After the success of his first solo album “Mr. Enjoy Da Money”, he is known as the “melodic rap making machine”. KnowKnow, and this month he brought his new album “LONG TIME KNOW SEE” to meet his fans again. From representing Higher Brother to let the world see the power of Chinese rap, to his personal work “R&B All Night” all over the Internet; from the thriving MEDM clothing business to entering the palace of marriage, KnowKnow ushered in a new era in just a few years Achieved rapid progress in career and life.
Soon after the release of the new album, it aroused heated discussions among old and new fans. In addition to praise, there were naturally some voices of doubt. In the face of fans’ doubts about the new album “the lyrics are not careful enough”, “the melody is like an old song”, “Flow sounds uncomfortable”, etc., how does KnowKnow treat it? This time Hypebeast invited this topic Rapper to personally answer everyone’s questions.
Returning to the album itself, KnowKnow tried more diverse genre elements in “LONG TIME KNOW SEE”, not only the Bounce Music and TRAP 808 drum set of southern Hip-Hop, but also British Hip-Hop and electric style It’s a new attempt, and “Fragility”, which he cooperated with his senior Shunzi, is his first attempt to compose music by himself… Now, KnowKnow will continue to explain the creation details of his new album and the unknown stories behind the production.
Hypebeast: Tell us briefly about the new album “LONG TIME KNOW SEE”. What does the album want to convey to the audience?
KnowKnow: This new album mainly wants to convey some information to fans. The name of the album is “LONG TIME KNOW SEE”. It is mainly about what I have seen and heard in such a long time, which is equivalent to a record of myself. Therefore, the starting point of most of the creations is the way of outputting some of my own opinions, and the overall focus will be on my own ideas.
In this album, you have made many new attempts, such as composing for the first time, directing the MV for the first time, singing and dancing for the first time, which one is the most interesting to you?
In fact, the “first times” you mentioned are very interesting to me. For example, the first time I composed a song, I slowly polished it into a song by turning the melody I hummed into an orchestra and an instrument. , this process is very interesting, it is to use musical instruments to bring my ideas to the ground and turn them into reality. This way of presenting and working is my first attempt.
The experience of dancing for the first time is also very interesting, because after I released some songs before, fans would take videos of their training through dancing. I also want to join in to perform my new songs and experience how to express through dance The mood of a song. The process of learning dance is very difficult. It requires long hours of practice to get the interaction between the body and the rhythm. This is an experience I have never experienced. Then, if I am the first director to shoot an MV, I have to participate in the whole process from the first step of scouting, because I want to see how I can combine the real things with the things I imagined in my mind. Although these “first times” are difficult, they are also quite interesting.
Your cooperation with Shunzi in “Fragility” is amazing. How did this cooperation work?
Before cooperating with Teacher Shunzi, I first had to think about what kind of song demo to make for her to listen to. Only after she listened to it can we discuss whether to proceed to the next step. So at the beginning, I also considered what style of music she is suitable for, although it may be a style that I have tried less before. Later, I sent the demo I prepared to Teacher Shunzi, and she also made a section and sent it back to me. In the first version, Teacher Shunzi actually tried a rap to express what she wanted to say. There is a sentence in it It means “KnowKnow, my sister is very happy to cooperate with you.” At that moment, I felt that the dimension wall was broken, because I started listening to her songs when I was very young, and I didn’t expect to be able to communicate and cooperate with her when I grew up. .
After confirming the continued cooperation, we slowly revised and polished the song together. She recorded the song in a recording studio in France at the time, and has been revising and revising it since then. The song has been developed from the initial idea to the final form. It still took a long time, but the whole process was very interesting, including Teacher Shunzi himself.
You sampled “The Wolf of Wall Street” in the song “Little Business”, why did you choose this movie?
The reason why I chose this movie is because it had a very big impact on me, especially the passage I sampled, which left a particularly deep impression on me. The picture and music of them sitting at the dining table and beating their chest together, including the ideas they want to express, also let me find a lot of resonance. They are stockbrokers, and at first I sold insurance by phone, and I could find some similarities among them, and then I wanted to express the influence of that paragraph on me through a “blackening” method. I will often watch this movie, and every time I watch it, I can find something different and interesting.
In the last song “Know See”, you explained the story behind each song one by one. Why did you end it in this way?
When I first made this song, I didn’t expect to end it with it. At that time, many songs in the album had already been finished, so I found a day alone to sort out those audio files, and then I also talked about some thoughts and feelings that I have been working on for so long. At that time, I was working with the producer to make audio slices, and it was the first time I tried this form. In the end, I made it feel like a radio station, and added a lot of small details, including the audience in the funny American TV series. Laughter, in the form of these slices, puts together many picturesque things and turns them into an audible version.
Melodic tracks have always featured on your albums, so is there anything special about this one?
I controlled the melody part of this album to about 5, which is a reasonable number, but at the same time I also made some new attempts. For example, the song “Man” tried the style of New Jack Swing , this is a style of music that I have never tried before, and I want to challenge myself in this way.
Which song do you think is the biggest “breakthrough” for yourself in this album, and why?
As for the song with the biggest breakthrough in the new album, I think it is the song “Fragility” that I collaborated with Shun Zi. Because the creation process of this song is very detailed, unlike other song creations, I find an accompaniment or a beat, and I just write the lyrics and record it. The song “Fragility” is a process from scratch. First, hum a melody, then turn the melody into an instrument, then make it into an accompaniment, fill in the lyrics in the accompaniment, and finally become a complete song. It was a big breakthrough.
The design of this physical album refers to PlayStation game cartridges. What is the inspiration behind it?
Because it’s a new album, I still hope to use a physical CD to record this production process. We can choose this or that packaging form, but the closest thing to our good buddies who can see the disc, I The first thing that comes to mind is the PlayStation 5. Because everyone still likes to play games very much, I thought it would be very interesting if it could be presented in this way, and it would also be close to our lives.
What is your usual favorite game? Do you usually spend a lot of time on games?
I still play “NBA 2K” and “UFC” when I’m with my friends in private, and “God of War 5” if I play alone, but now I spend less and less time playing games, because of the recent “God of War” 5″ just came out, so I spent more time on the game, because its plot connection is relatively tight, every time I say that I will stop playing after finishing this level, but if you are not careful, you will enter the next plot again, so I have to Keep playing (laughs).