The Knux
Encyclopedia
The Knux are a American
alternative hip hop
duo composed of brothers
Kentrell "Krispy" Lindsey and Alvin "Joey" Lindsey. Both brothers are musicians, who sing
, rap
, produce
as well as play instruments. Their music contains elements of rock
& electronic
and pop
. The Knux are well known for their intense live shows; in 2009, they were invited to perform at almost every major music festival in North America . They have also toured with a slew of diverse artist spanning various genres including Common, Q-Tip
, Nas
, The Roots
, Shwayze
, Lupe Fiasco
, DJ AM
, Travis Barker
and DJ Cobra among other renowned artists. They released their debut album, Remind Me in 3 Days...
on October 28, 2008. In 2011 they released their follow-up Eraser
on September 27, 2011.
by their single mother. The two brothers were initially not very close. Joey likes to describe their childhood as him being a nerd
: "I was like the nerd, into video games and stuff like that, and Krispy was more like, popular
and into hanging out and girls." True to their often cantankerous relationship, Krispy begs to differ: "Ah man, that’s just how Al likes to say it, but that ain’t how it was. Al was always a cool mu’fucka, it’s just that we didn’t fuck with each other like that." Although they shared the same roof, and the same interest in marching band
, where they honed their playing prowess, the two ran in different circles
in high school. Joey cites Nas
’ second album It Was Written
(1996) as the first rap album that he really listened to. Joey has credited the Gravediggaz
second album The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel
(1997) as the album that brought them together: "I bought that tape and we’d just sit around after school listening to it all afternoon." Within a year of the two hanging out and writing rhymes, they hooked up with an uncle who was a local producer and started to create songs together. Krispy has said: "We started off calling ourselves The Knuckle Heads and we’d go over to his studio to make beats and songs." The brothers were displaced after Hurricane Katrina
hit their hometown, after which the brothers relocated to Los Angeles
, California
.
for Common's Finding Forever Tour. They dressed in throwback Adidas zip-ups, fat gold chains, and altogether atypical contemporary rap attire, The Knux performed with a live band (the Symetrics) and DJ (DJ Cobra) and frequently left crowds puzzled and occasionally booing. Despite that they soon signed to Interscope Records
. "Cappuccino" was the first Knux song officially released by Interscope, featured in an episode of the fourth season of the HBO show Entourage
as well as Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay; a video for the song was subsequently filmed. With the singles "Bang, Bang" and "Cappuccino" garnering attention, they released their debut album, Remind Me in 3 Days...
, was released in 2008. The album charted at number twenty-three on the U.S. Top Heatseekers
.
due to them wanting to reshape their image: "With this album, we want to take those preconceived notions and shatter and erase them" said eldest brother Krispy. The album was initially to be released on June 21st, 2011 but was pushed back to September. They recorded the album with Robert Orton
who has handled production duties on Police
and Lady Gaga
albums.
On February 9, 2011, Consequence of Sound
posted the song "She's So Up" which was later officially released on March 1st and serves as the albums first single. On July 12, 2011, The Knux released their second single titled "Run" featuring Kid Cudi
. Unlike their previous effort, Eraser included guest appearances from artists such as Natalia Kills
, Jack Davey, Blake Miller and Kid Cudi. The album was released on September 27, 2011.
(2008)
Fuck You - EP (2010)
Eraser
(2011)
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
alternative hip hop
Alternative hip hop
Alternative hip hop is a sub-genre of hip hop music. Allmusic defines it as follows: -Origin:...
duo composed of brothers
Sibling
Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...
Kentrell "Krispy" Lindsey and Alvin "Joey" Lindsey. Both brothers are musicians, who sing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
, produce
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
as well as play instruments. Their music contains elements of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
& electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
. The Knux are well known for their intense live shows; in 2009, they were invited to perform at almost every major music festival in North America . They have also toured with a slew of diverse artist spanning various genres including Common, Q-Tip
Q-Tip (rapper)
Kamaal Ibn John Fareed , better known by his stage name Q-Tip, is an American hip hop artist, producer, singer, and actor from St. Albans, Queens, New York, part of the critically acclaimed group A Tribe Called Quest...
