Out of the Box #12

Knxwledge (2018)

Out of the Box is an irregular series focusing on seven inch records. It’s an excuse to engage with my collection in a new way, as well as to write about older records and genres we don’t often cover at ACL.

OUT OF THE BOX #12
Knxwledge ~ Gladwemet (2018)

Back in late 2013, Gabriel Bogart and I put together a double mix of hip-hop instrumentals, and Knxwledge was Gabe’s favorite producer at the time. By the time I finished mixing four hours of music, Knxwledge had also become mine. Knwxledge became an important turning point for me, encouraging me to reappraise millenial R&B and mainstream rap, and sparking a newfound appreciation for loop-based music. The great rapper/producer Quelle Chris popped up on my radar when he appeared on Knxwledge‘s Rap Joints Vol. 1 ‎10″ in 2013, which in turn put me on to Iman Omari, Cavalier, Pink Siifu, and many others. So Knx remains an important artist for me on many levels.

After putting together that mix, I instantly copped Leaving Records’ double cassette Anthology (2013), 53 tracks compiled and sequenced by Matthewdavid, drawn from Knx’s already extensive bandcamp beat archive (2009-2013). Like the beat scene version of a noise musician, the sheer volume of releases can be intimidating, so Anthology serves as a fine overview. Apparently it got around, because Kendrick Lamar used “so[rt]” from that tape as the core of “Momma” on To Pimp A Butterfly (2015). This brush with mainstream success, along with Knx’s ongoing collaboration with Anderson .Paak (NxWorries), contributed to a significant rise in Knx’s profile in the years since we first put that mix together.

Fame is a double-edged sword, though, and Knx eventually was forced to take down his Meek Mill remix series MEEK [note: all six volumes seem to currently be back on Bandcamp at the moment]. The prolific LA-based producer tends to eschew the spotlight, prefering to keep his head down (and nodding), churning out a steady supply of beats with no end in sight. Often this means setting acapella cipher videos from street rappers from back home in Philly to his own productions, or mining childhood sitcoms and films for vocal samples. Knx has also been active on Twitch, providing a window into his production process and his taste in video games.

Physical LPs like Kauliflowr (2013), Hud Dreams (2018), and 1988 (2020) are all great records and make an excellent entry point, but Knx is prolific, and his catalog is only partially represented by those that have gotten a traditional release. Most of his music exists solely in digital form. As a producer, Knx tends to stay in the same lane, juggling loops against shuffling and sometimes disjointed rhythms, while drawing from different genres for his samples, as evidenced by his regularly updated remix series including HX (Hexual Sealings), WT (WrapTaypes), GT (GREENTXTS​) , and VGM (Video Game Music). But that’s not to say he’s inflexible, and has displayed considerable range; he explored footwork with Ahnnu for VATOGATO & CAKEDOG, and more recently is three installments into his house series 家​.

I’ve also always been a fan of the Knx’s idiosyncratic spellings, which are a choice both aesthetic and eminently practical. From the spelling of his name to his albums and song titles, he’s SEO optimized (that is unless you’re typing from memory, then you’re out of luck). Gladwemet (read: glad we met) is easy to read and remember, the title suggests positive vibes, and the music delivers.

Gladwemet was dropped as a surprise release in April 2018, though I picked it up years later during the pandemic while shopping for underground hip hop cassettes on Discogs. The raison-d'etre for the record seems to be the a-side single, “Relapse,” featuring Traffic, who I don’t know anything about except he also showed up on a 2017 Budgie 7”, and apparently the LA rapper is a childhood friend of ScHoolboy Q. “Relapse” was released by the Adult Swim's Singles Program the day before the Gladwemet physicals were announced, and putting together Knx and Traffic feels like an Adult Swim collab. The song is build over a slow shuffling loop of funky bass and studio keys, against which Traffic’s delivery makes a nice contrast. The rapper switches up his flow throughout, but always with the same slightly worn out monotone shout. Besides the vocal version, the 5-minute a-side also includes the instrumental.

So Adult Swim aside, I prefer the short-but-sweet cuts on the b-side, each of the five just a bit over or under a minute. And not for nothing, if you just hit play on Bandcamp it begins with track 2, “rton,” a much more interesting track featuring the off-kilter rhythms Knxwledge is known for. “E.R[WTT]” is another short and sweet Knx classic; skittering drums, a compelling melodic loop, recognizable vocals tag (from Timbaland), and a brief scene transition. Don’t belabor it, don’t hesitate. Speaking of which, “dnthesitate” is built on a solid bass line with producer tags and a beautiful plucked melody sprinkled juggled throughout, the kind of thing that you could just leave on repeat. “hrdtobe” is only 22 seconds long, which is hosestly about as much as this loop could sustain, but a decent enough transition to the outro, “summrain[rton],” basically a chopped and screwed version of “rton.”

Overall, not my favorite in Knx’s long catalog, but a nice little record.