the fact that Tech commonly refers to himself as the “King of Darkness” in hip-hop. However, this isn’t the same kind or level of darkness found in his earlier work. In June 2014, Tech N9ne’s mother passed away after a long-fought battle with Lupus. It was on this album in which Tech N9ne was able to express his pain and suffering caused from the death of his mother.
The beginning half of Special Effects truly exposes Tech N9ne’s sorrow. The first song, titled Aw Yeah, is what Tech says is a “Question for the maker”. Here he speaks about the turmoil on earth and throughout humanity saying, “Human equality never been a level playing field” on top of hard hitting drums and looped vocal recordings. Tech also touches briefly on the negative effects of him landing on the yearly “Hip-Hop Cash Kings” list by Forbes Magazine on this song. “Tears are so serious“ in the second song, titled Lacrimosa (“weeping” in Latin). It is clear from the first two songs alone that Tech N9ne’s faith in god is diminishing as he suffers throughout his life, saying things like “my religion-walking away” and “I feel like my mothers suffering was too great for how much she worshipped”.
On the third track of Special Effects, titled On The Bible, Tech touches on being threatened for his life and what actions will occur in the event of threats like this happening. With a fitting guest verse from T.I., Tech states “Put that on the bible, if you fuckin with Tech get the rifle”. However, if you thought the darkness couldn’t be captured anymore accurately, the next song proves to truly be the darkest.
In previous albums, Tech N9ne featured a tar-like substance coming from his body on the album artwork, getting heavier and more apparent the more he featured it. In Shroud, Tech is completely immersed in this blanket of pain and suffering. With co-production from the composer of Insidious, The Conjuring, and Annabelle, Joseph Bishara and Strange Music producer Seven do indeed compose the ultimate song of darkness. Tech N9ne delivers a distorted vocal performance with creepy swallowing sounds in empty spots, almost as if a demon is coming out of him and saying these things. If there was ever a horror hip-hop this is it, for real.
Once you get through the beginning of the Special Effects however, things start to lighten up and the happier side of Tech N9ne emerges. Songs like Hood Go Crazy remind you that Tech still has that west coast-inspired, jiggy sound that has popularized him in places like the Bay-Area. On Bass Ackwards he brings a unique letter-flipping flow over what seems to be instruments that have been reversed and played backwards as well. One of the best songs that isn’t dark on the album has got to be Give It All though. This shit’s dope. This espresso shot of a song brings loud-n-proud guitar riffs over live drum sounds, with a chorus that screams, “I wanna try to kill everything in my way!!” (But he’s not talking about actual killing this time). It is apparent that Tech N9ne is still and always will be a positive force to this world, saying things like “A sense of hope walks with me” in the song A Certain Comfort.
BUT WAIT! How could we forget about the final sequels to the Psycho Bitch and Worldwide Choppers series? Psycho Bitch III is the third and final edition of this series that speaks on women friends who are “off their rockers” let’s just say. Hopsin contributes a great story-telling verse that depicts an altercation between a boyfriend and girlfriend caused by the female having relationships with other men. This song doesn’t have much impact to the overall meaning of the Special Effects, but something is to be said of the significance that Tech N9ne chose to put this final sequel on this project.
The sequel that does have impact however, is Speedom (Wwc2). This song marks the first time Tech N9ne and Eminem have collaborated since 1999, and it does not disappoint. This production was influenced not only from Midwest Choppers/Worldwide Choppers, but also from an old Richie Havens song called Freedom. The chorus Krizz Kaliko delivers in this song is nearly identical to the Richie Haven song, and works well with the rest of the track. As you would expect, this track gets absolutely bodied. All three emcees bring a mile-a-minute flow that glides along the quick guitar sample and fast pace drum patterns. This track achieves the difficult task of making a sequel that is better than its predecessor, and one could say the entire album does this as well.
A closer look into Special Effects reveals how personal this album truly is to Tech N9ne. So personal that it may even throw off a listener who is not prepared for the wave of strong emotion that the music emits. The reason Special Effects includes so much darkness and negative emotion is because Tech N9ne has truly been experiencing that since the time of his last album release. This is really how he feels. For the listeners who want something light and easy, Special Effects isn’t for you. This album is an extremely well executed diary made of music, and it could be too personal for some to truly understand and appreciate. One could argue however, that this is the case for all music that maintains heavy substance.
Tech N9ne does indeed provide his best work on Special Effects. From the production side all the way to the signature Tech growl or “chyea”, every fine detail is accomplished in its fullest capacity. With the full attention of the mainstream, the taboo artist from Strange Music only further imprinted his legacy into hip-hop history as arguably the greatest independent rapper of all time. In the song Shroud, Tech performs a prelude to the song in reverse. Instead of literally reversing the recording digitally, Tech N9ne wrote the words out backwards and pronounced them according to the rules of English pronunciation.
Here’s what it said:
“This is not the rant of an evil man, this is the rant of an extremely broken man. So do not mistake this for the devil, cause it’s not. I’m just having some of my darkest moments here lately, so enjoy. Haha!”
Yup.
– Mike T
