Tech N9ne Says His Verse On Lil Wayne's "Interlude" Woke People Up

Tech N9ne talks Forbes' Cash Kings 2013 list, says he lost more than $180,000 on his first tour.

Among the numerous feature-heavy records on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV was “Interlude,” a Willy Will-produced record that included guest verses from bothTech N9ne and Andre 3000. And according to Tech N9ne, his addition to “Interlude” served as a wakeup call for those whose radar he may have fallen off of. 

“I’ve been around for a long time, but it took Wayne to say ‘Come here, dog. Do this.’ I said ‘Okay, I’mma do it.’ And he believed in me,” Tech N9ne said during an interview with DBL CIN. “You know what I mean? And he called my name out and I showed up and showed out. And he put me on there with Dre, with Three Stacks. He put me on there with Three Stacks and didn’t tell me. I’m so glad I went in…That woke a lot of people up.”

While speaking on Lil Wayne, Tech also commented on the rapper’s recording process. He initially expressed uncertainty at Lil Wayne and Jay Z’s ability to craft a record without writing down any of their lyrics, but quickly doubled back as he recalled a recording session he walked into while working with Lil Wayne in Miami, Florida.

According to the Kansas City rapper, around 3 to 4 AM he walked into the studio and witnessed Lil Wayne, Mack Maine, and others staring at the ceiling before Lil Wayne broke his gaze to ask a question about a lyric and proceeded to stare at the ceiling again.

“I don’t believe Jay or Wayne,” said the rapper. “My niggas is tight. But I believe they write it down somewhere and memorize that shit. Well, let me say about Wayne, though. I did witness some shit with Wayne. I ain’t never witnessed it with Jay Z. I witnessed Wayne when I was down there. Nigga, it was the creepiest shit I ever seen in my life. It was like some alien shit, my nigga. Okay, keep in mind I been writing for a long time…We pretty much do things the same in the studio…I walked in and them niggas was all looking up like this…I just wanted to see what they was doing and they was all looking up.”

Tech N9ne also provided his thoughts on his inclusion on Forbes’ Cash Kings list and spoke on losing just short of $200,000 while touring early in his career.

“Using your own money is a hard thing,” he said. “You know what I’m saying? And if you have the balls to keep putting it in as you lose it you might be on to something if you got something beautiful…We didn’t know that back in the day when me and Travis [O'Guin, Tech N9ne's partner in Strange Music] first started this venture. You know what I mean? That first tour we lost over $180,000. And we kept going though.”

In addition to being featured on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV, Tech N9ne featured Weezy, Krizz Kaliko, and T-Pain on the All 6's And 7's record “Fuck Food."