Something Else (Tech N9ne album)

On February 8, 2013, the album was first announced on the Strange Music blog. During the preview on the Strange Music blog, Tech N9ne spoke about what to expect from the album, saying: In March 2013, during an interview with The Arizona Daily Wildcat, Tech N9ne revealed the album has divided into three separate parts titled Fire, Water and Earth. The "Fire" section is a darker within the themes while the "Earth" section was shorter and has heavenly themes, similar to Tech's earlier album Anghellic. Tracks 2–10 are the Fire part, 11–13 the Water part and 14–24 the Earth section. ==Recording and production==

During the album's recording process, Tech N9ne worked with several of his Strange Music label mates including Big Scoob, Krizz Kaliko, Big K.R.I.T., Serj Tankian, T-Pain, The Doors and Trae tha Truth. but neither appeared on the album. Tech attempted to get Corey Taylor to record vocals for "Love 2 Dislike Me", however, Corey was unable to commit due to the timing because of personal reasons. Tech has given a consideration of trying to get James Hetfield to appear on the song. In April 2013, Tech N9ne spoke on why some artists and collaborations cannot make the cut, saying: "I write music on an impulse; I write it as I feel it. If I was just writing bullshit songs trying to make a hit, yeah, I could give you a song six months in advance. Nigga, I'm doing my album in a month's time. I'm writing it...recording it, going to write another one, really feeling the music for some months and then go in the studio for like a month and a half and do it. Everybody don't work like that." In July 2013, Tech elaborated further on how the quick schedule for his albums kept him from securing features he wanted on the album. In a Q&A session hosted by Angela Yee during the album's official release party, Tech spoke on his intentions to have both Nas and Jay-Z on the album. Nas was initially sent the song "Burn the World", however, the rapper found the track too personal and requested Tech send him something else. Tech then had his producer, Seven, create a beat he called "The Rise & Fall of Y'all" which he intended to send to Nas but was unable due to timing. He also spoke on how he contacted producer Mike Dean, who at the time was engineering Watch The Throne 2, in an attempt to secure a Jay-Z verse for "That's My Kid", and while Dean had agreed to get Jay to listen to it, Tech ran out of time before having to put the album together. Producers on this album including Drumma Boy, Fredwreck, ¡Mayday!, Scoop DeVille, Michael "Seven" Summers and Young Fyre. ==Release and promotion==

On March 14, 2013, Strange Music released The Independent Powerhouse Sampler, where it featured snippets of songs from the album titled "Fortune Force Field", "So Dope", "Thizzles", "Meant To Happen", "Dwamn" and the album's first promotional single "B.I.T.C.H." featuring T-Pain. On July 2, 2013, "So Dope (They Wanna)" featuring Snow Tha Product, Twisted Insane and Wrekonize was released as the album's first single along with the pre-order of the album on iTunes. The song was described as being in the same vein of N9ne's previous song "Worldwide Choppers". On July 25, 2013, the music video for "So Dope (They Wanna)" featuring Snow tha Product, Twisted Insane and Wrekonize, was released. On July 17, 2013, the Kendrick Lamar, Kendall Morgan and ¡Mayday! featuring song "Fragile", was released as the album's second single. On August 1, 2013, the music video was released for "Straight Out The Gate" featuring Serj Tankian. On August 6, 2013, the music video was released for "B.I.T.C.H." featuring T-Pain. On August 14, 2013, the music video was released for "Party The Pain Away" featuring Liz Suwandi. On August 29, 2013, the music video was released for "Love 2 Dislike Me" featuring Liz Suwandi and Tyler Lyon. On September 12, 2013, the music video was released for "Dwamn". On February 9, 2014, the music video was released for "Fragile" featuring Kendrick Lamar, ¡Mayday! and Kendall Morgan. On March 27, 2013, the official album covers were revealed. In May 2013, Amazon revealed that the release date of the album would be pushed back from June 25, 2013, until July 30, 2013. On June 4, 2013, the album was released for pre-order on the Strange Music website, in three different variants including a standard, deluxe, and a vinyl version. All three come with two tracks; "Fortune Force Field", and "Party the Pain Away". The deluxe version will include an autographed copy of the CD (If pre-ordered), three bonus tracks, and a bonus DVD. ==Critical reception==

