One of the most insane, influential, and impactful legacies in hip-hop belongs to Tech N9ne. He has consistently accomplished the impossible from outside of the system. He’s bucked every trend, overturned all expectations, and not only built a culture, but a whole damn world with Strange Music. There’s only one way to describe a rapper on the eve of his 50th birthday with a bigger audience than ever, wilder shows than ever, and crazier flows than ever—and it’s the title of his twenty-second fulllength album, ASIN9NE [Strange Music]. “It’s asinine for Tech N9ne to be rapping like this going into his fiftieth birthday,” he laughs. “All of the fear is gone. It’s just stupid as fuck, as we used to say back in the day. It’s weird. It’s wonderful. It’s crazier than ever, man.” The craziest thing is how far he’s come since co-founding Strange Music back in 2000. The Kansas City, MO rapper has gone from packed Midwest underground shows to the annual Forbes “Cash Kings” list multiple times, the cover of XXL, the playlists of Sir Elton John and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and national commercials for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Beyond tallying billions of streams and views, he has scored four platinum singles (“Am I A Psycho?” [feat. B.o.b & Hopsin], “Worldwide Choppers” [feat. Ceza, JL B.Hood, USO, Yelawolf, Twista, Busta Rhymes, D-Loc, & Twisted Insane], “Hood Go Crazy” [feat. 2 Chainz & B.o.B], and “Caribou Lou” [feat. Krizz Kaliko]) and three gold singles (“Fragile” [feat. Kendrick Lamar, ¡Mayday!, & Kendall Morgan], “Dysfunctional,” and “The Beast”) as well as a gold album (Everready). He has notched 23 entries on the Billboard Top albums Chart and remains the record holder for “most Top 10 albums on the rap chart.” Not to mention, he cracked the Top 5 of the Billboard Top 200 four times. His collaborators have ranged from Eminem, The Doors, Lil Wayne, Tupac, Boyz II Men, T.I., MGK, Flatbush Zombies, and Gary Clark, Jr. to Slipknot, System of a Down, Deftones, and Logic. Mainstream went Tech when he ignited ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel LIVE! Meanwhile, Complex mused upon “How Kendrick Lamar Became a Star With Help From Tech N9ne.” He has sold out hundreds of shows as part of a relentless schedule. Not to mention, he introduced his own craft beer Bou Lou—in partnership with Kansas City’s own Boulevard Brewery. Throughout 2021, he wrote and recorded ASIN9NE. Posting up millions of streams in advance, he teased the album with a string of fan favorites, including “Kickiter” [feat. Shao Dow], “Close Your Eyes” [feat. Kiddo Al], “Take Your Halo,” and “I Been Thru A Lot” [feat. Stige]. Of this marathon run, HotNewHipHop attested, “Tech N9ne just keeps blessing us with dope music.” Now, the album opens with the statement-making “The Herder.” Ominous funeral organ groans underneath back-masked vocals before Tech launches into a succinct salvo of staccato rhymes. Over a rock-infused soundscape, he speaks on his place in the game with the perfect metaphor… “I am the ‘G.O.A.T. Herder’,” he grins. “I’ll take that title over ‘The G.O.A.T.’, because I’m making all of the ‘G.O.A.T.’s’ move. Whenever I send my verses to these ‘G.O.A.T.’s’ like Slim Shady, Wayne, T.I.P. or K. Dot, I push them to go harder. I’m not trying to outdo people; I’m just trying to do my best every time I drop.” On “Too Good” [feat. Lil Wayne & Mumu Fresh], he delivers one quotable bar after another, living up to the title in the process. Mumu Fresh blesses the track with otherworldly soul, while Wayne—on his third track with Tech—devours the beat. “Wayne followed the theme of the song, and it was perfect,” he goes on. “The synergy between Mumu Fresh, Wayne, and myself was such a surprise. It’s three quasars on one track. ‘Too Good’ is its own planet.” “Clydesdale” [feat. E-40] gallops towards a hilarious hook “about big booties.” He goes on, “I think all women are beautiful no matter what, but my preference is thick and juicy.” Then, there’s “Zaza” [feat. Marcus Yates]. Tech’s little cousin Marcus lends his simmering R&B croon to what he describes as “a sexual record, because I’m three-dimensional.” “No See Umz” [feat. Snow Tha Product & Russ] brings together three independent forces of nature. “In Puerto Rico, St. John, and the Caribbean, I always end up bit by bugs at night, and the locals refer to them as ‘No See Umz’,” he explains. “We’re using this metaphor to talk about keyboard warriors who talk shit, but won’t show their faces. Y’all know where we’re at, come talk to us.” Incisive raps slash with Michael Myers-esque bloodlust over shuddering John Carpenter-inspired production on “Heightened.” Marking a full circle moment, “What Rhymes With Threat’ll Kill Ya” [feat. NNUTTHOWZE, Zkeircrow, Phlaque The Grimstress] sees Tech reunite with his NNUTHOWZE brothers for the first time since the nineties. Everything culminates on “Special” [feat. Ashten Ray with accents by T-Pain]. Bright guitar and fingersnaps shine alongside Tech’s vivid storytelling before Ashten croons the hook, “The power is within you, just reach in deep inside.” It’s all uplifted by T-Pain’s instantly recognizable harmonies. “I always try to end albums on a positive note,” he says. “I wanted to say ‘Thank You’ to my fans in another way after all of these years. I’m telling them, ‘I feel special because of you. All of this music is because of you. I want to show out for you’.” Speaking of showing out, Tech welcomed quite possibly the most unbelievable, unexpected, and downright asinine guest possible for a secret track bound to shock and awe in the best way. You’ll have to listen, but you’ll smell what he’s been cooking up when you hear it. In the end, Tech may be decades deep, but he’s just getting started… “No matter what’s hot in the streets or how the modern era of music is changing, I’m not going anywhere,” he assures. “I’m still right here. I’m still Dracula. We’re not slowing down. I want you to listen to the album and know that I’ll never stop. This one takes you on a rollercoaster ride. It makes you want to hear more—and I’m going to give you more.” – Rick Florino, September 2021.

