Knxwledge - Hud Dreems

Like Anthology, Hud Dreems is a smaller and more refined collection of expansive work from Knxwledge. Without question one of the greatest and most influential beatmakers at least of the 2010s, this man would have inspired up-and-coming bedroom producers in the same way that pre-Knxwledge GOATs like Dilla and Madlib would’ve inspired him. This was one of the first instrumental hiphop projects I was obsessed with back in high school, sparking a love of three elements in tapes I still adore to this day. Knx’s ear for samples is incredible, pulling and flipping everything from a traditional deep soul groove to the Aussie Wide World of Sports theme. I feel like he places his drums in just the right place without ever feeling mechanical, but takes just enough risks to where I pick up on an odd bit of percussion I’d never realised before, so many dozens of times after my first listen. And lastly, in a way that I think this project really excels in, Hud Dreems holds a cohesion where I’ll always expect the next beat in the tracklist to play even if I’m listening to the tracks individually. I don’t even know how many hundreds of tapes Knxwledge would’ve dropped over the past 15+ years, but this one has to be the magnum opus and the one I always come back to - the self portrait of a living beatmaking legend and one of my favourite beat tapes of all time.

KEY BEAT: letuleave.[geekdop] - it sounds corny but the second half of this track always felt like riding a carousel after the tab’s kicked in. Also later found out that he pulled the voxes from YG’s interview with Nardwuar which is so sick.