KnowledgeBass

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I Miss Liner Notes

by Bamm // 3w ago Share

I've always enjoyed learning new things, new contexts, connecting dots, and going down rabbit holes of history or lore - both in real worlds and fantasy worlds. In regards to hip-hop, this used to be accomplished by the long forgotten liner notes that came with every CD (or tape, or vinyl) that you would purchase.

The artist, featured artists, and producers were listed on the main packaging, stickers, flyers. But that wasn't enough for me. Who mixed it? Mastered it? What studio (or studios!) was a particular song recorded at? And in what year? Were they all done in the same year at the same studio? Show me all of the publishing credits so I can decipher which one was associated with which artist. Who pressed it the albums? Who dstributed them? The liner notes were for the nerdiest of us in hip-hop, and it made for good reading (IMO) while you were listening to the sounds. That feeling of gaining insight was, as you can guess, an inspiration behind KnowledgeBass.

I get that now in the digital era, a lot of the above information has become irrelevant or even non-existant. Most of my listening today is done via DSPs, who often only care to provide surface level context. Not to mention that the culture has dealt with shifts of paradigms and perspectives on hip-hop to where most people may never be interested in these levels of detail. At least here at KnowledgeBass we can still work to create spaces that replicate those old-school feelings of diving as deep into a song or album as you possibly could.