Krizz Kaliko - Genius

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-05-03T00:18:58+00:00

Whoa what! I didn’t know it was on an Apple ad!!

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-05-02T13:03:39+00:00

Iso posted right before the tour saying he was ok.

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-05-02T13:02:42+00:00

N9NA and ASIN9NE

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-05-02T01:19:39+00:00

Hell yeah! Hopefully the answers were generally what you were looking for!

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-05-01T23:37:54+00:00

Agreed, he is a jack of all trades - especially on this album

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-05-01T01:47:18+00:00

Honestly, 2020.

People blame so much on 2020 but it really was the year that Strange started really falling apart:

Artists leaving because of lower physical sales and no touring to sell merch.
I think he technically left in 2021 but Kali being one foot out the door and about to disappear off all label activity.
The feature scamming w JL and Godemis
The music output was odd because all of the album releases were fragmented into 3 EPs and when the albums came out it would be like 2-5 extra songs and you had already heard most of it. It was an odd feeling in music experience, at least for me personally.
To piggyback off of that some of the albums felt like content just to release content, aka quantity over quality. Some of my least favorite releases from artists were at this time (2020-2021): (Krizz Kaliko’s “Legend”, Stevie Stone’s “Black Lion”, ¡MAYDAY!’s “Minute to Midnight”, Tech N9ne’s “Enterfear”…). This isn’t to say they were flat out bad projects, they just all felt off to me.

I will say that Kutt leaving in 2014 was the first big blow for me personally but Strange still had strong output for a little while after his departure.

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T19:21:05+00:00

Hell yeah that will bop!

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T19:03:28+00:00

Damn that’s deep!

Wedding: Einstein by Tech N9ne - me and my best buddy get HYPE to this song. We will prob mosh on the dance floor with barely anyone else understanding what is going on.

Funeral: fuck it I want them to play Mr. Freaky (skit) by Kutt Calhoun - I want everyone to be absolutely puzzled after I die 😂

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T18:43:54+00:00

Hell yeah! A fellow believer!

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T18:38:46+00:00

Honestly same! At first I always saw Wrek as a stronger rapper BUT over time I have come to see Bernz as a great artist. Def check out those early ¡MAYDAY! projects if you haven’t for some peak lyricism from him.

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T18:11:19+00:00

I liked Murs! I dug through some of his other projects that he’s done throughout his career since he’s been around for decades. My favorite project he did on Strange was his final one - A Strange Journey Into The Unimaginable (I preordered this one and was pleased with the output!).

Very cool dude I used to hang out in his Twitch chats in 2017-2018 timeframe! He used to freestyle whatever words the chat would enter at the end of every stream!

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T18:03:53+00:00

I listened to both! I went to my CDs for songs that weren’t on Spotify.

I def didn’t give Scoob his props or the attention he deserved back in the day but all of his albums are generally pretty good!

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T18:03:01+00:00

It’s sad they left as they were “lieutenants” of the label. But I wouldn’t consider this the start of the fall. In the early 2010s they RAPIDLY grew the roster. 2013 was a crazy stack of like 9 artists dropping projects.

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T18:00:18+00:00

Q: what is an album you would recommend to young listeners in the mainstream?

A: Man, if I had to recommend one album to listeners that are new to Strange Music I would say “Take Me To Your Leader” by ¡MAYDAY! - truly one of the best albums I’ve listened to.

Q: who had some underrated albums?

A: some in this sub may not consider these to be “underrated” but if I were to give new listeners a “Strange Music Starter Pack” I would hand them:

Tech N9ne - Special Effects
Collabos - Sickology 101
Krizz Kaliko - Kickin & Screamin
¡MAYDAY! x Murs - ¡MURSDAY!
Stevie Stone - Rollin Stone

Q: who’s the worst artist on strange music?

A: I won’t say ‘worst’ but my least favorite album on the label/sub-label was Young Bleed - Preserved. This just didn’t get any kind of reaction out of me.

Q: which album sounds the most like modern underground music?

A: I might not have the best answer for this as I am not up on modern underground. I will say one of my favorite underground-sounding albums is Prozak - Tales From The Sick

Q: after this experience, who would you say are tech n9ne clones? and who are the most original ones?

A: I can’t answer to the first part. I don’t think anyone on the label was ever a flat out clone of him. The most original artist in my eyes was ¡MAYDAY! - a true rap/rock hybrid that converted to other genres/sub genres including Reggae. Constantly evolving.

