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Tech N9ne, born Aaron D. Yates, has been a driving force in the Underground music scene. Releasing his first album, The Calm Before the Storm, in 1997, Tech has represented what many underground artists desperately want to be : a person with amazing rapping talent, comparable to more well-known mainstream artists, but someone who hadn’t sold out to the mainstream. Since that nine (n9ne) years since his first album, it has been said that Tech has been getting better and better every album. Does Everready : The Religion follow this? We shall see.

With preceding albums like Anghellic and Absolute Power, you’d think that Tech would have a lot to live up to. Well, yes and no. Yes in the fact that with all the hype around this album (which was original supposed to come out in the Spring of 2004) and all the waiting for it, you’d expect an amazing album. Which, by all means, this is a good album. Yet it is a bit of disappointment. Me, being a HUGE fan of Tech N9ne (especially Absolute Power), I had very high hopes for this album. Usually every Tech song on a CD is at least listen-to-able (ala Anghellic and Absolute Power). This just felt like there were a few plain shitty songs on it. But I’ll talk more about that later.

The production on the album is very good in my opinion. Perhaps the best of any Tech album. Michael “Seven” Summers really shines throughout the album, producing such banging tracks as “Welcome to the Midwest”, “Bout Ta Bubble” and “Come Gangsta”. For those of you who didn’t notice, Seven is also said to be Twiztid’s new producer. Also joining Seven in the main production of the album is Robert Rebeck, who produced “The Beast” and “Riot Maker”. Also doing some co-production were Rick Ross and Traxmasters.

As far as guest appearances go, this album has some banging ones. Joining Tech on Everready are, of course, his accomplices on Strange Music (Big Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, Skatterman and Snug Brim) among better known rappers like E-40 and Brotha Lynch Hung among other not soo known rappers such as Dalima and Alyia and Reign Yates. (Tech’s daughters, for those who don’t know.)

The album opens with “Enter Everready/B.L.E.S.T.” which is an account of the bus accident that happened last year with Tech and the rest of the Strang Music crew. Following after this is the catchiest song on the CD, in my opinion, “Riot Maker”. Followed by other banging tracks “No Can Do”, “Welcome to the Midwest”, and “Jellysickle”.

While listening to “Jellysickle”, you can really feel the different sounds and productions of Everready. Some songs like “Jellysickle” and “My Wife, My Bitch, My Girl” have a hyphy sound that was made famous in the Bay Area while songs like “Caribou Lou” have a more Southern sound with a slower bassline. Overall, I think this is good for people who have different musical tastes.

As the CD begins to go further though, you feel another change in the music beginning to take place. Then you realize that this CD is beginning to slip from a party album into a more personal album, which I believe is a really good thing. Many people were divided because they either loved personal shit (Anghellic) and didn’t care for party music (Absolute Power) or vice versa, so Everready is a bit of both for everybody.

The personal songs begin to show with “Come Gangsta”, the best track on the CD in my opinion. This track showcases Tech’s rap the best of any other song on the CD and has perhaps one of the catchiest choruses ever. The personal theme of the latter part of the album continues with “My World” and another exceptional track “The Rain”. But before you can even say Tech’s name five times, it swtiches back to the party theme of the album with “Fuck’em Girl”, the worst track on the entire CD in my opinion.

The album then concludes with the, made famous by Madden, “The Beast”. And slowly begins to turn personal again with “This Is Me”

The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line: Was this CD worth the wait? Yes and no. If you expected this album to blow Anghellic and Absolute Power out of the water and completely obliterate every other album in existance, then you probably will be. If you are like me, however, and just are a Tech fan who wants to hear good music and really has no great expectations beforehand, you will really enjoy this CD. Overall, this CD has a better all-around appeal to more people (with the different productions and more of a party-based album), which isn’t a bad thing, but I enjoyed a bigger percentage of the Personal Songs than the Party songs.

Tracklisting

Disc 1

01. Enter Everready / B.L.E.S.T.
02. Riot Maker / Enjoy – (featuring Skatterman/Snug Brim)
03. No Can Do – (featuring Big Krizz Kaliko)
04. Welcome To The Midwest – (featuring Big Krizz Kaliko)
05. Bout Ta’ Bubble
06. It’s What You Thinkin’
07. Night And Day / T.E.C.H. Radio
08. Jellysickle – (featuring E-40)
09. Caribou Lou
10. Hood Connection, Strange Commercial
11. My Wife, My Bitch, My Girl
12. Flash / Your Descent
13. Come Gangsta
14. Melancholy Maze & My World Intro, The
15. My World – (featuring Brotha Lynch Hung/Dalima)
16. Running Out Of Time “Root”
17. The Rain / Welcome Back / Party Hard – (featuring Alyia/Reign Yates)
18. F**k’em Girl – (featuring Big Krizz Kaliko/Kutt Calhoun)
19. Beast, The
20. This Is Me / Goodbye

Disc 2 (Bonus Disc)

01. Intro
02. That Owl
03. In My Head
04. Groupie
05. Rock Like That
06. The Shouting
07. Don’t Blame Me
08. Run
09. Whip It
10. Playa Like Me
11. Trapped
12. Holy War
13. Let It Go
14. The Need
15. Little Pills

Websites

TheRealTechN9ne.com
MySpace.com/TechN9ne
StrangeMusicInc.net

Record Label:

• Strange Music Inc.

Release Date:

• 11/07/2006

Reviewer:

• Cam