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Interview
Student Of The Old, Leader
Of The New: For some
rappin’ is a hobby, for others it is a religion - something
that moves their soul and inspires them to pursue greatness.
Count Ill Knob among the latter.
The Queens-born, Brooklyn-bred and Long Beach,
California-based emcee first fell in love with hip-hop in
junior high school. Today, his passion for the music has
reached the highest level. “I love hip-hop like I love my
daughter,” he says.
Fortunately for Knob, hip-hop loves him just as much. His
witty wordplay and insightful storytelling has earned him such
high profile fans as The RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan and
Wu-Elements producer 4th Disciple. The two worked with Ill
Knob in the mid 1990s, producing the song “Bless Your Life”
for his group KGB.
In 1998, Knob travelled with the Wu-Tang Clan family to
California to work on albums from such Wu affiliates as Deadly
Venoms, Wu-Syndicate, Shyheim and Sunz Of Man. The trip
changed his life.
“This was a big break for me to relax and chill out,” Knob
recalls. “I got my mind and myself together. I knew when I was
living in New York, that there was somewhere else and that
there was more than just Coney Island, Brooklyn. I had been to
Miami and a lot places that were nice, but when I came out to
LA, I was like this is it. Now I’m bi-coastal.”
Knob took advantage of California’s relaxed atmosphere and
dedicated himself to sharpening his rap skills. He has grown
as an artist, as his debut shelved six-song EP, the
impressively diverse "For The Streets" , demonstrated. This EP
was shelved for reasons covered in this interview, but Knob
has included some of these songs again amongst some new one on
the new hot mixtape "For The Streets Volume 1" featuring the
likes of Littles, 40 Glocc, Jayo Felony, Blaquetoven, DPG and
more.
With
sizzling cuts on For The Streets Mixtape Vol. 1, Ill Knob
shows his range, telling more stories, rocking over a wider
variety of beats from such accomplished producers as Falonte
Moore (Koffee Brown), Storm, Russ Prezz, and South Central
Cartel’s Prodegee and dropping more memorable lyrics than most
rappers do on their full-length albums.
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For The
Streets EP |
For
The Streets Mixtape Vol 1 |
Wu-International was able to interview or should I say have a
conversation with Ill Knob amongst he's busy schedule, Enjoy
the read.
Dark 7
Invader: I like to say thanks first and foremost for
taking the time to answer these interviews and I would like to
say, nothing will be altered, edited or changed
when this is published online.
Dark 7 Invader: Peace Knob,
How are you and where have you been?
Ill Knob: I’m great god I
been living in Cali for a few years
Dark 7 Invader: Where are
you original from?
Ill Knob: I was born in
queens moved to Brooklyn when I was 9 so I claim the Brooklyn
fame ya dig
Dark 7 Invader: QBC,
nice.. How long have you been rhyming?
Ill Knob: For a long time
longer than most
Dark 7 Invader: When and
why did you move to Cali?
Ill Knob: I came out here
with storm and the venoms in 98 we was workin on a lot of
things when the deadly Venoms had the A&M deal and I liked it
so I stayed
Dark 7 Invader: Speaking
of that, what’s up with your group KGB? Are y'all still
together?
Ill Knob: KGB is family.
infra red is my brother, Asiatic is my cousin and hip hop we
knew since early ages, kenny ken is our big brother so kgb is
always together everybody doin their own thing right now and
we still be together thoroughly we still make songs together
and we talk almost everyday, we blood related our group is
real cause we not a group we fam ya dig
Dark 7 Invader: Thanks, could you tell us the meanin of KGB esp. for
those who do not know of your group and also the full list of
the members?
Ill Knob: Wow that’s a
deep question cause when we set it off it meant kold gettin
bizzy that’s how we spelled it but later on down the road it
changed to klick ga bow. Asiatic came up with that and we
loved it cause we of the way we was living it was more like a
title for our klick ya know and anybody that tested that
understood the meaning immediately ya dig it still stands for
klick ga bow and the members of the rap group are ill knob.
Asiatic, infraredda, hip hop and pro-fed but the klick was
also sha-lee, wayno, justice, lahmel, big red, trigga from mmo,
and man the list goes on sun a gang of Coney island gangstas
Dark 7 Invader: Oh thanks,
I didn’t even know all that myself considering I am a big fan
of you and your group. Next question is your group had
released a number of solid 12" via protect ya neck/Wu-tang
Management, Echo Int. etc that sell a lot on ebay to date.
Rumours online claim a KGB album was completed but never
released, could you shed more light on this please?
Ill Knob: Sun, we did so
many songs who knows where they at right now every time I turn
around some funny ass nigga either stealin some shit of ours
or bootleggin some shit of ours but we don’t get upset cause
we creators and creators keep creating that’s the difference
between us and other artists sun we create from scratch not
from someone else’s sound we make our own sound and that’s
true with any kgb member y’all gonna hear the solo shit but
wait till the group do it again each sound combined makes it a
symphony you dig niggas even steal your ideas sun and for the
record sun I got a strong feeling fat Joe got all or nothing
from me but like I said sun we creators and when they all run
out of ideas we still creating.
Dark 7 Invader: So you never completed
any album for Protect ya neck or another label to your
knowledge?
Ill Knob:
We ain't
complete no albums for no labels but we made more than
enough songs for three or four albums
Dark 7 Invader: Shame, great lose, so will you
ever be re-releasing these songs or just focusing on
new songs?
Ill Knob:
Man I cant never say never but we've grown so much we've
gotten so much better we just keep it moving and only time
will tell but my niggaz is dealin with raw talent and I’m
the |
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captain of the team and I’m tellin you now my boys is
ready for war a lot of niggas ain’t gonna understand what’s
about to happen but we commin for the championship rings, and
we way more prepared than most and the ones that are prepared
they ain’t on the level of play we on so we just patiently
waitin like 50 said ya dig? |
Dark 7 Invader: No Doubt!
