“Oh, so you’re a artist? That’s great. What’s your day job?” While it may sound like a follow-up question hand-crafted by a supreme asshole, it could just be the follow-up from someone who understands the hustle. As creatives, many folks are required to support themselves through other ventures including 9-5s, 10-6s, and swing shifts that have little or nothing to do with their true passion. For the actresses who work in restaurants, the filmmakers who work as bartenders, the up-and-coming novelist who is also everyone’s favorite barista, and the stylist who’s stacking cash while folding jeans at the local department store, Knowitall’s album is dedicated to you.
A few months back, we caught League510 performing at the Heiro space. After energetically ripping through a few tracks, Knowitall said peace to the crowd, “I gotta get out of here and make it to work.” We all felt it. The grind to that makes money to support the passion. His stage exit came to mind as soon as I saw the title of his debut album, Weekend Rapstar. The album is scheduled to drop this fall. In an effort to make sure the project is legit as possible with a dope video, quality mixing, real marketing, etc., Knowit has launched a Kickstarter campaign. The video explaining his mission even includes shots of him at his day job.
The Oakland MC/producer/songwriter’s first single is “Crack & Powder.” He’s not talking about slanging either, rather providing listeners with a look at his politics. He opens with “Money, hoes and clothes are all just really distractions/I’ll be the first to admit that I be gettin’ distracted,” but ends up spitting, “Put a fist in the air, it’s still black power/it’s a shame that minorities still lack power/ I blame it all on the government, the crack and the powder/ They killed all of our leaders and gave us crack and powder.” If the single is any indication, Weekend Rapstar will be a layered debut. What do you think?
