Knxwledge‘s Meek tapes have been one of the most beloved parts of his discography since he kickstarted the series in 2017. Across six volumes, the Stones Throw producer — best known for being one-half of NxWorries alongside Anderson .Paak — put his soulful, lo-fi spin on Meek Mill‘s extensive collection of early freestyles.
But sadly, the series is no more. On Sunday (January 9), Knxwledge announced he’s ending his Meek Mill remix series due to copyright strikes. It’s unclear whether the takedowns came from Meek himself or his team; in any case, Knx finds the whole thing “idiotic.”
“I’m not sure whats [sic] more idiotic. taking down music thats [sic] giving you more exposure or simply just not knowing what a fucking remix is,” he wrote on Instagram. “N-ggas really copywrite [sic] striked a corner freestyle that I had permission to flip from videographer. only reason I can think of is [because] this 1 remix got more plays than bro has in the last 10 years.”
He continued, “Either way the meek series is over [with]. Grab the tapes while you can. To all my heads keeping the raw remixes alive its [sic] only a matter of time till the art of remixing is fully dead. Be safe, get a lawyer & thanks for always listening.”
Knxwledge elaborated on the situation on his Instagram Stories, revealing he started the remix series not for clout, but because he grew up on Meek Mill’s freestyles and his verses “moved” him.
“Never thinking these would get plays I did them [because] the verses moved me I grew up on all these videos lived and went to school in Philly [with] heads from germantown south west all around philly,” he wrote.
“I always thought worst case scenario @meekmill could just use them as interludes or something. not tryna gain fame off of anytime I just wanted them to hear my pain g.”
Knxwledge also posted a GIF of Will Smith’s character from The Pursuit of Happyness holding back tears on Twitter with the caption, “i made the best meek mill album.”
As of press time, many of Knxwledge’s Meek Mill remixes are still available on YouTube (including “sameolemeek_,” which has over four million views). However, a handful of his videos have been removed, so it remains to be seen how much longer they’ll stay up.
Knxwledge’s announcement was met with sadness and shock by fans and fellow producers alike, with The Cool Kids’ Chuck Inglish reacting with, “Damnn,” while DJ Dahi wrote, “Y’all need to do a whole album.”
Music journalist Gary Suarez added, “Meek Mill (and/or the relevant lawyers) doing DMCA takedowns of Knxwledge is truly insulting and mad disrespectful to those keeping the culture going. Knx is like Dilla, Madlib, or MF DOOM — if he flips your music, you should be proud.”
Meek Mill himself has yet to respond.
Despite Dahi’s suggestion, an official Meek Mill and Knxwledge collaboration looked unlikely even before this copyright saga. Last March, the New Jersey-born beatsmith hinted at bad blood between himself and the Philadelphia rapper, presumably over his remixes.
“bless. i need a favor from y’all. when y’all see this n-gga meek tweet the words ‘i need beats’ dont @ me,” he wrote on Twitter. “idc please & thank you. lol.”
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In January 2020, Meek posted one of Knxwledge’s remixes on his Instagram, but failed to acknowledge the Stones Throw producer or his long-running series.
“Vintage meek on this wild ass old school beat. I was drawing,” he wrote along with several crying face emojis, to which Knxwledge replied with a face-palm emoji.
Meek Mill’s most recent album, Expensive Pain, arrived in October, featuring production from the likes of Boi-1da, Tay Keith and Cardo. The project debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 after earning 95,000 album-equivalent units in its first week.
Meanwhile, Knxwledge’s last solo album, 1988, arrived in 2020. In more positive news, it looks like he and Anderson .Paak are working on the follow-up to 2016’s Yes Lawd!
“We’re working on a new one,” .Paak told Zane Lowe in October 2020. “We’ve been getting it in. We’ve got a bunch of stuff that we’re really happy about.” The duo debuted a new song titled “Where I Go” later that year.
Stream Knxwledge’s MEEK.VOL6 mixtape below — while you still can.
Meek sexxxy ass be dumb as hell giving up that free promo. SMH.
Wack move. Knxwledge gave Meek a whole new audience that otherwise wouldn’t f with him.
It clearly has a buy link..Meek ain’t even getting paid for Meeks music.. idk how he in his feelings about that
yeah lil bit of a grey area in this situation.. but technically Knxwledge in the wrong for just putting em out without permission. He could release em for free on something like Mixcloud rather than selling em for money. Not sure if Knx or his team or Stones Throw reached out to Meek or his team to try to figure something out, but hopefully they can agree to something. Not a big fan of Meek, but I like Knxwledge, so I’ll check em out to hear Meek on a different style of beat than he normally rhymes on.
Knx was in touch with Meek’s videographer who did those videos who gave him permission, according to Knx. Plus shit those made no money, Meek is rich af. Lol. These early freestyles are insanely good, had no idea the man could rap until Knx put me on. Smh.