Strict street rap that respects the roots of the genre yet brings some new, fresh sounds. Alchemist, Westside Gunn, or Roc Marciano; those are the names associated with neo boom bap and underground Renaissance on a daily basis, but not far from them stands one name that is climbing its way to the top. Rapper, which builds upon the knowledge of the veterans and conquers every beat as pirates used to conquer the wild sea. Knowledge the Pirate and his debut Flintlock.
Knowledge
Knowledge the Pirate is originally from Saint Luis, where he lived until he was two years old and later came back when he was ten, just to leave it again not long after. But the rapper considers New York City his home. The artist released his debut album in 2018, but his music started much earlier. Pirate started working full-time in the music industry in the late nineties. He got famous thanks to the rap battles, and it did not take long until his potential was recognized by Charlie Mack, the ex-bodyguard of Will Smith. Charlie introduced the rapper to the singer and producer Teddy Riley, which gave the rapper some useful information about how the whole music industry works. At one point in time, Knowledge was offered a deal with Interscope, but he walked away from it.
The Pirate
The Pirate’s mom was a drug addict, and he never got to know his father, so he had to fight his way through the streets from a young age, so the deals with white collars were not something he would go after. On top of that, after the death of Biggie Smalls (1997), no label wanted to release strictly street East Coast rap, so Knowledge was working as a ghostwriter. Mostly writing R&B songs. Paradoxically, most of his work is not written down; during the rap battles, he learned how to improvise and rap what he feels in each moment.
Before his own debut, the rapper was a guest on some of the work of Roc Marciano and became one of the rappers that Roc invited to his projects on a regular basis. Artists have known each other for over 20 years, and their friendship started earlier than their musical collaboration. Knowledge was at the heart of the creation of the record Marcberg (2010), which redefined the genre and moved strict street rap from the East Coast to the new decade. Roc Marciano was the one who assured the rapper that his music is still something that fans want. The rapper collected a lot of knowledge before his debut album and certified his name in the streets of New York with the sound that he is loyal to and does not want to leave.
Flintlock
„When man becomes possessor of the knowledge of himself, he becomes master of his environment, the captain of his own ship, the director of his own destiny, the accomplisher of his own ends.“
Marcus Garvey (1924)
The speech of Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey starts the whole album and sets up the mood of the whole project, Flintlock. The rapper is fully aware of his knowledge and asks listeners to consider every decision they are about to make twice. Exactly as the rapper mentioned during the track Roots Of A Thug, drugs, violence, ghettos, and systematical racism are the cards that Knowledge and his peers had to play with.
„Yeah we sell the drugs but they’re the ones who put ‘em in the streets
It’s like we’re in the belly of the beast.
And all we wanna do is feast, uh“
The rapper is sharing the message that even in a world like that, there is a space for smart decisions that will bring brighter tomorrows, and as he mentioned during the DAFUKMEAN? podcast, “My duty is to civilize the uncivilized.” His lyrics feel like a connection between Roc Marciano and Ka. Knowledge the Pirate does not try to come up with something complicated, experimental, or conceptual; he writes about what he went through. Stories from the drug underground, brutal violence, kidnapping, robberies, his values and rules, but none of his lyrics are way too crazy; they hold themselves down to the ground as lyrics of Ka, but in the same moment are as dope as lyrics of Roc Marciano.
The album has 15 tracks, and the only guest on the whole album is, as many times mentioned, Roc Marciano. Knowledge proved to us that he does not need anybody else to deliver a high-quality project. Knowledge does not want to work with anybody who he does not know personally, so the productions have been taken care of by his friends ELEMENT, Mushroom Jesus, and Roc Marciano. All the beats are perfect, very atmospheric, and bring the flavors of bleak neighborhoods and luxury establishments, which nicely complement the rapper’s tough-hitting lyrics.
The name Flintlock appropriately fits the pirate theme of the album and the ferocity that is connected to the rapper himself. Naming your album after a weapon from the 16th century, however, also means that you have already done something. The album was also released on the rapper’s official web; that was the only place where you could buy his music for the first two months after the release, and it was released on streaming services later on. The Pirate, along with Marciano and Ka, was one of the first rappers to apply this model of releasing music.
Ahoy!
It is a real shame that we do not see the name Knowledge the Pirate as often as we see names like Alchemist, Westside Gunn, or Roc Marciano. He is slowly but surely starting to collect the fruits of his labor, and we wish all the best to his new project, Wolves Don’t Eat With Shepherd’s, produced by Big Ghost LTD. In Europe, he is still one of the underappreciated rappers, but his album Flintlock definitely belongs in between the treasures of the new strict rap era and should not be missed by any pirate who is sailing the oceans looking for high-quality rap.
Resources: Villagevoice, Podcast DAFUKMEAN?
Translated from Czech by Rado.
