T9: My mom, my aunties having me in the church and all that-it gave me octaves and harmony. MO: How has your mother's love of gospel-and groups like Mighty Clouds of Joy-influenced your music?

You know what I mean? I think it's a wonderful thing that Kanye can get on there and say, ' college dropout,' but he's still a millionaire. I wouldn't want to know any other way, because it's a way that young people of all creeds can come up out of poverty and do something positive like music. Kelly-you know what I'm saying-are millionaires, billionaires, and probably didn't even finish school. A lot of these guys you see on television, like R. And, you know, I have a lot of fans, man. Tech N9ne: I think it's wonderful-for real-that you don't have to know how to read music. By this, I mean, a kid doesn't need to know how to read music, or have five-octave pipes, or have regular access to a grand piano to be part of the 'game.' Does this make hip-hop then-as you see it-a democratizing force within pop music? Matt Okie: Now I'm of the opinion that hip-hop, like punk rock before it, has given a musical voice to kids whose impoverished public schools don't have the finances to support music education in the classroom. Is this Midwesterner-part Bacardi-addled ladies man, part Disney-style family man- really the next big thing in rap? has to offer, he's at home hangin' with his three kids. When hip-hop live wire Tech N9ne isn't busy co-founding his own record label-the Kansas City-based Strange Music, Inc.-or breaking the SoundScan mark for one-million indie albums sold, or shooting television commercials that lambaste the music industry, or cutting a track for his new LP that features Ice Cube, or inventing his own world-renowned mixed drink (the Caribou Lou), or rockin' shows in out-there villes like Billings, Montana, or surviving near-fatal tour van crashes, or chowing the finest barbecue K.C.

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