McKnight’s love for music began during his youth in Buffalo, New York. His career started to gain traction when he was 17 years old. Over the past three decades, he has released 14 albums and witnessed firsthand the shift in music throughout the years.
“I think the biggest change in the industry has come with technology,” McKnight said. “Technology has changed just about every aspect of our lives. The minute you think you have something great, you’ll hear it someplace else. And now you can’t do that anymore. Now you got to figure out what that next thing is. And, for me, it’s even tougher because, if I follow what everybody else is doing, then they’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s not being himself.’ If I do what I always do, they’ll say, ‘Well, that’s just what he does.’ So, it makes it very difficult. At a certain point, I just had to say, ‘I gotta be me.’ I gotta be me and just do what I do instead of trying to follow the trend. I’ve always been proud of the fact that when I write a song, when I produce something, I don’t think anybody’s going to mistake me for somebody else.”
McKnight believes that the music industry will often group different forms of Black music together without recognizing the diversity in the style and sound.
“For me, James Brown was R&B, The Temptations were R&B, and I’ve never done any songs like that,” he explained. “I’m just another brother who’s singing, so they automatically made it something. And now when these kids are making records today, they’re calling that R&B, and they’re not doing anything like what we do. I think it does a disservice to the people who are making music that you haven’t decided to call it something different, and you’re trying to make it and compare it to Marvin Gaye. But you can’t compare nothing to Marvin Gaye. With jazz over the years, there was bebop and smooth jazz. But with R&B, it’s just always R&B.”
At this point, McKnight could possibly have his own genre of music. With his latest album, Exodus, McKnight revealed that it would likely be his final studio project. He now wants to focus on continuing to find happiness with the woman of his dreams and live the words he expressed so eloquently in song.
“Every day I’m trying to be better, trying to figure out if I can write the perfect song,” McKnight said. “I’m not sure if I think I’ve done it this time, but you just never know where this life is going to take you. I’ve done this for over 30 years because I got signed when I was 17, and it’s been quite a ride. It’s been really, really great.”
Story by A.R. Shaw
Photos courtesy of The Sono Recording Group
