East Coast 2006 IAR Winner: Knotz
Rapping for the love of music, not the bling
By Josh Bashara

This edition of the Music Phone Book is proud to announce Knotz as winner of the 2006 East Coast Independent Artist Registry. Out of all the entries received this year, dozens of unsigned artists proved themselves highly talented, although Knotz ultimately fought its way to the top. Taking the crown as one of the best indie hip-hop groups we’ve seen, Knotz exemplify both superior musical talent and the drive it takes to succeed as an unsigned artist.

Drawing from the bone-crunching sound of gansta rap and the lyrical mastery of old-school hip-hop, Knotz’s sound is tough to pin down. The group’s discography includes an eclectic variety of songs, from club-pounding assaults to laid-back rhymes. The popular track “Bon Voyage” (which received regular airplay in the Top 15 hits at BandRadioLive.com) mixes a silky-smooth rap with reggae-inspired hooks. Another popular track, “Gunz Up,” raps about street loyalty over Dre-worthy samples and a head-bobbing beat, also displaying an impressive vocal hook.

Generally speaking, it’s Knotz’s label-worthy production polish and raw lyrical talent that separate this group from the rest. After hearing just a few tracks, any hip-hop aficionado would find it no surprise that Knotz have enjoyed airplay on 47 underground and college radio stations throughout the United States and Canada. The group’s sound is as solid as lead: perfect stuff to pound out of 12-inch subs in the trunk, while still enjoying an imposing midrange vocal fluidity.

Hailing from Bushkill, Penn., Knotz consist of Reck the DreadChild (Kareem Parkins), Megaton the Mad Bantu (Jelani Parkins) and Aswad Mikal the General Assassin (Gyasi Parkins)—all three of whom are brothers. Mikal (Gyasi Parkins) explains they grew up in New Jersey with two musically-orients parents, something he attributes a lot of their musical career to. He says their mother was in a band and continued to play wood wind instruments into adulthood, and their father was always into dance hall and other reggae music.

“Our parents put themselves through college and both held jobs to get us into a better life,” Mikal says of their childhood. “While we were here in the 80s and early 90s, we started rappin. Reck and I used to battle each other while Mega would be the DJ on the cassette player. After years of this, our parents realized we had talent and we recorded our first track in a studio, called ‘Who Got the Melody.’”

Because of their shared interest in making music growing up, it came logically to the brothers to form their own group.

“We have so much in common that it just happened that way,” Mikal admits. “I don’t even know if it’s common to have three brothers that are good at the same thing, much less to have three brothers good at rap. We even have a little sister (Najwa Parkins) who sings, and she will be on our new album.”

Although he believes his parents to be he and his brothers’ biggest musical influence throughout the years, Mikal says musicians like Super Cat, Peter Tosh, Ninja Man and a lot of Jamaican artists played a vital role in their early development. Later, the brothers were inspired by modern hip-hop artists like KRS-One, Rakim, Public Enemy, Red Man, Wu Tang, Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr and Boot Camp.

“I feel like we are influenced by all [forms of rap] except bling,” Mikal says. “I call all forms of rap hip-hop because rap is an art that lives inside of hip-hop, which is a lifestyle. Bling is fine—we like jewels and cars as much as the next man, but it doesn’t define us. We spit for the masses, and the masses will never be able to relate to having big rims, platinum chains and grills and money that never ends. Most of those people saying that don’t have those things. That’s a problem, because we are about truth and teaching. We won’t say it if it is not true.”

Despite Knotz’s harsh and aggressive lyrical themes, Mikal says there’s a reason behind those lyrics, which is to put an end to the seemingly perpetual, viscous circle that many urban kids face today. As opposed to money-obsessed hip-hop, gangsta rap shows a very different light at the end of the tunnel.

“People listen to you more than you think,” he says. “What are these kids who can’t rap gonna have to do to get that [bling] lifestyle? We’ll stick to gansta rap because behind it there is a message—‘Don’t live this life, this is what it got me.’”

“People listen to you more than you think,” he says. “What are these kids who can’t rap gonna have to do to get that [bling] lifestyle? We’ll stick to gansta rap because behind it there is a message—‘Don’t live this life, this is what it got me.’”

Mikal would like to earn big money from rapping as much as the next guy, but when it comes down it, he admits Knotz have actually spent more cash than they’ve earned trying to get their music out.

“We do music because it’s in us,” he says. “Music makes us happy and we can share our talent, knowledge and opinions with many people at once—to anyone willing to listen—and that’s something most people will never be able to do. Can you imagine a world without music? From the beginning, people have been doing it with no real reason except it makes them happy.”

For more info on Knotz, or to listen to some of the group’s music online, visit its official website at DamaliMusik.com, or check out IndependentArtistRegistry.com.

Q&A with Knotz Aswad Mikal