, Nas
Nas
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
, The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
, Shwayze
Shwayze
Aaron Smith , better known by his stage name Shwayze, is an American rapper.Born and raised in Malibu, California, Shwayze worked at a local Starbucks coffee shop until he met Whitestarr frontman Cisco Adler at a nightclub. One night Shwayze jumped on stage during Whitestarr's performance and...
, Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco , better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco , is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, Lupe is the CEO of 1st and 15th Entertainment. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his critically acclaimed debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food...
, DJ AM
Adam Goldstein
Adam Michael Goldstein was an American DJ, remixer, record producer and musician better known as DJ AM. Goldstein was a member of the rock band Crazy Town, co-owner of a management company called Deckstar and worked on albums for Papa Roach, Madonna and Will Smith, among others...
, Travis Barker
Travis Barker
Travis Landon Barker is an American musician, producer and entrepreneur, most noted as the drummer for the American pop punk band Blink-182, as well as the alternative rock band +44, the rap rock band The Transplants, and the alternative rock band Box Car Racer. He was a frequent collaborator with...
and DJ Cobra among other renowned artists. They released their debut album, Remind Me in 3 Days...
Remind Me in 3 Days...
Remind Me in 3 Days... is the debut album by alternative hip hop duo The Knux, released in 2008. The album reached #23 in the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. The album received generally favorable reviews, earning a score of 71 at Metacritic....
on October 28, 2008. In 2011 they released their follow-up Eraser
Eraser (album)
Eraser is the second studio album of American alternative hip hop duo The Knux, released September 27, 2011, on Interscope Records. The album was preceded by the release of two singles, the first being "She's So Up" followed by "Run" featuring Kid Cudi...
on September 27, 2011.
Early life and Career beginnings
The Lindsey brothers were born and raised in New Orleans, LouisianaLouisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
by their single mother. The two brothers were initially not very close. Joey likes to describe their childhood as him being a nerd
Nerd
Nerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
: "I was like the nerd, into video games and stuff like that, and Krispy was more like, popular
Popularity
Popularity is the quality of being well-liked or common, or having a high social status. Popularity figures are an important part of many people's personal value systems and form a vital component of success in people-oriented fields such as management, politics, and entertainment, among...
and into hanging out and girls." True to their often cantankerous relationship, Krispy begs to differ: "Ah man, that’s just how Al likes to say it, but that ain’t how it was. Al was always a cool mu’fucka, it’s just that we didn’t fuck with each other like that." Although they shared the same roof, and the same interest in marching band
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
, where they honed their playing prowess, the two ran in different circles
Clique
A clique is an exclusive group of people who share common interests, views, purposes, patterns of behavior, or ethnicity. A clique as a reference group can be either normative or comparative. Membership in a clique is typically exclusive, and qualifications for membership may be social or...
in high school. Joey cites Nas
Nas
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
’ second album It Was Written
It Was Written
It Was Written is the second studio album by American rapper Nas, released July 2, 1996 on Columbia Records in the United States. Following the moderate sales success of his acclaimed debut album, Illmatic , Nas chose to focus his efforts in a more mainstream direction...
(1996) as the first rap album that he really listened to. Joey has credited the Gravediggaz
Gravediggaz
Gravediggaz is an American hip hop group from New York City, well known for its dark sense of humor and abrasive, menacing soundscapes. The group was formed in 1994 and was effectively a supergroup, bringing together Prince Paul , Frukwan , Too Poetic and RZA...
second album The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel
The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel
The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel, released October 14, 1997, is the second album by the Gravediggaz, an influential horrorcore hip hop supergroup...
(1997) as the album that brought them together: "I bought that tape and we’d just sit around after school listening to it all afternoon." Within a year of the two hanging out and writing rhymes, they hooked up with an uncle who was a local producer and started to create songs together. Krispy has said: "We started off calling ourselves The Knuckle Heads and we’d go over to his studio to make beats and songs." The brothers were displaced after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
hit their hometown, after which the brothers relocated to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
2006-2008: Remind Me in 3 Days...
