spotlight on Knef King

Author: Melissa Marshall

Knef King '08 has been hosting a WRMC hip-hop show, "Color Outside the Lines and Movemental Radio," with Des Jennings and Nora Sutton since he stepped foot on this campus. He has also been the Business Director and Hip-Hop Manager at WRMC since his sophomore year. In all his time at Middlebury, Knef has always kept hip-hop, and ways to increase its exposure, in his head.

The Middlebury Campus: How did you first get involved with the hip-hop genre?

Knef King: If I really think about it, my interest in the hip-hop genre stems from jazz. Jazz and other influences were always around me as my father was a jazz vinyl addict. My earliest memories of hip hop were Wrecks and Effects and the brand new Kris Kross CD my brother got with his way too cumbersome boom box when I was six or seven years old. The first song I ever memorized was Warren G's "Regulate" off the Above the Rim soundtrack when I was about 10 years old, but hip-hop was something around me through my friends and family. It took being isolated at boarding school for hip-hop to begin to define me; or rather for me to realize it had been such a huge influence in my life because I craved it so much as I wasn't so readily available anymore.



TC: How has it inspired you personally, and what do you hope other people will gain through exposure to it?

KK: Hip-hop has inspired me through the positive ways in which it resonates with me. I hear a lot of talk about how negative an influence can be on some people, and that can sometimes be true, but the way I was raised taught me to never conform and only follow what you believe in. Hip-hop has taught me about sacrifice, grinding hard for what you believe in no matter what, a love for everyone around me and its' true essence has most importantly brought me strength, energy when I don't have it, faith and a constant belief that real people are out there. That may be surprising to those who have a negative view of hip-hop, but they just aren't looking in the right places. I hope that other people learn the universal nature of music and good vibes that can be found in the genre. To become good at any of the four (or five depending on your outlook) elements of hip-hop, there is a scary learning curve of initial discomfort and perhaps embarrassment. However whether you are interested in DJ-ing, MCing, breaking, writing (graffiti) or beat boxing, it's your desire to let go of ego and pursue your interest at all costs that takes you further.



TC: In what ways have you tried to increase the presence of hip-hop on Campus?

KK: I always try to show people the threads of hip hop that can be found in other forms of music, politics and even simple things in day to day life like persevering through obstacles. I perform whenever I can at any kind of event possible. Opening myself up to experiences like rhyming in the library with Middlebury's Musician Guild free-styling over harmonicas with Professor of Music Peter Hamlin show different people a different side of hip hop. When I hear a saxophone playing in someone's room, I'll knock on their door and ask if I could freestyle for 45 seconds then go about my business just like I might start free-styling with friends coming back from the Grille. Hip- hop is great in so many ways, but few people get a chance to see them because it's not marketed well enough. This past weekend I promoted a show named Hip Hop Academic with an educational panel on Saturday with artists like Add 2 from Chicago, DJ P Funk from NYC, Mal from Atlanta by way of Oklahoma, K Flay from Stanford and Nap Nat of African American Project from South Side Chicago to help promote an authentic form of hip-hop with a conscience.



TC: I know you have quite the reputation as a free-style rapper. What triggered you to start free-styling? Do you have any further plans to pursue that talent?

KK:I initially started free-styling on the school bus coming home as a defense mechanism. I occasionally became a lightning rod for other people's tempers because I didn't project a nasty attitude and others felt they could try and walk over me. After a couple of scuffles and in-school suspensions through altercations I truly didn't start, I realized I could use my mind. The next time a freestyle cipher started up and the words were directed towards me, instead of simply staying quiet, I responded. I think I avoided another physical confrontation that first time simply because everyone was so surprised that the athletic, academic, do-good boy started rhyming. Free-styling to me is great, and I'll continue to try and record the better ones, but really it's just a form of expression. It's therapy for me first and foremost, but I'm just starting to realize that others appreciate my own personal stress release, so perhaps I'll continue down that lane. Lately, I've become more of a perfectionist and would like to take that free-wheeling, naturalistic rhyming element that comes from hip hop and apply it to written rhymes so I can refine some words into my dream: The Perfect Verse. That's where my head is at right now: that verse that everyone can relate to and use for inspiration or knowledge every time they listen to it.