Chart topping, multiplatinum hip-hop legend, Strange Music founder and most successful independent rapper of all-time Tech N9ne made a stop in Raleigh, North Carolina on September 4, 2024. He was part of a huge show that stopped at the Red Hat Amphitheater in downtown Raleigh that was headlined by Falling In Reverse. The bill also included Dance Gavin Dance, Black Veil Brides and Jeris Johnson. Tech N9ne took the stage with a full band. He had quite a few fans in the crowd and then there were some who only knew of him by his “Ronald” collaboration with Falling In Reverse. Yet, there were some in the crowd who, believe it or not, didn’t have a clue who he was. Let me say that I do not mean any disrespect to Tech N9ne by pointing that out, but there is a point to be made here. He opened with “Hope For A Higher Power” and Tech N9ne began to work the stage from left to right, first playing a little bit to the photographers down in the pit and then to the crowd. He can spit rhymes at such a blazing speed that I thought flames were going to shoot out of his mouth behind them. The more he worked the crowd by pointing at them, smiling and throwing horns, he started making believers out of the doubters. By the second song, “The Industry Is Punks,” he had heads rockin’ to the beat and hands up in the air. The guy is a seasoned veteran of over 30 years, so he definitely knows how to win over audiences. His 30-minute set was delivered in machine gun style fashion as Tech N9ne would hit you with one song right after another. His set went by so fast that you wished he could have been given another 30 minutes. He definitely made quite a few new fans that night. I actually found a few people down front as we were waiting to photograph Black Veil Brides that I had talked to before his set who had no clue who he was. Every one of them told me that they loved his set and had gone onto Spotify and followed him. By the way, that wasn’t the last time that fans got to see him perform. Falling In Reverse closed the show by bringing him out to perform their huge song “Ronald.”

Review & pix by I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price