Kneel Knaris - Going Sane In A Crazy World (Street Legal Entertainment)

I posted a song from it a few weeks ago, but now the whole solo debut from Kneel Knaris is out. I've known him from PX (Parts Unknown), and from being a hip hop karaoke champ legend, but on this album he really comes into his own, weaving the whole album together into a cohesive theme, and making it all about his own struggles with bipolar disorder. There's a lot of introspective rap out there where you get an MC talking your ear off about their problems or addictions or whatever, and I feel like that can be a really indulgent and risky area to get into if the artist doesn't have a real focus or discipline, but he just goes at it really creatively, hitting a different angle with every song.

Last week I was sitting on the front steps at Street Legal talking with Sonny Brown and Kneel, and Sonny said this album was really inspirational to him and made him want to put more of his experiences in his music, which I thought was a huge compliment. The song I posted before, "Never Gonna Make It," I think really sums up the album well. And one thing Kneel said was that he wouldn't be able to make a record like this now, because he's feeling better now than he was when he wrote those songs, which was good to hear because really, some of this stuff is intense, he really goes into some dark feelings, and it's good that the music helped him get past them. E Major makes a guest appearance, and also did the cover art. The album is out now in stores, on iTunes, and on Amazon, where it's only $6.99, which is a great look. Also check out 41yo's review of the album.

Kneel Knaris - "Two Women (Night And Day)" (mp3)
This is one of my favorite songs on the album, because it really takes the bipolar theme of the album in a different direction and kind of looks at two different crutches, caffeine in the daytime and alcohol at night, and builds around that concept in a really dope way (which also explains the cover art).

Labels: 41yo, E Major, mixtape/album review, mp3, PX, Street Legal