The right amount of self-applied pressure causes growth.

Through an unwavering dedication to progression, Wage War sharpen their patented hybrid of heavy pit-starting technicality and hummable hypnotic melodies with each subsequent evolution. Look no further than the aptly titled third full-length from the Florida quintet, Pressure [Fearless Records]. The band—Briton Bond [lead vocals], Cody Quistad [rhythm guitar, clean vocals], Seth Blake [lead guitar], Chris Gaylord [bass], and Stephen Kluesener [drums]—drove themselves to fully realize their ambition by personally pushing harder than ever.

“There’s always pressure to make a great album, but we felt it even more so this time around,” explains Cody. “We pushed ourselves to keep this thing moving and growing. The theme was to be as catchy and as heavy as possible. We knew we had to do something people would notice. Ultimately, we tried to deliver a benchmark that says, ‘This is Wage War. This is what we can do.’”

A whirlwind four years set the foundation for such a statement. The group’s 2015 debut, Blueprints, yielded multiple fan favorites with “Alive” cracking 12 million Spotify streams and “The River” exceeding 8 million to date. Meanwhile, 2017’s Deadweight established the boys as a rising force. Totaling nearly 50 million cumulative streams in two years, the single “Stitch” racked up 14 million streams on Spotify as Deadweight received widespread praise from MetalInjection, New Noise, Metal Hammer, and Rock Sound who dubbed it, “a relentless, genre-evolving treat.” Meanwhile, they toured alongside everyone from I Prevail and Of Mice & Men to Parkway Drive and A Day To Remember, logging countless miles on the road.

