We’ve got a lot of enthusiasm for the Savannah-based rapper Dope Knife. He impressed us with last year’s album Things Got Worse, an impressive collection of dark beats and darker rhymes. So when The Dope One offered to break down his newest release, we quickly said yes. It’s a collection of seeds and stems from the past few years, but it ain’t no lesser material. It’s a perfect introduction to the talented young man, and for those already in the know, it’s a nice little snack to tide you over between that and his next release, a reissue of his debut album Iconoclast, out later this year.
Purchase Breakbeats n’ Vandalism: Bandcamp
A Million. Blue Collar is one of my longest friends and also a member of the rap crew I came up in, Dope Sandwich. He got out of the game for a while but when he started making beats again he played a few for me when i was on tour and i had to write to it. It’s just an upbeat joint for me, a nice change of pace.
Art of the Blind. This track came together by fate, I guess. My homies in team Aphillion constantly cook up joints, and I jumped on this one. Next thing you know a few years go by and i get a text “hey Stic is on that song you did”. So i did a song with Stic from Dead Prez.
Face Fuck. This beat sat in my for sale folder for the longest time, but I always felt like it was up my alley of shit I would rap on. While I was getting things in order for a Vinyl re-press of my album Iconoclast i listened to it for the first time in years, and heard the story song i had on there. it’s CRACK. So it all clicked and inspired me to weave a new story over this beat i’d been sitting on.
Squadron Supreme. Eze Jackson is a hell of a guy, and a dope ass Baltimore MC and friend. We whipped this one up not too long after meeting for the first time. It just kinda sat around as a “Joint” that didn’t have a home. Until now.
Make it Dope. I remember I made this beat specifically for a rapper who commissioned it. I was all proud of myself cause I always make my beats for myself to rap over, but this one I molded for this rappers style and yada yada. But he didn’t like it. He was like, I can’t make anything dope to this, can i get another one? I said no, gave him his money back and made something dope out of the rejected beat.
The Message: Dana is another of my long time brother in rhyme. And Me and Charley Cooks worked on a whole project as he produced all of “Iconoclast”. However in the 14 or so years me and Dana have known each we never rapped on the same song. So this has a special place as our first collab…the feels.
Life in Bottles. Paul Abdul, one of his many producer aliases, hit me up on Soundcloud about working together. I heard this joint on his page and wrote to it. This ended up spawning another project that we did completely produced by him, But that’s for later.
The Recoup 
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