NxWorries appeared in early 2015 on Stones Throw with "Suede."
Knxwledge provided the dazed production, its beat a clipped gait --
Gil Scott-Heron/
Brian Jackson's "The Bottle" stretched and dragged to support
Anderson Paak's freewheeling vehicular exhibition and macking seminar.
Dr. Dre then sought
Paak for extensive work on
Compton, while the rising
Knxwledge produced "Momma" on
To Pimp a Butterfly and released a Stones Throw album. As
Paak and
Knxwledge sustained their prominence with separate collaborative and solo work, their activity as a unit gradually escalated to this full-length, released during the fourth quarter of 2016. It includes "Suede," two other cuts from an EP originally released as a download in late 2015, and 40 additional minutes of keenly bent and smudged soul loops. Though
Paak is an accomplished musician and bandleader, as seen throughout 2016 in several televised performances to promote
Malibu, he sticks strictly to singing and rapping, leaving
Knxwledge to handle all the music. Reflective of their collaborative alias,
Paak doesn't sound particularly bothered, apart from some irritation related in "H.A.N.," a deflection of leeches and critics, and some serious concerns and confessions within the supremely dreamy "Khadijah." Otherwise, he keeps it lighthearted as an irrepressible rolling stone. Audibly and lyrically coarse, he rarely sounds less than entirely self-satisfied and at least a little amused, whether he's dealing out wisecracking wordplay or quoting
J Dilla as he deftly coasts over and darts between the beats. If not quite as substantive as
Malibu, this is one of those albums that can be played continuously without risk of depreciation.
Knxwledge and
Paak are so occupied with other pursuits that this seems destined to take its place in the Stones Throw discography as one of the label's fine twosome one-offs in the manner of Madvillainy and Champion Sound. ~ Andy Kellman