In order to approach their next evolution from a different angle, Wage War enlisted the talents of producer Drew Fulk (Motionless in White, Lil Peep, IDKHOW) and recorded in Los Angeles for the first time. The locale fostered a spirit of evolution.

“We were all out of our comfort zone, which was really cool,” Cody elaborates. “We couldn’t just go home after the day. We all lived in the same house. It was a great opportunity for us to reconnect. We’d go to shows together, come back, and write at 2am. Los Angeles is inspiring, because there’s a youthful drive and passion. Everyone is there to chase a dream. It gives you a mindset. You talk about going to L.A. to make a record when you’re 13. It was a bucket list thing for us.”

At the top of 2019, they teased out the album with “Low.” Right out of the gate, it leapt past 5 million Spotify streams. Meanwhile, the first single “Who I Am” targets those people who only engage in discussions to spread negativity, as it teeters between a razor-sharp riff, guttural screams, and a sweeping clean refrain, “Don’t forget I’m human. I’ve got the open wounds to prove it. You don’t get to choose it. You don’t know who I am.”

Meanwhile, “Take the Fight” hinges on a gnashing guitar fused to an aggressive pitched intonation by Briton, standing out “as something we’ve never done before.” Cody adds, “It’s a call-to-arms. We have dark songs, but we want to share light in the underlying message. It encourages everyone to stop being ignorant and treat each other better.”

 

“Grave” highlights Briton’s clean vocals for an entire track, another first, as it dips in and out emotionally charged verses and into an arena-size gang chant punctuated by call-and-response.

“You come to a point of realizing you need to cut ties with toxic individuals in your life,” adds Cody. “You’ve repeatedly given them chances, but they don’t deserve you.”

Illuminating the dynamics of the group, the airy guitar of “Me Against Myself” underlines the biggest and boldest refrain of this body of work as closer “Will We Ever Learn” merges heavenly vocalizations with subtle synths and a thudding groove.

In the end, Pressure elevates Wage War to the next level.

“When you listen to the album, you hopefully get Wage War turned up to ten,” Cody leaves off. “Lyrically, everything is from the heart. Maybe, it gets you through a tough time, pushes you into another day, or gives you the strength to talk to somebody. There’s nothing better.”

BOILER

Through an unwavering dedication to progression, Wage War sharpen their patented hybrid of heavy pit-starting technicality and hummable hypnotic melodies with each subsequent evolution. Look no further than the aptly titled third full-length from the Florida quintet, Pressure [Fearless Records]. The band—Briton Bond [lead vocals], Cody Quistad [rhythm guitar, clean vocals], Seth Blake [lead guitar], Chris Gaylord [bass], and Stephen Kluesener [drums]—drove themselves to fully realize their ambition by pushing harder. A whirlwind four years set the foundation for such a statement. The group’s 2015 debut, Blueprints, yielded multiple fan favorites with “Alive” cracking 12 million Spotify streams and “The River” exceeding 8 million to date. Meanwhile, 2017’s Deadweight established the boys as a rising force. Totaling nearly 50 million cumulative streams in two years, the single “Stitch” racked up 14 million streams on Spotify as Deadweight received widespread praise from MetalInjection, New Noise, Metal Hammer, and Rock Sound who dubbed it, “a relentless, genre-evolving treat.” Meanwhile, they toured alongside everyone from I Prevail and Of Mice & Men to Parkway Drive and A Day To Remember, logging countless miles on the road. In order to approach their next evolution from a different angle, Wage War enlisted the talents of producer Drew Fulk (Motionless in White, Lil Peep, IDKHOW)and recorded in Los Angeles for the first time, delivering a bold body of work.

When your first single hits 500k views on TikTok within 36 hours of its release, the accusations start to fly. So when the Memphis-based Sleep Theory’s “Another Way” did just that back in January, vocalist Cullen Moore heard all about how his band was an “industry plant” or “designed for the algorithm.” But in actuality, what seemed like an overnight success was years in the making.

