One of Tech N9ne’s most important verses this year appeared on Stevie Stone’s 2 Birds 1 Stone with “The Baptism”.
Since the rumor was started over a decade ago and because of his spiritual imagery in his music and album artwork, Tech N9ne has had to deal with the misplaced label of “Devil Worshipper”. With his verse on “The Baptism”, the room for speculation is closed.
Ironically, one of the hardest records on 2 Birds 1 Stone is a Christian rap song, where Stevie Stone, Rittz and Tech N9ne rap about the works of the Lord over a dark and moody trap beat. We talked to Tech N9ne to get his take on the song and find out what led to the inspiration behind his verse.
Tech reveals his thoughts on the rumor that he’s a devil worshipper, reveals a lot behind his religious upbringing, and also gives his opinions on the artists’ verses.
LISTEN
Tell me what that song is about and how that song came to your attention to where you would hop on it.
It’s fucking funny man because he sent it to me and I just had the beat at first. I think the homeboy Karbon did the beat and when I first got the beat, the song was called “The Baptism” but the first drop they gave me, at the beginning of the tag on it it said “Holy fucking shit!” and I’m like “Okay. You can’t cuss on a song called ‘The Baptism’.” I’m a religious person so that threw me the fuck off. I’m like “Okay, what am I supposed to say?” It only has Stevie’s verse and not enough for me to write at the time so I’m like “Man.” So I started writing. I said Give a demon holy water so he gotta feel the light” (continues rapping) and I’m like “Nah, I don’t like that” and I scratched it out. That isn’t the start and I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to talk about! I’m like “I think the ‘Holy fucking shit!’ threw me off!”
I can’t do this song and it has “Holy fucking shit!” at the beginning and it’s called “The Baptism”. It just threw me off so I called Ben [Cybulsky] and was like “Hey Ben. This one just has Stevie’s verse and it doesn’t have enough for me to rap. Could you send me a better version?” He said “Yeah I got Rittz’s verse and everything.” So he sent me the new one and the “Holy fucking shit” was off of it. I was like “Thank you Jesus!” The song’s called “Baptism” and I don’t want to be blasphemous you know?
I started listening to their verses and you know, Stevie is talking about he’s an angel “Blessed blessed with a gift gift. Channeling light to my misfits.” It’s wonderful. He’s been baptized. His father was a preacher, rest his soul. He was a minister. I got what he was saying, like he has the power of the lord in him, that’s why he’s so strong lyrically and everything.
Rittz, I started listening to his verse and “The devil never been a stranger to me…medusa…his pupils blurred.” It’s so wonderful how he lifted with his style: “The one night I finally see the light.” Like accepting that his talent and all this is divine. He’s just blessed to be alive. I’m like “Okay, he’s telling a story about how he was a bad guy who’s getting better.”
So, me? I’m a warrior. So when you hear me and ¡MAYDAY!’s songs all about killing demons and anything we’re angels, that’s my quest. Thank God ain’t no demons came my way because there won’t be no more music if demons actually approach me. I pray every day that we have love come towards us because anything that looks like it’s going to be hazardous to my health and take me away from my children, I’m killing it before it kills me. That’s another story but that’s my mind state.
So I didn’t have no trouble after that no more. I’m like “Devil I’ll rebuke ya, we shoot ya, with the governor and then reduce ya, bleed lucifer, to me you will never be nothing but a hinderance and a cruel creature, ya B, I-S-H.” I didn’t really want to curse in it so “Ya bish!” “I move creepers to see, try that fate. My tool reach a degree, high at bake. You’ll seek a school teacher will be, riot Yates. Teaching the demons to disperse, if ya quick versed and a big hurts. Stoppin’ the evil when it gets worse and my clip squirts when they sip purp. Dumping I bust with the power of God, I really live it, no it’s not a facade.”
I say “Ambivalent when you think of me,” like “ambivalent,” you’ve got mixed feelings about me because you want to know if I”m a devil worshipper or an angel. “Ambivalent when you think of me because I’m an odd formidable killer but not an Allah MIrage.” Like, this is not fake what you’re looking at. This is real. This godly thing that you’re looking at was real. Then I take it back to how it first started it “Give a demon holy water so he gotta feel the light and if he show me fraud he go me dollar, the evil I’m murking making them slowly martyr.” Then I just added to it “The devil was an evil insurgent, gotta wash it out you like a detergent, I’m an angel never was a serpent, Jesus I am your servant!” It’s like the holy ghost coming out of me like, this is really where my heart is, you know what I’m saying? It was perfect for me to get out.
Two things about that verse that I’ve never heard you do, you reference a gun that you actually own and you outright proclaim to be a worshipper of Jesus.
To me the demons are going to come and they aren’t going to be supernatural, they’re going to be people. The devil. Something that’s going to be evil trying to stop all this love I’m getting. “Devil I rebuke ya, we shoot ya, with the governer I gotta reduce ya.” Like, I don’t want to have to do that but I will. It’s kind of a scary thought to say in a Christian song but I’m a warrior. I’m a soldier in the army of the lord so here we are. The world is evil so it could come in any form motherfucker. I’ve been in gang shit so I know what the evil looks like. It ain’t got no certain color because if it had a certain color – if the demon was blue, Lynch wouldn’t be on my motherfucking label, Snoop wouldn’t be my motherfucking homie, C-Bo wouldn’t be my fucking family. T-Nutty wouldn’t be my motherfucking dog so it ain’t about color nigga, it’s about motherfucker’s spirits, like evil spirits. Evil spirits that don’t want to see you doing well and want to try and take you away from your children so that’s the demon and devil to me so that’s why it’s so harsh on a Christian song. You know what I mean?
Tell me about the last line “Jesus I am your servant.” That seems to clear any doubt of your beliefs.
I don’t want people to think that I just said that to get the devil worshipper shit off of me. I don’t give a fuck about people saying that. It’s funny now. That’s all they can say to back away from me. If they’re talking about flow, lyrics and content in the music they can’t fuck with me so the haters have to say something. So it’s going to be my imagery that they attack, so when they call me a devil worshipper now I laugh. I’m like “Okay, whatever.”
“How you do that there?” Is my new thing. “Oh I heard you a devil worshipper!” “How you do that there?” And if you know how you do that there, I don’t want to know how you do that there. You know what I”m saying? It’s like I was taught to believe in a higher being because of my grandmother, because of my auntie, because of my moms and because of The Bible. Of course when you read The Bible you get more and more and more knowledgable you start finding stuff in there that man put in there, you know? It’s written to keep law and order but we look over that and we believe that there’s something because we want to believe that there’s something greater than us because, for our own reasons. So if I had to tell people that I was raised a Christian in a Baptist Church and I was in the sunshine band and sang in the choir and all that shit, you know what I mean? Mom married a Muslim when I was 12 and I started praying to Mecca and going to Jumu’ah and stuff like that. So I’ve had religious teachings, you know? But my family, Jesus Christ, you know what I mean? My muslim family, Elijah Muhammad.
Was it hard you to turn from one religion to another, or almost turn your back on it?
I didn’t turn my back on it. I still have my family. It was hard to not have Christmas so I went to my family’s house. It was hard to stop eating hot dogs with pork and beans at the house, but when I went to my family’s house I had hot dogs and pork and beans. It was hard when I started not eating pork, when I ran away from home, I’d have to eat whatever and it’d hurt my stomach for a couple of weeks or so then I adjusted, back to the beast. So, it is what it is.
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- What do you think about Tech’s verse?
- Have you EVER thought that Tech was a devil worshipper, or in the Illuminati?
Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
