Song Review-Brokeland by Kirk Knight produced by Kirk Knight

by Dan-O

I’m so glad that we can all trust the Pro Era clique to be smarter than the narrative. While all of them have shown profound artistic talent, we all had reasonable concerns about the sound. The glorious 90’s nostalgia of Joey Bada$$ 1999 gave way to a bunch of stuff that all ended up sounding quite similar. Not that this was a surprise, that’s kind of why Boom Bap faded out. On Kirk Knight’s new album Late Knight Special we get shown significant variations on the base sound without ever betraying it. Sonically and thematically things do not bleed together and whatever you expect a song to be it turns out to be something else. He vibes on Down, goes atmospheric and thoughtful on Future and seductive on One Knight (shout out to The Mind for some great features!) but of all the different songs that Kirk Knight can make I love Brokeland the best.

From the first few seconds you know this is that ugly head banging East Coast havoc that is and will always be exciting. The Brooklyn chants make the ghost of Biggie smile, and this song is not Kirk shooting folks. He raps about credit cards and banks and ATM transactions with a flow so ferocious you just follow it wherever it goes. Lyrically Kirk is ill but anyone following Pro Era knew that. The way this beat was constructed and the way this album was sequenced lets me know that Kirk has his own vision for what his music should sound like. He can tell you how the seconds should play out.

I hope that spreads.