Tech N9ne spends most of his latest album rapping about how people think of him as the devil. I have no doubt people in Kansas City, MO think the devil is the mental equivalent of a 13-year-old Korn fan who paints flames on his bicycle to be hardcore, but the rest of us aren’t buying it.

Most of you may not have heard of Tech N9ne, an underground rapper from Kansas City, Missouri. Viewers of MTVU, however, recently awarded him a “Woodie” in the Left Field Category. Tech N9ne releases his music on his own label, Strange Music, and is known for the mental illness that landed him in a psych ward and for his lengthy albums. The latest Tech release, K.O.D., is no exception: 23 tracks topping in at a little over an hour. However, quantity does not equal quality. Unfortunately, formulating a couple great tracks doesn’t earn you the right to record and release every song that pops into your head.

K.O.D. kicks off with “Show Me a God,” a sincere song expressing anger at his mother’s illness with light-speed rapping and great drum-based backing track. This energetic album opener showcases Tech’s real rapping talent and ability to pen mature lyrics. It’s a shame he never again reaches such heights throughout the rest of the album.

“Warning,” a skit, brings up an eerie piano piece that pops up repeatedly throughout K.O.D., along with the subject of good versus evil. Tech’s hooks and choruses alone can win him another “Woodie” and, surely, are the reason his music is often featured in video games, movies, and television. “Demons” juxtaposes child-like keyboard playing and a high-pitched chorus with a dark subject. “Hunterish” has a Kraftwerk-inspired intro and insanely catchy chorus. The only hook/chorus fail is “Leave Me Alone;” the music sounds like it was ripped from an anime aimed at 12-year-old Japanese girls. It’s hard to take his insistence to “leave him alone” seriously when I’m wondering if a Pokemon is going to form and go to battle, or whatever the hell they do.

Tech N9ne seriously falters in his lyrics—every song, and I mean EVERY song, with the exception of two, cover the same topic—Tech thinks he’s a devil, or Tech likes to have sex. No, excuse me, “eat cunt,” because it’s not sex unless horrible slang is mixed with disgusting imagery. His psychologists will undoubtedly quarry this album for decades to come.

After listening to the album, I’ve concluded that Tech truly believes he’s a demon. Seriously, he’s convinced he’s a minion sent to Earth by Satan. Take these lyrics from “Blackened the Sun,” for example: “I’ve blackened the sun / and I’ve bloodied the moon…step into my dreams, lot of bleeding and semen and green rotten demons / and they feed their seeds collard greens filled with feces and cheese pieces.” Who besides prepubescent boys would find these lyrics appealing, much less scary? Tech constantly attempts to convince the listener he’s scary, so much so that it becomes a desperate plea for help. He reminds me of that troubled boy in middle school who cuts himself. At least that kid had the decency to suffer in the privacy of his own home, and not bother any of us about it by releasing an album.

Besides being juvenile, the lyrics are often hit and miss, such as these lines from “K.O.D.,” “Your love is my cocaine / and your soul is my Rogaine.” Really? Cocaine and Rogaine sounds like the worst mid-life crisis ever. Leave the clever wording to Lil Wayne. Anyone with respect for women shouldn’t bother with this album either. “In the Trunk” tells about Tech shoving a woman into the trunk of his car because she doesn’t want to listen to his crappy music. Sorry, Tech, I doubt there’s room in your trunk for all of us. There are also the requisite “gangsta” references about killing people, Hennessey, and more woman hating–all are painfully cliché.

K.O.D. is a mediocre album book-ended by surprisingly great songs. The ender, “Martini,” is a low-key song chronicling the stories of several broken-hearted people driven to violence. Tech N9ne is a good singer and rapper, and as “Martini” shows, he is capable of writing mature, even thought-provoking lyrics and captivating music. Hopefully Tech capitalizes on his talents on the next album, for the sake of all of us.

Track List:
1. Show Me A God (3:41)
2. The Warning (0:29)
3. Demons (5:21)
4. Blackened The Sun (4:24)
5. Strange Music Box (4:09)
6. Sundae (0:23)
7. Check Yo Temperature (4:30)
8. B. Boy (5:27)
9. Hunterish (3:45)
10. The Pick Up (1:13)
11. In The Trunk (4:23)
12. Pinocchiho (2:08)
13. Horns (3:57)
14. Interview With Jason Whitlock (2:19)
15. It Was An Accident (3:42)
16. Shadows On The Road (3:26)
17. Low (3:31)
18. Messages (1:36)
19. Killing You (3:34)
20. Leave Me Alone (3:50)
21. Prayer - By Brother K.T. (0:40)
22. K.O.D. (5:12)
23. The Martini (5:28)