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March 29, 2024

Three fringe musicians to watch in 2017

By NIKITA SHTARKMAN | February 2, 2017

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WOWEDITS/cc-by-SA-4.0 Producer Knxwledge performs live at the Hi Hat in Los Angeles after five releases in 2016.

One of the central tenets of music listening is “putting somebody on,” or introducing a person to an artist or song that they haven’t heard before. In this article, I want to put you on to three projects and musicians that aren’t getting (and probably will not get) mainstream appeal.

1. Griselda

First, I want introduce people to Westside Gunn and Conway, two grimy New York artists on the come up. Under their collective Griselda, helped by the producer Daringer, the two artists have been putting out a bevy of dark, gritty projects.

Do you miss the days when a hip hop beat was one simple, heart-wrenching soul sample with a basic drum beat behind it? Do you miss when rappers talked about selling crack and you actually believed them? Do you miss rappers who have been shot? If you said yes to any of these, look no further than these two.

While they aren’t in an organized group, the two label mates collaborate very often and complement each other perfectly. Westside Gunn spits with a high pitched, drawling, relaxed flow. He is incredible at emphasizing the most emotionally potent parts of his verses. Conway has a harder, lower voice. He slurs his words while spitting with the best screw-face in the game, a product of getting shot in the back of the head during a drive by.

While to many, they may seem like simple New York gangster rappers — the offspring of artists like Ja Rule, Jadakiss and 50 Cent — there is something more than pure vile drug rap in their lyrics. There is an earnestness, an ambition and a willingness to play around lyrically that elevates their work above pure “hard stuff.” Their lyrics skirt the line between braggadocio, cleverness and honesty.

Recommended listening is FLYGOD, Westside Gunn’s first studio album. Along with that, people should listen to “The Cow” by Westside Gunn feat. Conway, which has arguably the best verse of the past year.

“If you can put anger on a picture,” the sample whispers before the song starts, and it is fitting. Conway uses the beat to weave through his hard life. He describes losing his friends, getting shot, feeling like his life was worthless and his fears about never making it big as a rapper.

“I wrote this... with tears in my eyes” Conway says.

It feels good to hear lyricism that provokes feeling through words and delivery, rather than just melodic tones. As much as I love the mumble rap movement, I sometimes miss that classic “let me tell you how I feel and how my life is going” rap.

2. WrpTps. 9.1 byKnxwledge

I may be one of the biggest Knxwledge fanboys. He is my favorite contemporary producer. I’ve been promoting the dude more than he promotes himself. In my opinion, what he does is inspiring. He slides between minimalism and maximalism, either making whole tracks out of quiet, simple drum beats, or filling the soundscape with layered and complex samples. He makes music that shouldn’t sound good sound good.

Knxwledge is perhaps most famous for his work with Kendrick Lamar (he worked on the beat of “Momma” from To Pimp A Butterfly) as well as his well-regarded collaboration with Anderson .Paak under the title NxWorries (their latest release Yes Lawd! made The News-Letter Arts Section’s Honorable Mention list for 2016).

This week, he released another project in his long-running series the Wrap Tapes – WT.PRT10.8. These are projects in which he takes a cappella from various rappers, and layers them onto some of his wonky, twisted production. From obscure YouTube freestyles to some of the biggest songs of the year, Knxwledge somehow repurposes the verses as just extra instruments in his ensemble.

A big part of listening to Knxwledge is just curiosity. I am constantly heading into his mixtapes wondering: what can this man do next? This project is no exception. He forms some incredible tracks from the most unlikely pieces.

On “**10BB’s”, Knxwledge takes one of the darkest songs of the year, 21 Savages “X.” (from his mixtape with Metro Boomin’ Savage Mode) and flips it into this heavenly, sweet melodic piece. The keys flitter above Savages’ low, grimy voice, while a heavy 808 bassline plots beneath.

My favorite track on this project though, is “Shootrs Myklik.” I wish I could explain why. Nothing about this piece should work. The a cappella is far behind the backing track — drowned by the bass and saxophone of the soul sample. Throughout the song, Knxwledge filters out the high frequencies, making it sound almost like the song is being played underwater. It feels like Knxwledge is trying to sabotage the very song he’s working on, but all of it only helps the groove. It is hard to get through this song without nodding your head.

Knxwledge’s background also includes production for numerous artists. Some standouts include Action Bronson (in his collaboration with Big Body Bes, “Durag vs Headband”), Homeboy Sandman (for the track “Problems” from his fourth album Hallways), Pyramid Vritra (half of the Odd Future affiliated group The Jet Age of Tomorrow) and even Joey Bada$$ (on a 2011 track released with the deceased Capital STEEZ — RIP Steelo).

3. Herbie Hancock

Now turning back to the past, I want to recommend one of Herbie Hancock’s lesser known projects — Mr. Hands.

Herbie Hancock came up as a member of Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet.

The music of Mr. Hands fits the cover perfectly — it’s abstract funk. The album itself feels like the soundtrack to a weird, synthetic heaven. Synths and quantized drums, two very robotic sounding things, are brought together by Hancock to create natural yet eerie grooves.

My favorite track is “Textures,” a smooth, rolling piece of funk. The music seems to hover, both airy and sweet. The weird synths call forth what I imagine ancient Egyptian music sounded like. The drums are overtly robotic and perfect. The lead synth wails across the soundscape, standing in for what would usually be a lead singer. The humanity that this electronic instrument evokes is eerie and interesting and somehow beautiful too. The track also includes a constant, sliding bassline, and some high, sublime organs.

Mr. Hands is just strange enough to be interesting without being quirky. Hancock, already a legendary jazz and funk musician, succeeds at melding new sounds into the already defined tapestry of those genres. This is great music to listen to on a spring day or working in a room lit by daylight.


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