Strange Symphony: Tech N9ne goes high-brow with KC’s strongest strings
Photo Courtesy of Darryl Woods
In the summer of 2014, a video of rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot performing his 1992 hit “Baby Got Back” with the Seattle Symphony went viral online, with over 1.5 million views within a week. Just a few months before Nas performed a 20th-anniversary concert for his 1994 classic Illmatic at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., backed by the National Symphony Orchestra—A show that would later be released as both an album and an episode of PBS’ Great Performances. A year later, Kendrick Lamar would also take the Kennedy Center stage with the orchestra, to take on a selection of tracks from his To Pimp A Butterfly.
In the decade since, there have been shows such as Common with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2017, or Jeezy backed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for a run-through of his 2005 major label debut Thug Motivation 101: Let’s Get It in 2023. Into this pantheon now steps Kansas City’s own Aaron Yates–better known to audiences the world over as Tech N9ne–when he tackles a selection of songs from throughout his career with the Kansas City Symphony at the Midland on Saturday, May 4, for a sold-out performance.
Even given that in the course of his lengthy career, Tech has worked with Tupac, teamed up with Boulevard Brewing Company to release a beer, and even managed to get actor and wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to drop a verse on his 2021 single, “Face Off,” this was some next-level news when it was announced. When we spoke with the rapper ahead of the upcoming symphonic performance, even he seemed a little amazed at what was happening.
Photo Courtesy of Darryl Woods
“It’s the thing they do with the greats, man,” marveled Tech. “And I’m honored that they approached me and said they wanted to get with me on this. It’s a big thing, for sure.”
As the rapper explains, it was the symphony’s own idea, and in a meeting with some of the people from the Kansas City Symphony and Australian arranger Tim Davies, they said, “‘Hey, we’ve been listening for a while and we have a list of songs we’d like to do.’ I was like, ‘Whoa,’ you know what I’m saying? It’s a big thing, man. Everybody can’t do this.”
Tech admits he was surprised by some of the more than 20 tracks selected by the symphony, such as “Worldwide Choppers” and “Like I Ain’t,” but says that he was flattered by just how many songs the symphony had considered. While it took a minute, they combined what the symphony had in mind and what the rapper’s setlist looks like these days to come up with a selection of songs from which they’d be working.
Arranger Tim Davies is no stranger to doing this sort of work, as he’s the one who worked with the National Symphony Orchestra on the aforementioned Nas and Kendrick Lamar shows, as well as several performances since. He was no stranger to Tech N9ne, either, with the rapper enthusing, “I know how massive that was for me to be sitting in the same room as him.”
Massive—along with intricate—could also be applied to the process of putting together a show like this. Thankfully, Tech’s engineer Ben Cybulsky—AKA “Bengineer”—knows the language of what was technically required, from click tracks, to breakdowns, to song stems.
“It’s been a lot and we’re still working,” Tech says. “The whole thing has been a challenge for sure because we had to do way more than we thought. I thought that if I sent him a full show recorded from my last tour with Hollywood Undead—the audio and everything—that it would help him. He didn’t really need none of that shit.”
Here, Tech laughs and says that Davies’ response was along the lines of, “‘Nah, we need way more than that. We need every piece of what instrument is where, and we got to pull these instruments out so the symphony can play those instruments, not over other instruments.’”
When we spoke with Tim Davies, he concurred.
Photo Courtesy of Darryl Woods
“The process is to get the setlist and then get all of what you’re talking about from the artists,” the arranger explains. “Basically, ‘Send me everything you got. The more, the better. I can choose to ignore it or not need it, but once I start, I want to just be able to go for it.’”
That live show Tech sent Davies was a help, however, with Davies saying that he’ll often get a live version from an artist, because he needs that live version, versus the recorded track to know how an artist performs that song now.
“Often, songs change, especially older ones. They do in different ways,” Davies says. “So I need to know that, but I also want to go back to the original so I can hear how they played it originally. Like, what got left out over the years, because maybe that’s something cool I can bring back with the orchestra.”