Since retiring from the US Army several years ago, Moore’s dedicated his entire life to carving his own path in the music industry. Officially starting Sleep Theory in 2019, the current incarnation of his musical journey began as a solo studio project to fuse his love of hard rock, funk and R&B.

Then came a chance meeting with bassist Paolo Vergara, who had just moved from the Philippines and was looking to buy a microphone on Facebook Marketplace. The two immediately hit it off, and Sleep Theory became a duo. Fast-forward to 2023, when they expanded to a full band with the familial rhythm section of drummer Ben and guitarist Daniel Pruitt.

In recent months, Sleep Theory released a second track (and second #1 hit on SiriusXM’s Octane) in “Numb,” started playing their first handful of shows to massive crowds (including their hometown Beale Street Music Festival), and signed to Epitaph Records for the release of their debut EP, a six-track blast that shows the range of Sleep Theory — from metalcore-like breakdowns to bluesy grooves, all brought together by a pop sensibility that’s pushed them into sudden stardom.

But whereas many artists work their entire careers for the success that Sleep Theory is already seeing, this is only the beginning for the hard-rocking quartet. While part of Moore’s determination may stem from his military background, Vergara has his own reasons for needing the band to succeed.

“I moved to America in 2016, and my goal my whole life has been to be a musician or a filmmaker,” Vergara says. “When I joined the band, I never thought we’d be in this position right now. I had a band back in the Philippines, but we never had the chance to achieve our dreams or put out our own songs. My bandmates there told me that if I ever come to the US and have a chance to achieve our dream as a band, I had to go for it and make them proud. That dream still sticks with me all of the time.”

Despite Sleep Theory’s big dreams and goals for the future, they’re still very much focused on the present. The band’s found success by taking things one moment at a time and enjoying every step of the process. Their sudden popularity hasn’t changed how anyone operates, and their early hits haven’t changed how they’re going about their first EP.

“I feel like a lot of people would feel pressure to create something that's on par with what we’ve already put out, but I’m just going into it stress-free and having a good time,” Moore says. “We aren’t worried about other people’s expectations, we're worried about our own expectations. We have one song that we recorded when we were not having a good time, and that's one of the few songs that I never want released. We all have a really good relationship with each other and our producer, so the main thing in the forefront of my mind while working on this album is just having a good time and putting out what I know that people would enjoy.”

And with their first EP in the bag, Sleep Theory is finally able to go after the sponsor they’ve been coveting ever since the band got together.

“There’s a very important part of our songwriting and producing routine,” Moore smiles. “If we get stuck, we go to Waffle House.”

“We need that Waffle House sponsorship,” Ben Pruitt adds, showing off his Waffle House-branded sneakers. “I want to walk in and not pay for anything.”

The fine line between genius and insanity, self-seriousness and self-deprecation,nimplosion and explosion: that is the phantom zone where FALLING IN REVERSE thrives.

Falling In Reverse founder, frontman, and Machiavellian heroic supervillan / villainous superhero Ronnie Radke is the walking, talking, breathing, spitting, screaming, singing,
fighting, loving, hyper-confident, sensitive, and vulnerable embodiment of a generation’s id. He’s the ego and super-ego in the classic Freudian sense, “slipping” all
over the place with vicious bite and playful innuendo. With his music, art, and life, he is the living embodiment of broken homes, the frustrated contradiction of self-
destruction, and everyday single-minded defiance against a world gone mad.

COMING HOME is his latest reinvention, coming full-circle back to the start, reinvigorated as mad scientist conductor of soaring, transcendent, engaging alternative
pop-rock with massive radio hooks and a still-beating heavy metal hardcore heart. “Broken,” “Loser,” “Hanging On,” “I Don’t Mind,” and “Coming Home” are shocking in
their epic scope, vibrant authenticity, and unrelenting dedication to personal truth.