It is easy to fall through the cracks of an overnight success, a fate that Kilburn rapper Knucks has steered far and clear from. Effortless in his cadence yet increasingly considered in his message, the riser has been quietly accelerating towards the top spot, indifferent to public approval or industry recognition. Yet, this isn’t a name that finds itself burdened by an ‘underrated’ status because in all sincerity Knucks, once known as Knuckles, simply isn’t. Receiving co-signs from the higher powers of Stormzy and Wretch 32 whilst gravitating towards the like-minded Loyle Carner, it’s a name that has long-been pointing towards the future of UK Rap.
2014’s debut mixtape ‘Killmatic,’ marks the sound envisioned by an adolescent Ashley Nwachukwu that set off to fuse the more soulful instrumentations of jazz with the smokey, hard-hitting patterns of trap. Picturing a block of flats with gothic writing placed over the front, the mixtape’s artwork finds itself mirrored by this year’s breakthrough album ‘Alpha Place,’ which sees the wordsmith at his most mature, introspective and self-referential.
Across an artistry shaped by the likes of MF Doom and Nas, Knucks demonstrates a sustained fixation on refining the same sound imagined by his younger self, tweaking its influences ever so slightly with the times, now leaning towards drill. ‘Alpha Place’ has mastered its own execution, landing No.3 in the UK despite opting for the more intricate, and in some ways overlooked by the mainstream, art of storytelling.
Clash sat down with Knucks to discuss the roots of his sound, the debut album and generational influence of his craft in the midst of his sold-out tour.
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Growing up alongside grime, in what way did MCing within a group and in a more freestyle-focussed genre help you develop your craft?
It was something that we all just picked up from the older lot doing the same thing and we were all learning together so we were able to give each other advice, like the whole repeating bars, learning how to make music and even counting bars.
Is there a moment that pinpoints the evolution of your sound in its early stages?
When I made my first mixtape ‘Killmatic’, I remember articulating what I was going to do to my cousin, who's now my manager. I told him that I wanted to mix the old skool, classic vibe with the trap, 808s, and snares to make it more current. I think I was like 14,15 when I said that. My sound now is just a more current version of that, where I did the same thing that I did with the trap 808s but now with the drill sounds and the skippy hats.
Where do you think that inspiration came from?
With grime, there was always the dark grime beats, the heavy synths but then there was also the high pitched, woman sample voice in the background which, I didn't know at the time, but they were just old skool songs sped up to fit with the grime tempo. I always liked those kinds of beats and that's partly why I started producing because those ones were always hard to come by.
Back then it wasn’t like now where if you find something you like online, there's probably a way to get it. But at the time, we didn't have that so you had to actually message the producer. I didn't really have any leverage at the time so I couldn't get those beats, so I started making them myself with Fruity Loops. From doing that, that's where the love for those kinds of beats came. When rap became popular in my area, all I did was take the same thing that I was doing with those grime beats and did it with rap.
Talk us through the foundations of ‘Alpha Place’, how did the idea behind the project first come about?
So the ‘Home’ video was going off and it just brought my career to a whole different trajectory. I'd already started making ‘London Class’ as it was going on so that was veering away from what the new listeners were finding me and associating me with. ‘London Class’ came out and it was something completely different. So we had discussions about making the next project that solidifies that as my sound, the ‘Home’ sound. Some people were calling it ‘chill drill,’ ‘soft drill’ but one thing I knew is that it was something that I'd put together so I thought that it was important for me to make a body of work to solidify that sound as something that I'm trying to spearhead. At the same time, we thought it was important to show where I was from.
The idea behind it was to recreate the first project I made, which was called ‘Killmatic,’ but with the ‘Home’ backdrop and sonics. Initially it was actually going to be called ‘Drillmatic’ as a play on the previous one but after a while I was like yeah, that's a bit corny and it sounded too on the nose. After making the first song with that guideline of, make a drill version of that project that was based around your area, because it was called 'Killmatic' because I'm from Kilburn and it was obviously based off of Nas’ 'Illmatic'. As soon as I had that guideline, the first one I wrote was ‘Alpha House.’
What made you want to steer into storytelling? Is there a process to opening up and becoming more introspective through your music or was it something that came naturally to you?
