The type of music that I do can fit in pop music’s format, but it’s truly still me. We always talk about bringing the mainstream to Strange and not trying to be the mainstream. "I’ve dabbled in this kind of music already. Why, after five hip-hop albums, was one of Strange’s biggest stars releasing a singing-heavy R&B album? “I don’t know that it’s ‘another thing’," he says. The big question mark in all of this was Krizz Kaliko. “It’s not a watered-down attempt to get radio play.” During our interview, he repeatedly insisted that while the label was always open to its rappers making music the radio might like, it had no plans to force them to adopt a more mainstream sound. “I think Tech was just reluctant to do a song that fit the format, and yet ‘Hood Go Crazy’ was a Tech N9ne record first and foremost,” O’Guin said. He’s recently flirted with radio success for the first time in his career, earning his highest ever chart placement on the Billboard Hot 100 last year with “Hood Go Crazy,” but he doesn’t seem preoccupied with commercial success. Tech, who’s been the label’s creative and financial backbone since its inception, doesn’t seem to have plans for himself or any of his core artists to sell out. The stuff that the label is built on is not being abandoned at all. “So if it happens to be in a different category, so be it, it’s just a different category. “The reality is Strange Music has always been about the quality of music,” he says. The answer to that question remains to be seen, but Strange Music’s co-founder and CEO Travis O’Guin doesn’t seem concerned at all. What would longtime fans of Strange’s aggressively non-commercial hip-hop think of the label’s new direction? That the music was undeniably good was sort of besides the point. Even Strange Music veteran Krizz Kaliko, long known for his spitfire raps, presented a series of sung tracks from his upcoming R&B album, Go. Whether it was the club swag of Darrein Safron, the power ballads of Mackenzie Nicole, or the pop-rock vibe of Above Waves, each of the acts on display had an undeniably radio-friendly sound. Yet, when I found myself at the label’s massive headquarters in suburban Kansas City, Missouri, pop music was exactly what they had to show off. Until today, one thing that most people would never dream of associating with Strange is pop music. Tech N9ne’s hugely successful independent label Strange Music is known for many things the company has sold out nationwide tours, launched the careers of rappers like Krizz Kaliko, Rittz, and Stevie Stone, and even produced a formidable merchandising operation that prints nearly a million pieces of Strange Music-branded items each year.
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