HardKnoxx

On March 18, 1983, HardKnoxx was born in the village of Sefadu in Sierra Leone, a country on the western coast of Africa. He is the son of Kumba and Fatoma Kpakiwa, and the brother to five sisters and two brothers. The youngest of his sisters, Bondu, passed away at a very young age from what was believed to be yellow fever. Knoxx began to walk on the day Bondu passed away, at a very late two years of age. He dislikes his inability to remember anything about her, but feels a high spiritual connection between them, a connection that keeps him inspired. *At the age of four, he, his mother and his two brothers moved to a hostel in Freetown while his father and remaining sisters moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Although he doesn’t have many memories of having a childhood, his happiest ones are spending time at the beaches in Freetown. His family finally reunited in the summer of 1991 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. *Knoxx’s diverse personality comes from the environment in which he grew up in. Living in a rough part of Harrisburg, Knoxx saw the gritty, poverty stricken street side of life. However, attending private Catholic schools provided him with the insight to the typical suburban American family side of life. Not only does Knoxx’s distinct personality come from the viewing of outside influences, it also comes from a closer source. His mother and father’s family beliefs are very different from one another. His mother never went to school, except for a few workshops here in Pennsylvania. She has always been a hardworking woman. She came from a very tight-knit and loving family. His mother is very humble and while keeping her traditional standards she can be flexible to change. His father, on the other hand, is very stern on education and sees it as a first priority. His father’s family has always been competitive within itself. His father is very proud and extremely traditional, making him very stubborn to change. *Knoxx started school in the fourth grade at Ben Franklin. He was held back in fifth grade and repeated the grade at Holy Name in the same class as his brother Steven. This was a curse and a blessing at the same time. A curse because kids were always teasing him for being held back, but a blessing because being in the same class as Steven helped him get through his first few years of school. Knoxx attended high school and graduated in 2003 from Bishop McDevitt. *Knoxx started writing in the sixth grade. At this time, he wasn’t sure why he was writing and he certainly wasn’t into hip-hop, but he continued writing without direction. It wasn’t until he heard DMX’s Ruff Ryders Anthem in his cousin Matt’s car that he understood hip-hop and realized it was something he could do. Knoxx loved how different DMX sounded and admired how X was so raw, honest and always gave his all. After this realization, Knoxx started writing every day. *Since that time, Knoxx has evolved from trying to be like DMX to using the essential elements of DMX with his own words, talents, passions and thoughts. More recently, Knoxx made the decision not to go to college (a tough decision to make in his family) and has been working at the Hilton to put his own studio together in his girlfriend Tricia’s house. Tricia is his co-producer and engineer. He has stopped rapping to instrumentals and began producing all his own music and music for Miss O. *Knoxx finds hip-hop to be one of the most beautiful art forms ever because it can save lives, but also believes that the current state of hip-hop needs change. He feels that the majority of the biggest names representing hip-hop have lost the true meaning of hip-hop. Knoxx says, “People need to stop caring so much about money because hip-hop didn’t come from money. People just need to go back to when it [hip-hop] made them feel good and set them apart from everyone else.” *Knoxx’s goal is to get people to realize that you can be an individual in hip-hop, and that “individuality and originality is a must for hip-hop to survive.” Knoxx also wants people to understand that “you don’t need to be a thug or a gangsta or run the streets to be able to express yourself on the mic.”