Tech N9ne is understood for one of the crucial hanging visible identities in Hip-Hop, however in accordance with the Kansas Metropolis legend, each masks, clown face, and pair of hospital scrubs traces again to 1 particular person: his late mom, Maude “Marty” Sue Yates Khalifa. On this vacation, we reminisce on our dialog with the legend and his love for his mom.

In an interview with AllHipHop, Tech revealed that the darkish, theatrical imagery that has adopted him all through his decades-long profession wasn’t impressed by comics or horror. Nope, it was born from the hospitals, psychiatric wards and haunted homes he navigated as a toddler whereas watching his mom battle lifelong sickness.

“Individuals known as me a satan worshipper, however all that imagery got here from my Christian mama.”

“My mother had grand mal seizures since she was 18,” Tech advised Chuck Jigsaw Creekmur. “All through my entire childhood, she’d have seizures in our Christian family, and we’d maintain her in mattress and ensure she didn’t swallow her tongue.”

Every part modified when she remarried when Tech was 12.

Her new husband, a Muslim man, believed she wanted psychiatric care after every seizure, which led to her being positioned in a number of psychiatric services throughout Missouri. These visits left an imprint on younger Tech, particularly seeing her wearing outsized hospital scrubs throughout every keep.

“Each time I’d go go to her, she’d have on hospital scrubs,” he mentioned. “That’s one degree of it – the Michael Myers, the killer clown, the darkish imagery. All of that got here from actual life.”

The opposite half of his distinctive aesthetic was formed by his mom’s uncommon parenting fashion.

A religious Christian, she nonetheless launched her son to horror films and Halloween tradition at an early age. She took him to see Carrie in 1976 and the unique Halloween premiere in 1978. She introduced him by Kansas Metropolis haunted homes each October and to circus reveals the place he developed his childhood worry of clowns, a worry he later remodeled into his well-known “Killer Clown” persona.

However probably the most highly effective lesson got here from her insistence that darkish imagery held no religious hazard.

“She purchased me a Dracula motion determine,” Tech mentioned. “And she or he advised me, ‘Don’t have a look at this Dracula any totally different than your G.I. Joe or your Darth Vader toy. They’re all plastic. They solely have the vitality you give them.’ That’s one thing a number of spiritual people don’t educate their youngsters.”

Tech says that steering not solely formed his worldview however protected him creatively.

“So when folks known as me a satan worshipper, I used to giggle,” he mentioned. “They didn’t know all this got here from my Christian mama.”

His mom handed away in 2014 from lupus, and Tech says his use of hospital scrubs is a tribute to her. He’s begun sporting the scrubs extra typically throughout interviews, prompting followers and reporters to ask concerning the symbolism.

“That is her garment,” he mentioned. “I put on it in honor of my late nice mom, Marty Sue Yates Khalifa.”

The scrubs, the face paint, the killer-clown iconography is much less about shock worth and extra a few son attempting to make sense of the world he grew up in. And paying homage to his mom.

“I utilized all of it to Tech N9ne,” he mentioned. “And it saved my life.”

Hearken to Tech N9ne’s newest album 5816 Forest, his audio origin story.

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