10 Essential Kirk Knight Tracks

Kirk Knight is best known for his prominent role alongside Joey Bada$$ and the Pro Era click. He's produced a handful of Joey's tracks along with being featured on Pro Era tapes and on some of the member's solo projects. Until now, he's mostly played the sidekick, but come Friday, his debut full-length will be released, making Knight a published MC.

Late Knight Special features Joey Bada$$ (of course) along with Thundercat, The Mind, Mick Jenkins, and NoNameGypsy. Hopefully the album brings the fire production he created on Joey Bada$$' "Big Dusty." If "Brokeland" is any indication, we're in for a treat. In order to get you up to speed with the Brooklyn-born MC/producer, we've decided to highlight his ten essential tracks. Enjoy, and be sure to pick up Late Knight Special this Friday. 

Kirk Knight takes the third verse on this Pro Era stoner cut. It's been awesome watching this clique blow up, and they've matured a lot since this visual dropped, both in terms of their music and their aesthetic. If one thing has stayed the same, it's the solid raps and tasteful beats.

So usually this type of cut is left out of an Essential Tracks list, but without a proper release, Kirk Knight's output is confined. More than that, even, is the fact that he absolutely bodied his verses over classic beats from the likes of Redman and Notorious B.I.G. Joey's bars were from the album, so maybe Kirk gave us a taste when he said, "No tape, no album out." That all changes soon.

Brooklyn roof tops, smoked out beats, quality raps, and youthful energy: these are just some of the qualities that have helped Pro Era blow up over the years, and they're all very present in the video for "Extortion."

Yesterday we dropped a list of fire self-produced albums, and while Kirk Knight didn't make the cut, he's setting himself to be on the list next time we revisit. There's a lot of features and collaborations on this list, but rest assured that this young gun has talent for days. With "Early Morning Hiatus," he created the beat and blessed it with bars and some singing as well.

It's hardly an easy task to keep up with that Funk Volume style, but Kirk Knight does a noteworthy job at it. Dizzy Wright and Logic crush the soulful beat before Kirk Knight offers up a worthy verse himself, proving that he can roll with the best of them, and not just his clique.

Taking influence from Nas, Joey Bada$$ assembled the whole fleet for this 12-minute joint off the 1999 mixtape. It's tough to do a track like this one, but when it comes together, it's something special no doubt.

We've been giving Kirk his shine as an MC, but it's important to understand the skill he possesses on the beat-making tip too. The instrumental he laced Joey with for the hit "Big Dusty" is not to be taken light; this is a serious beat. Channeling golden era Wu-Tang with a little bit of modern sensibility seems to be a recipe for success. 

Now we're getting into his newest cuts - ones you'll hear on the full-length album that drops Friday. "Knight Time" channels the horrorcore swagger of his buddies in Flatbush Zombies, complete with trap drums, ominous strings, and a hyphy chorus.

"Dead Friends" couldn't be that much more different than "Knight Time." Aside from a similar tempo, the two cats sit on different ends of the energy spectrum; the last one was nuts, and this one is super chill. Along with established renaissance-man-bassist Thundercat and upcoming MC Noname Gypsy, "Dead Friends" is a bonafide essential. 

A handful of New Yorkers and a kid from Vegas walk into the studio, what happens next? "Good Knight," a track that nods back to Wu-Tang both with the lo-fi beat and the crazy dope bars.