I feel like I always tell stories somewhat in my songs because I try to have a theme or a topic I'm talking about rather than just making a beat, seeing where it takes me and just rapping for the sake of it. Don't get me wrong, I do that sometimes but the majority of the time I want there to be something that the song is about and usually with doing that, I end up telling stories. But ‘Home’, the whole song is directed to getting this one story across and it has a whole plot, it has a twist and has an ending. I think that's what made people think this is an actual story. Despite the fact that all of these other songs, there's storytelling in it, but this is a proper beginning, middle and end story. So I think because of that, and I saw how much people liked it, I just lent into it.
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There is that cinematic element to ‘Alpha Place’, from the track title ‘Leon The Professional’ to the snippets from Breaking Bad. Was this intentional and what made you want to include or incorporate these references within your work?
So in terms of film, I've always incorporated the things that I'm into whether it’s films, shows or foods, as a way to let people know me a bit more through the music rather than trying to do other things outside of music to get people to know about me.
Your collaborations bring together the contrasting dynamics of M1llionz and Shaé Universe. How important do you feel it is to reimagine new voices in different spaces?
I think it's more to do with not being in a box. If I just make a certain type of music, and I just work with a certain type of artist, people are gonna get used to that being me. So then anytime I step out of that it won't seem authentic or natural, or it'll seem a bit forced. But if I consistently work with different types of artist and almost be like a bridge, because I've done it from so early, I can do a song with Loyle Carner and I can do a song with Blade Brown, where Blade Brown and Loyle Carner probably wouldn't be able to do song together. In that way, I can blend artists like Shaé and M1llionz. I feel like that's important because it brings the different audiences together, at the end of the day it’s good music and I don't think that music should be separated by types of people.
You've been doing signings across the UK, and we've seen you taking pictures with a lot of your younger audience, how does it feel to be an artist that the younger audiences look up to?
It definitely makes me realise that what I was intending to do, I'm starting to actually accomplish it. It makes me realise the responsibility that I now have with these people's kids, because at the end of the day I've put myself in this position because I feel like some of the morals that I carry can be valuable to the younger generation. Some of the things that I wish I was taught, some of the values, for example, the fact that somebody can have the same respect as the trappers from our ends, or the the gangbangers from our ends, without doing that, I think is a positive thing for the younger generation.
The reason why I was acting up was because it felt like that's what I needed to do to get the respect that I wanted. So where there's an example of someone getting the respect without doing that, and getting the respect from those people, it will make a lot of the youngers see it as okay, I can just be myself and I don't have to pretend to be this person that I'm not. So seeing those guys and seeing that they are following the way of thinking I'm trying to lay down, it makes me happy because it's starting to change things.
Bearing that in mind, if you could change one thing about the UK rap scene right now, what would it be?
It would be the notion of having to be a gangbanger or a trapper to make good music or to be respected as a rapper. I don't think rap should be synonymous with crime or negativity.
Do you have an album or track that you're listening to right now that you sense will be timeless in years to come?
Two, so one is new and one is pretty old but I'm only getting on to it now. The new one is the new Pusha T album. It's just so well done and the production is consistent, especially with Pharrell and Kanye. I think that's probably his best project and I'm not even a Pusha T fan like that. The old one is Children of Zeus ‘Travel Light’. I had this album before, I took in some of the songs, and I have a lot of them on my saved list but I never took in the album as an album.
This week marks the start of the Alpha Place tour, what track are you most looking forward to perform and why?
‘Three Musketeers’ because it's such a personal song and I feel like people have gravitated to the story I’m telling on it. I just want to see how the audience take me doing it up front and personal. ‘Far’ as well because that's probably one of my favourite songs on the project.
How are you preparing for your upcoming tour and what are you going to do once it’s over?
I’ve got a lot of festivals to do so just preparation for those really, rehearsals and stuff like that. For me personally, rehearsal plays a deeper role because it helps me with my confidence onstage. Once you know that your performance has been practised and has been worked on, you just have a different kind of confidence on stage. That is your stage presence because you know that you've practised. If you're not prepared I just feel like it'll mess up.
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'Alpha Place' is out now.
Words: Ana Lamond
Photo Credit: David Levene
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