Tech N9ne to team up with KC Symphony for historic, genre-bending performance

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As a crew of producers and sound engineers tinkered to perfect the audio for the homegrown rap artist who was about to take center stage with his often-dubbed horrorcore hip-hop music, the sweet classical blend of horns and strings tuning rose up from the adjacent concert hall.

Last Wednesday marked the first rehearsal of the Kansas City Symphony and rapper Tech N9ne for their historic, genre-bending collaboration concert.

As the teams from both camps frantically moved through Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center For the Performing Arts preparing for their first joint session, Tech sat quietly, scrolling aimlessly through social media and playing parts of random songs from a variety of genres on his phone.

Tech, whose legal name is Aaron Yates, isn’t nervous about the rehearsal or the sold-out May 4 performance at the Midland Theatre, 1228 Main St. He is beyond excited to bring this new experience to Kansas City.

Any true fan of the Tech N9ne catalog will tell you that the nationally known rapper from Kansas City has always dabbled in infusing his music with various genres. Known mostly for his use of rock and metal tracks on his records, Tech also has long been influenced by the classical genre as well, though that may have escaped the ears of listeners.

“If you are a deep Tech N9ne fan, you know orchestral sounds and elements have been in my music since the beginning,” said Tech. “When I first had the meeting with (composer) Tim (Davies) and KC Symphony folks, they had a list already.”

This joint effort between Tech and the Kansas City Symphony has been in the works for the better part of a year. Tech was approached by the symphony to be the first non-classical music artists to jointly play with their orchestra. For them, selecting Tech N9ne was an easy choice.

This concert joins a larger effort of prestigious national symphonies bringing in hip-hop artists to fuse the sounds of rap and classical music into a one-of-a-kind performance.

“This incredible evening of music with Tech N9ne will be like no other,” the symphony says on it’s website.

The Kansas City Symphony brought in Grammy-nominated composer, Tim Davies, a native of Australia who now lives in California and has arranged music for joint concerts for Nas, Common and Kendrick Lamar. Next, he will do so for Killer Mike, who will perform with the National Symphony Orchestra later this month at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The process of getting Tech’s concert together started a year ago with Davies at his Los Angeles home listening to the rapper’s collective works and searching for just the right songs to marry with the classical aesthetic. After pulling together the song list, Davies began the “tedious” task of creating sheet music for each of the 63 musicians in the orchestra, breaking down each song and rebuilding them with a fuller instrumental arrangement.

”The thing about arranging hip-hop is the repetition,” said Davies. “A lot of these songs are based on a short loop that repeats, but Tech’s songs have a lot of choruses that have harmonic shifts. So, I am able to make it a lot more interesting for the musicians to play.”

Davies selected 33 songs that will be played in the medley that makes up the Tech N9ne performance.

“They had ‘Burn It Down’ in there. They had stuff that I’ve done and I’m like, ‘I’ve never done this live, you know?’ I mean, it’s like music travels, man,” said Tech. “It connects people, and thank God that it connected to somebody as great as Tim.”

Bringing Tech and the symphony together is of major significance in Kansas City, where it is bridging cultures.

“It is important here in Kansas City with Tech being such a big part of the community, so it is important to bring both Kansas City institutions together,” said Davies. “His music is already symphonic and epic so it was easy to make it bigger in places, and I think people will definitely feel it.”

Though he’s thoroughly familiar with the process of transcribing hip-hop into classical music scores, this will be Davies’ first time stepping on the podium as conductor. He said the musicians in the orchestra will play the music louder than is traditionally done for other symphony performances. They are excited about this change.

The orchestra members had been given the music ahead of last week so they could practice. But the rehearsal was the first time the group got to put all the pieces together and hear the symphonic sound of it all. Tech got his first listen, too. He was not disappointed.

As he strolled on stage, getting his bearings of the performing area, he shook the hands of those in the orchestra and thanked them for being there. Members of the symphony volunteered to be part of this musically monumental performance.

The set opens with the song “Unfair” from “Welcome To Strangeland,” one of his albums of collaborations. Tech began by rapping the intro with the lightning fast precision and cadence that he has become legendary for throughout his career. The familiar chords of the song begin to emerge from the horns and the strings as Tech seamlessly sends a cascade of lyrics atop the beautifully crafted orchestral arrangement. As he finished, the orchestra came to a screeching, downward descent ending with a triumphant burst.

After the last chords of the first song were played, Tech turned and looked behind him to the players.

“That sounds awesome,” the rap artist exclaimed. A broad smile spread across his face.

He repeated the same enthusiastic compliment after every song.

Though Tech plays dozens of shows each year, this performance will be unlike any of his others. For him, the classical show is about elevating the hip-hop genre and pushing the envelope of what people think music is capable of accomplishing.

“If I had to tell you what we have experienced since we have announced this, a lot of different fans that I wouldn’t think would come are saying that we are coming out to the symphony show,” said Tech. “I’m bougie when it comes to food, so I’m going to the top restaurants and the people in there eating are like, ‘Yo, we have tickets.’ It is looking like there will be more symphony fans experiencing Tech N9ne for the first time, and I am excited about that because I want to show people why I was chosen to do this.”

Davies believes that concerts like these bring together audiences that may not ever get the chance to sit down and enjoy music together. He thinks these performances are mutually beneficial and that reaching across genres for fresh experiences is a way to pump much needed life into the American orchestral scene.

“There is a lot of talk about where orchestra and symphony are heading and a lot of it is seen as highbrow. So coming into this genre and the community around it is an opportunity to grow,” said Davies. “We have hundreds of years of old classical music but it isn’t changing anything. But this is great for challenging music and bringing in a new audience.”

Tech said his fans have been in a constant state of excitement since the joint concert was announced, and he is looking forward to them hearing his music presented like never before.

Backed by the symphony, fan favorites like “Riot Maker,” “Straight Out the Gate” and “Red Kingdom” were raised to a grand and majestic scale. Goosebump-inducing!

Though Tech plans to stay true to his own musical style and stage presence, he does plan to clean the show up a bit for this new audience. Tech has opted to censor the profanity and sexual lyrics. He doesn’t want to alienate or offend any attendees unfamiliar with his music.

Tech’s concert outfits generally range from comfortable street wear to elaborate costumes of chains and spikes. For this performance — although he didn’t disclose the full details of what he will be wearing — fans can expect Tech’s fantastical adornments combined with the style and grace for which the symphony is traditionally known.

“I can tell you it is going to be a mixture of crazy Tech N9ne. When I say crazy Tech N9ne, it has depth, and mix it with a bit of symphony,” he said.

Tech and his team are working on plans to record the concert and make it available to fans who unfortunately can’t make it to the live performance. He said that he is in talks with Amazon Prime to possibly stream the concert on the platform post-performance.

Tech’s main hope is that people walk away from the show with a new appreciation for the uniting power of music. He also wants to inspire other rappers to find the courage to step outside the conventional standards of the genre and create something that is original — and at the same time, be true to themselves artistically.

“We need something to boost the morale in our town,” said Tech. “The youngsters who see me doing this can say ‘If Tech can do it, I can do it as well and take it a step further.’ I don’t know what a step further would be, but this has to be the hilt of being a musician. When they see me with the symphony, they can see themselves.”