Apr 7, 2020
Knxwledge Tells His Story in ‘1988’
Published on UIC Radio
Influential Hip-Hop producer and sampling connoisseur Knxwledge has been consistently releasing music for the past decade. From his monthly releases of beat tapes to his critical collaboration with R&B Pop-star Anderson .Paak in 2016, the nearly mute musician has been subtly showing snippets of his personality throughout the years.
As his fan base grew and his influence became apparent, Knxwledge has been showing his appreciation for his craft and his listeners from time to time. He’ll tweet ambiguous words of encouragement at some points while messaging his fans through Bandcamp with bouts of sincerity.
In ‘1988,’ he shows his transparent appreciation for his life, his talent, and his loved ones through acerbic track titles and clever sample dialogues that indirectly write his narrative. ‘1988’ is made up of twenty-two loop tracks that last between one to two minutes.
Although his catalog of music assumes his taste of older genres of music, it is in tracks like ‘do you’ and ‘amanislove_keepon’ that Knxwledge makes it clear time and time again his affinity for the 1970s and 1980s inspired, low-lit dance-floor R&B music. The track ‘amanislove_keepon’ samples the fast-paced chords from the divinely composed classic from Patrice Rushen, ‘Remind Me.’
As the chords are being compressed, other vocal and instrumental samples are intertwined together making a smooth and perfect strand for the perfect vibrations to follow through. In the track ‘howtokope,’ Knxwledge starts off the beat with an interview dialogue that uses the word “knowledge” with a self-parodying, only to then cut into a positively-felt lofi beat loop.
Knxwledge is consistent with his craft and usually exposes himself through this practice. It is how he tells his life story and will more likely stay that way. ‘1988’ is another chapter in his career, with many more to come.
