On this day, July 30, in hip-hop history...

Strange Music
Strange Music
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2013: Tech N9ne drops off Something Else, an album that, with its eclectic soundscape and diversified features list, easily manages to live up to its name. Speaking on the album, which marked LP No. 13 for the Kansas City, Mo. rapper, Tech used a Strange Music blog post to explain the project would be unlike anything fans had come to expect from him to that point.

"The beats sound nothing like anything you've ever heard me on," he wrote in February 2013. "The features that I'm going for are something you would never imagine."

Living up to his words, Something Else ended up being a project that was both sonically and thematically kaleidoscopic. Tech had the LP divided into three parts: Fire, Water and Earth. At the time, he said the Fire portion of the LP, which includes meditative tracks like his Kendrick Lamar-featuring single, "Fragile," and The Game-assisted "Priorities," would focus on darker themes. Earth, he said, would conclude the album with "heavenly" themes. The uplifiting "Believe" belongs to that particular portion of the album, and it definitely fits.

Getting to the features and the soundscape of the album, Something Else is an LP that sees the Strange Music boss do a little bit of everything. One moment, he's flexing as hard as possible as he's spitting alongside Wiz Khalifa and B.o.B ("See Me"). The next, he’s spitting over blaring guitar riffs with The Doors ("Strange 2013"). Then, he’s trading bars with Kendrick Lamar ("Fragile").

While "Fragile" saw Tech N9ne go at his critics, they were ultimately approving of the LP, giving it plenty of acclaim upon its release. On the commercial end of things, the project ended up moving more than 58,000 album units in its first week. Pretty solid stuff for a stalwart of the underground.

Relive Something Else by checking out the video for "Fragile" below.

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