You just answered the question I was about to ask as to who is
if any, the leader of the group.
Ill Knob: Oh by the way, I
wanna shout out to the god 4th disciple he just hit me up
that’s my man he did bless ya life for us ya know I need him
on that ill knob joint ya heard and yo sun 4th is crazy nice
on them beats as well as Storm and Russ who both contributed
to the ill knob album storm got about 15 tracks in on me sun
Russ got like 5
Dark 7 Invader: 4th is
certainly one of the best, We got him on our space contacts as
well. Ok please tell us about your forthcoming project, what
is it called, when will it be out, whose on it, etc?
Ill Knob: I own an
entertainment company called flawless entertainment its me and
my man jah and we just did my mixtape "flawless ent. presents
ill knob for the streets mixtape vol. 1" which we literally
sell on the streets and they sell quite easy for 10 bucks each
because of quality ya dig I feature : daz, badazz, jayo
felony, 40 glocc, littles, kokane, and producers such as
storm, Russ prezz, falonte' moore, big prod, tahir,
trackwizzard and many more I’m workin on vol. 2 the album has
tracks by havoc, warren g, jellyroll, falonte 'moore, storm,
and I’m gonna have plenty of surprises so if you liked kgb
songs your gonna love this and kgb is all over as well as some
new artists that’s gonna blow niggas away
Dark 7 Invader: You have a
number of following from fans in Europe and also other parts
of US and Canada, how can the fans get hold of this CD? say
online or any store that can sell it online?
Ill Knob: I’m about to
release it with distribution I’m talkin to 2 distributors so
ill make it available real soon but other than that hit me up
on my space and ill ship them to whoever wants to purchase
one. and to the streets in California from the bay area to
Vegas ill still be out there ya dig and in January I’m hittin
the road throughout the country and the jump single is gettin
pressed now so we pre marketing right now ya dig
Dark 7 Invader: Ok, that’s
great. What ever happened to For the Streets EP you released
in 2003 or so? and there was a rumour of an album "Top Of The
Food Chain" album, Is that the album you will be releasing?
Ill Knob: Damn dun keep
your voice down fat hoe might hear you and steal that one too
Dark 7 Invader: Lol...damn!!!
Ok, You've been airing out Fat Joe now, lets talk about that
fat Joe situation, what really went down with that?
Ill Knob: I sent sun my
shit when I had the e.p. and the name of my company was all or
nothing entertainment macho had it Roxanne ramickey it was in
terror squad and I was saying all or nothing all in my songs
and shit then like 6 months to 8 months later this nigga
talkin my shit so I came to the conclusion that niggaz need
help out there and they’ll steal help if need be cause they no
longer creative and that’s that
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Dark 7 Invader:
Foul Game,
Guess that happens all the time in the industry, A lot of
sharks. So I guess that’s why you shelved the EP?
Ill Knob:
Nah but the e.p.
was real I didn’t promote it cause I was f**kin with some
niggas that wasn’t ready for this type shit so I pulled the
plug that’s why I turned it into the mixtape the e.p. had 6
songs the mixtape got 17 hot bangaz ya dig me and my album is
called top of da food chain unless some bitch ass non creative
nigga steal that too but I got other titles under the belt so
its all good as a matter of fact listen to that song ill knob banga on my page and you’ll see who I’m talkin about. |
Dark 7 Invader: Will do, I
heard the most of the songs off the EP, they are bangers. So
you are in LBC? do you know or run into those Westcoast Killa
Beez like Black Knights Or Northstar members?
Ill Knob: Never I see
daddio a lot
Dark 7 Invader: Ok, Let's
talk more about you, You were known as Knowledge back then, do
you still go by that name and what other names/aliases do you
go by now?
Ill Knob: I’m still
knowledge to my homeys and family , but I'm ill knob, knob,
niggas in Cali call me ill knibbly cause I eat slow niggaz in
Jersy call me Mr. burns cause my heat blow whatever you choose
I use em all
Dark 7 Invader: Haha..... 2
or more questions and we are done god.. You done a lot of
collaboration with DV, are you still close to them and what’s
up with them?
Ill Knob: That’s my peeps
and they still gettin busy I don’t know what their gonna do
but I can let you know ore soon.
Dark 7 Invader: Thanks, "A
Beautiful Thing/ Bless ya life / Rap basher” are all classics,
what is your creative process like and where do you get your
inspirations from?
Ill Knob: I’m a writer I
pull these things from pure experience and try to paint a
picture so you can feel like you’re in the song like it’s a
movie ,like the Quentin Tarantino of rap
Dark 7 Invader: Its quite
late/early over in Cali, I appreciate you staying up and
answering these questions, any last words for the fans, shout
outs or any thing else u might wanna add?
Ill Knob: I wanna thank
everybody for their support and ill do almost anything for my
fans I like to stay in the field react with the consumer and I
learn a lot from y'all so I’m gonna continue to give y'all
what y'all want, good lookin out dark 7, fuck you fat hoe and
one luv to all my real niggas and my man kenny ken got the
unsigned artist DVD all y'all mc's get at him no matter where
you at he'll come tape you unsigned artist phone ..201
344-9577 an get at me at
www.myspace.com/illknibbly mixtape
available from me only for now and remember Sam Goody don’t
got it but I do holla at the god 1
Dark 7 Invader: Peace,
Thanks and we build more later
Ill Knob: One!
Email
flawless0entertainment@yahoo.com to pick up the new
mixtape, or visit Ill Knob by clicking on the dollar (b)Ill
Knob to link you to the site. Also check out the official site
http://flawlessent.org/
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