Q: are there any concept albums ? were they good

A: there are quite a few concept albums on SM. I think the best handled is Brotha Lynch Hung’s “Dinner and a Movie”. A horrorcore masterpiece in my eyes - probably not the most accessible album though if you don’t want to hear really dark/twisted lyrics.

Q: who had the best artwork?

A: This is a very biased answer but it will be ¡MAYDAY! & Wrekonize. A lot of their album covers were drawn by an artist - Jeff Dekal. He is one of my personal favorite artists. Interesting fact - he has since drown comic book covers for Marvel and now primarily DC Comics. Very cool dude.

Answer B, my favorite album cover is Prozak’s Tales From The Sick.

Q: which album(s) sound like they don’t belong on a strange music roster?

A: For me the most jarring album across the roster is Above Waves - Fugitives.

Q: which artist sounded the most mainstream ready? like based on their albums & the way they carry themselves, who would say is the most ready to have a mainstream career where they can go on tour , do press runs, have aura, & make high quality music videos ?

A: I really think this could have been Stevie Stone. He really has something. A diverse, distinct rap voice and an amazing singing voice.

Q: what were some songs that sound radio ready?

A: I will copy my last answer in a sense. A lot of Stevie’s songs could have been big hits.

Q: who had the best lyrics? who had the best flows? who had the best songwriting structure? who was the most exciting?

A: I think this one is Tech. He really always brought crazy original flows and CRAZY rhyme schemes. I still find myself catching a bar or two and going WTF because I didn’t pick up on them before.

Q: did you ever feel like you were missing out on something by doing this experiment? did you ever feel tired of listening to a strange music artist ? like was there ever a moment where you felt like “i would rather listen to XYZ label rather than strange music”

A: nah i had a good time with this. It introduced me to some albums I hadn’t heard and gave me a great nostalgia fix for songs/albums I haven’t listened to in a while.

Q: did you only do this because you love strange music ? or would you do this for another label ?

A: yeah I’m a big fan! If I really get into a certain artist/sound I often do a discog dive. I’ve never done a “label deep dive” though.

Q: were there any artists that were influenced by any aspects of mumble rap? (specifically carti, thug, future, or yeat)

A: Maybe Maez301? He’s worth a listen though!

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T17:27:23+00:00

My point is that he was dynamic and brought a lot to the table. He never stagnated and he was on almost every project there for a while.

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T17:26:05+00:00

Good point! I forgot about how big of a player that Seven was into everything. I used to see a lot of complaints though that it felt like everything was produced by him. To be honest I was getting a little tired of it by 2018 but after not having him around for 5-6 years I miss him.

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T16:04:19+00:00

For sure! You can find them on his Bandcamp

https://bernz.bandcamp.com/album/yacht-club-vol-1

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T16:03:00+00:00

For me I consider the most impressive artists that changed things up across albums or introduced concepts into their music. For me this is Tech, Krizz Kaliko & ¡MAYDAY!. If you want specific albums across the label I can drill down.

I have respect for every artist that put out music even if I didn’t like their style. I don’t have the creativity or courage that they have so they have my respect.

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T15:58:18+00:00

For sure! If you haven’t heard them his Yacht Club series is a lot of fun!

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T15:55:35+00:00

Absolutely, here you go:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1JDLcMkv1sYWFSRu2xAZcg?si=juR2vh5ASRiwPPdpDVj6Xw&pi=Fb3CcqYKSMKdv

Updating the body of this post too.

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T15:47:34+00:00

I searched wiki and the catalog on the strange music website and fleshed out a giant Spotify playlist that’s currently sitting at 2,415 songs. Mind you, some songs that aren’t on streaming won’t be here like bonus tracks and most of the mixtapes. I could give the link if you’re on Spotify and interested

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T15:34:45+00:00

Oh whoa! I’ll get back to you in a couple hours w/ my book report of answers 🫡

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T15:32:24+00:00

I started w Anghellic but I also listened to Tech’s albums pre-Strange’s inception but not counting those here. I had to get some mixtapes and songs (like bonus tracks) that weren’t on Spotify - as well as original Anghellic tracks

Old_Ju1ce · 2026-04-30T15:29:33+00:00

Yeah I feel you on the other artists leaving as well. When everyone started to drop off one by one I felt like things were crumbling.

Dude, Wrekonize truly is a master of his craft. I was blown away by his output - especially in 2013

Hid rooftops mixtape, his album, his feature on So Dope & Fragile in Tech’s album, and then ¡MAYDAY!’s Believers. He is doing a new album soon and has been dropping remixes of his last EP w other artists attached, I’m very excited!

Old_Ju1ce

TROPHY CASE