Tech N9ne Remembers Working With Late Doors Legend Ray Manzarek

Fuse recently sat down with fiercely independent Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne, who fondly recalled working with late Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. The unlikely duo recorded a collaboration for Something Else, N9ne's latest LP recently released on his own Strange Music label, just months before Manzarek's death from cancer in May.

"You wouldn't think he was sick or anything," N9ne says of working with Manzarek on "Strange 2013," the final track on Something Else. "He was kickin' it. I got to drink Pinot noir with him. I mean, this was the guy that put the group together. And I'm a humongous Doors fan—that's why my label is named Strange Music."

While hanging with the Doors originator, Tech N9ne took the opportunity to ask for some clarification on Jim Morrison's famously oblique lyrics. "The lyric [in "Strange Days"], 'As we run from the day to a strange night of stone,' I asked him, 'Ray, what does Jim mean? Was he talking about getting high?' He was like, 'I don't know, you'd have to ask him,'" N9ne recalls, laughing.

Watch the full interview above to learn about Tech N9ne's long-awaited Serj Tankian collaboration and to hear how a blogger directly inspired one of his songs.