Spring Break
The Knux: 'Remind Me in 3 Days...'
Kim Pavlicek
Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: The Edge
Brothers Krispy Kream and Rah Al Millio make up the new hip-hop duo The Knux (pronounced "nooks"). Interscope Records have hyped the group for months to the magazine companies.
A year ago, they debuted to the public as the opening act for Common and since have been called "the next big thing," the "hip-hop debut of the year" and beginners of a brand new genre of rap called "alternative rap."
Their debut album, "Remind Me In 3 Days...," features 18 tracks. Some are fun, some have a meaning.
The brothers are originally from New Orleans, but after Hurricane Katrina, they left the gulf and headed for Los Angeles. The transition was strange for them, and had a strong effect on their music.
Songs relating to dark days in the underbelly of the Creole city are "Shine Down," or "The True," showing how hard times make you cold with the lyric, "It's white or it's black, it can't be grey, that's a matter of fact."
But there are also songs mocking the L.A. lifestyle they've become acclimated to, like the critical hit "Cappuccino" and "Daddy's Little Girl," which sounds like a song mocking any well-off suburban princess from the Chicago-area, making it relatable in that sense.
Songs are catchy and, for the most part, memorable, but one is led to wonder if the music industry is taking too many liberties in their flattering remarks.
The brothers are distinctive for most of the album because they play their own instruments, obviously characteristic of their New Orleans background and its respect to instrumental talent. The guitar riffs are lyrical and driven like that of The Hives, and sometimes almost fuzzed out to sound vintage, like an old vinyl album being heard through blown speakers.
Original is a hard way to describe them. If anything, they are the first combination of their kind, at least that's gotten any recognition. The vocals of Krispy are fast, furious, gruff and confusing the first five times when compared to some like legends Busta Rhymes and Outkast's Big Boi. Rah Al Millio rhymes like silk with a sound similar to early Common or Lupe's slow-flow, although they call out that they are rappers that skate but don't make skate raps, which sounds almost antagonistically directed to Lupe.
Their song topics have such a vast range that the album seems like a combination of artists we already know, like Ludacris and Outkast. There are innocent songs like "Cappuccino," but the song "Hush," and much of the album, is so vulgar it belongs with Three 6 Mafia's "Slob On My Knob" or Eminem's "Superman."
The fact is the group will probably be making a mainstream transition in the near future. The hype agrees they should, and the music is definitely friendly, catchy and danceable, with choruses that are easy to sing along with and messages that will be popular in the bars.
However, their status as "the next big thing" remains to be seen.
A year ago, they debuted to the public as the opening act for Common and since have been called "the next big thing," the "hip-hop debut of the year" and beginners of a brand new genre of rap called "alternative rap."
Their debut album, "Remind Me In 3 Days...," features 18 tracks. Some are fun, some have a meaning.
The brothers are originally from New Orleans, but after Hurricane Katrina, they left the gulf and headed for Los Angeles. The transition was strange for them, and had a strong effect on their music.
Songs relating to dark days in the underbelly of the Creole city are "Shine Down," or "The True," showing how hard times make you cold with the lyric, "It's white or it's black, it can't be grey, that's a matter of fact."
But there are also songs mocking the L.A. lifestyle they've become acclimated to, like the critical hit "Cappuccino" and "Daddy's Little Girl," which sounds like a song mocking any well-off suburban princess from the Chicago-area, making it relatable in that sense.
Songs are catchy and, for the most part, memorable, but one is led to wonder if the music industry is taking too many liberties in their flattering remarks.
The brothers are distinctive for most of the album because they play their own instruments, obviously characteristic of their New Orleans background and its respect to instrumental talent. The guitar riffs are lyrical and driven like that of The Hives, and sometimes almost fuzzed out to sound vintage, like an old vinyl album being heard through blown speakers.
Original is a hard way to describe them. If anything, they are the first combination of their kind, at least that's gotten any recognition. The vocals of Krispy are fast, furious, gruff and confusing the first five times when compared to some like legends Busta Rhymes and Outkast's Big Boi. Rah Al Millio rhymes like silk with a sound similar to early Common or Lupe's slow-flow, although they call out that they are rappers that skate but don't make skate raps, which sounds almost antagonistically directed to Lupe.
Their song topics have such a vast range that the album seems like a combination of artists we already know, like Ludacris and Outkast. There are innocent songs like "Cappuccino," but the song "Hush," and much of the album, is so vulgar it belongs with Three 6 Mafia's "Slob On My Knob" or Eminem's "Superman."
The fact is the group will probably be making a mainstream transition in the near future. The hype agrees they should, and the music is definitely friendly, catchy and danceable, with choruses that are easy to sing along with and messages that will be popular in the bars.
However, their status as "the next big thing" remains to be seen.
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