The Punch You Shouldn’t Feel

Schoolboy Q featuring Lance Skiiiwalker “Kno Ya Wrong”

“Kno Ya Wrong” has a diptych structure with a shift in tone so strong that it’s easy to forget the first half was in the same song once you’re deep into the second half. I favor the first part, actually – I’m a sucker for piano loops in hip-hop songs, and I like the feel of Schoolboy Q’s raspy semi-sung verse. But that shift is well-executed and the second half has a strange resonance that lifts the entire composition out of fairly conventional rap into a zone that feels less explored. There’s a really bleak sort of funk in that phase, like George Clinton music that’s a bit dilapidated and knocked slightly out of synch. I like the way it feels like entering a place that’s unfamiliar and alien, but totally familiar to the vocalists on the track.

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