One would wonder just how an Australian working in the film world came to collaborate with so many iconic American rappers, but Davies says it’s actually quite simple. He’d come over to America to study at USC and work on films. He studied film scoring and realized that wasn’t really what he wanted to do. Having always been an arranger, he realized film orchestrating is a good place to be because he gets to be with orchestras every week.
“I was always doing a few little arranging projects and a friend of mine—another film orchestrator Stephen Coleman—was working for a producer called Salaam Remi. Salaam would give us tracks and we would write orchestra on the top for him. Then, he would cut that up and put that into songs,” Davies explains.
“One of the tracks that I’d written for him, I didn’t even know he’d done it, but he’d used as the bed for a song for Nas that came out and that album Life Is Good went to number one, and I get this message from Salaam and he said, ‘Congratulations,’ and I’m like, ‘On what?’ Cause I didn’t even know that he had taken this. He basically sampled me.”
Cut to a couple of years later, and the Kennedy Center wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Illmatic. They were looking for hip-hop arrangers and they couldn’t really find anyone.
“But bizarrely, the producer of the show and the artistic director of jazz at the Kennedy Center were in a car listening to a CD of Nas and this song came on and they said, ‘Well, who’s this kind of vibe?’” Davies says. “It was me. They Googled me, found me, that’s how I ended up on that project thanks to Jason Moran, who was driving, and Garth Ross, who at the time worked for the Kennedy Center and was producing this Illmatic show.”
Part of what makes Davies so perfect for projects such as these symphonic hip-hop concerts is that, as an arranger, he’s worked with varied composers, be it Mark Mothersbaugh on The Mitchells vs The Machines, Ant-Man with Christoph Beck, and The Simpsons Movie with Hans Zimmer, to name a few. He knows how to take music from a variety of talents and make it work with a symphony.
“Coming from that Hollywood world, I’ve learned how to make an orchestra sound big, and how to make it sound epic,” Davies says. “The tricks that we use on those film scores when you want that big emotional kick and all of that. I’ve been able to use those skills to make these moments in the hip-hop world and make the orchestra come alive.”
Photo Courtesy of Darryl Woods
Davies is a drummer, originally, and grew up playing in bands, making it easy for him to understand how the artist side works with the band and rhythm section.
“I understand jazz and all of that,” the arranger continues. “I mean, a decent amount of the hip-hop samples, you know, come from that jazz world and have extended harmony and all that sort of stuff. Understanding all of that, not just being a jazz arranger, but coming from the film score world—When I put the cinematic with what I know from writing big bands, it’s my own sort of special blend. I think I do it a little bit differently than what a lot of people do.”
What better pairing than someone such as Davies with one of the greatest locals in Tech N9ne? Davies clues us into a selection of things planned for the upcoming show. While we’re not at liberty to discuss any of the surprises planned for the opening moments, the arranger assures us that once it gets going, it’s off to the races with the first 40 minutes of the show being a continuous performance.
“There’s no stopping,” Davies says. “There’s no gaps. It’s just kind of one big medley.”
When we spoke with Tech, it was more than a month and a half out from the show, and the performance had just sold out a few days prior. When we ask how he feels about it selling out, the rapper pulls no punches.
“It might sound pompous, but I’m going to tell the truth,” he says. “But when I was just in Hawaii for Valentine’s Day my partner Travis O’Guin called me and said, ‘Hey man, we only got a hundred tickets left,’ I was like, ‘Yep, I already knew.’ I knew it was gonna sell out early.’”
For those left holding the bag and unable to get tickets, rest assured that you’ll likely be able to experience it eventually, says Tech.
“I think we’re going to have everything there and record it professionally. You never know, people might be able to buy it. I’m not sure if it’s going to end up that way, but it’s not written in blood yet.”
In the meantime, there’s plenty to catch from Tech N9ne. Even though his year to date has already included performances at Kansas City’s Super Bowl victory parade and the home opener of the KC Current, there’s still a lot to come, even amid this amazing feat.
“This is a major thing I’m working on in the midst of trying to plan a wedding, having our one-year-old’s first birthday party,” Tech says. “It’s all these things in the midst of me trying to record this new Collabos project, sending songs out, getting them back in, and trying to meet deadlines. Ah, it’s a wonderful time for Tech N9ne. I feel like such a Kansas Citian.”