The Knux began to gain recognition in 2007, when they were the opening actOpening act
An opening act or warm-up act is an entertainer or entertainment act that performs at a concert before the featured entertainer...
for Common's Finding Forever Tour. They dressed in throwback Adidas zip-ups, fat gold chains, and altogether atypical contemporary rap attire, The Knux performed with a live band (the Symetrics) and DJ (DJ Cobra) and frequently left crowds puzzled and occasionally booing. Despite that they soon signed to Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
. "Cappuccino" was the first Knux song officially released by Interscope, featured in an episode of the fourth season of the HBO show Entourage
Entourage (TV series)
Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004 and concluded on September 11, 2011, after eight seasons...
as well as Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay; a video for the song was subsequently filmed. With the singles "Bang, Bang" and "Cappuccino" garnering attention, they released their debut album, Remind Me in 3 Days...
Remind Me in 3 Days...
Remind Me in 3 Days... is the debut album by alternative hip hop duo The Knux, released in 2008. The album reached #23 in the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. The album received generally favorable reviews, earning a score of 71 at Metacritic....
, was released in 2008. The album charted at number twenty-three on the U.S. Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...
.
2009-present: Eraser
After spending most of 2009 touring to promote their debut album, 2010 had The Knux back in the studio working on their Sophomore release. They announced the title of the album to be EraserEraser (album)
Eraser is the second studio album of American alternative hip hop duo The Knux, released September 27, 2011, on Interscope Records. The album was preceded by the release of two singles, the first being "She's So Up" followed by "Run" featuring Kid Cudi...
due to them wanting to reshape their image: "With this album, we want to take those preconceived notions and shatter and erase them" said eldest brother Krispy. The album was initially to be released on June 21st, 2011 but was pushed back to September. They recorded the album with Robert Orton
Robert Orton (mix engineer)
Robert Orton is a Grammy award-winning mixer. He has worked with many prominent artists including; Darren Hayes, Lady Gaga, Sean Kingston, Kelis, Livvi Franc, Sean Paul, Robbie Williams, Pixie Lott, Lil Jon, Enrique Iglesias, Usher, Mary J...
who has handled production duties on Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
and Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
albums.
On February 9, 2011, Consequence of Sound
Consequence of Sound
Consequence of Sound, also known often as CoS, is a Chicago-based music website featuring news, album and concert reviews, and editorials. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook micro-site, which serves as an on-line database for music festival news and rumors...
posted the song "She's So Up" which was later officially released on March 1st and serves as the albums first single. On July 12, 2011, The Knux released their second single titled "Run" featuring Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi
Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi , better known by his stage name Kid Cudi , sometimes stylized KiD CuDi, is an American rapper, singer and actor. He first gained major attention after the release of his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi. In 2009, his single "Day 'n' Nite" reached the top five of the...
. Unlike their previous effort, Eraser included guest appearances from artists such as Natalia Kills
Natalia Kills
Natalia Keery-Fisher is an English singer-songwriter, actress, and short-film director who performs under the stage name Natalia Kills. She released her first single "Don't Play Nice" under the name Verbalicious in February 2005...
, Jack Davey, Blake Miller and Kid Cudi. The album was released on September 27, 2011.
Discography
Remind Me in 3 Days...Remind Me in 3 Days...
Remind Me in 3 Days... is the debut album by alternative hip hop duo The Knux, released in 2008. The album reached #23 in the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. The album received generally favorable reviews, earning a score of 71 at Metacritic....
(2008)
Fuck You - EP (2010)
Eraser
Eraser (album)
Eraser is the second studio album of American alternative hip hop duo The Knux, released September 27, 2011, on Interscope Records. The album was preceded by the release of two singles, the first being "She's So Up" followed by "Run" featuring Kid Cudi...
(2011)
Chart Positions
| Album | Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical... |
|---|---|
| Remind Me in 3 Days... Remind Me in 3 Days... Remind Me in 3 Days... is the debut album by alternative hip hop duo The Knux, released in 2008. The album reached #23 in the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. The album received generally favorable reviews, earning a score of 71 at Metacritic.... |
23 |