Something Else was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 85, based on five reviews. Steve Juon of RapReviews said, "Is "Something Else" excessive? Not for a 20+ year veteran who has been a certified star for at least 14, and not given how many guest features factor in. It's a sign of Tech's confidence that the lead single "So Dope (They Wanna)" gives equal time to Wrekonize, Snow Tha Product and Twisted Insane flowing over the Shane Eli/Jon Pakfar beat - and Tech's flow on the opening verse shows he hasn't slowed with age." ==Commercial performance==

Something Else debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 58,000 copies in the United States. It would be the highest first week sales of an album for his career. In its second week, the album sold 17,000 more copies in the United States. In its third week, the album sold 10,000 more copies in the United States. In its fourth week, the album sold 7,000 more copies bringing its total album sales to 92,000. ==Track listing==

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. Notes • signifies an additional producer • "Straight Out the Gate" features additional vocals by Ashton Summers, Avery Geiger, Christina Summers, Christopher Watson Jr., Izabel Castellano, Jasmyn Geiger, Mackenzie O'Guin, and Roneesha Geiger • "Dwamn" features additional vocals by Emma Frost • "My Haiku-Burn the World" features additional vocals by Crystal Watson and Delynia Brown • "That's My Kid" features additional vocals by Avery Geiger, Crystal Watson, and Delynia Brown • "Believe" features additional vocals by Crystal Watson, Delynia Brown, Kendra Matthews, and Kortney Leveringston • "Colorado" features additional vocals by DJ P-Caso, Frizz, Scenario, and Info Gates • "Thizzles" features additional vocals by Richie Abbott Sample credits • "Strange 2013" contains a sample of "Strange Days" as performed by The Doors. ==Personnel==

Credits adapted from AllMusic. • Shane Eli Abrahams – producer • Derek "MixedByAli" Ali – vocal engineer • Chris Athens – mastering • Bernz – producer, vocals • Big K.R.I.T. – vocals • Big Scoob – featured artist, vocals • B.o.B – featured artist, vocals • Sam Bohl – assistant engineer • Delynia Brown – vocals • Violet Brown – production assistant • Kutt Calhoun – vocals • Valdora Case – production assistant • Gianni Ca$h – producer, vocals • Izabel Castellano – vocals • Liz Codd – violin • Glenda Cowan – production assistant • Ben Cybulsky – arranger, engineer, mixing • Angel Davanport – vocals • The Doors – featured artist • Jim Fanning – cover illustration • Brett Turner Francis – string arrangements, string conductor • Emma Frost – vocals • Game – vocals • Avery Geiger – vocals • Jasmyn Geiger – vocals • Roneesha Geiger – vocals • Drumma Boy – producer • Cee Lo Green – vocals • Lan Jiang – cello • Krizz Kaliko – featured artist, vocals • Kendrick Lamar – featured artist, vocals • Kortney Leveringston – vocals • Andrew Lloyd – additional production • Korey Lloyd – production assistant • Tyler Lyon – featured artist, vocals • Fabian Marasciullo – mixing • Kendra Matthews – vocals • ¡Mayday! – featured artist • James Meierotto – photography • Elijah Molina – featured artist, producer, vocals • Kendall Morgan – featured artist, vocals • "Fredwreck" Farid Nassar – additional production • Cory Nielsen – production assistant • Dawn O'Guin – production assistant • Mackenzie O'Guin – vocals • Jonathan Pakfar – producer • Fabio Peixoto – violin • Daniel "Keys" Perez – producer • Red Café – featured artist, vocals • Sadikov String Quartet – strings • Shokhrukh Sadikov – viola • Snow tha Product – featured artist, vocals • Ashton Summers – vocals • Christina Summers – vocals • Michael "Seven" Summers – associate producer, bass, producer • Liz Suwandi – featured artist, vocals • T-Pain – featured artist, vocals • Serj Tankian – featured artist, vocals • Tech N9ne – primary artist • Trae Tha Truth – featured artist, vocals • Travis O'Guin – executive producer • Twisted Insane – featured artist, vocals • Ralfy "FAFA" Valencia – producer • Crystal Watson – vocals • Christopher Watson, Jr. – vocals • Dave Weiner – associate producer • Jace Wilbert – guitar • Tramaine "Youngfyre" Winfrey – producer • Wiz Khalifa – featured artist, vocals • Wrekonize – featured artist, producer, vocals ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==References==