Known (by those who know) as probably the top off the head/freestyle emcee/rapper from Canada and mentioned by some to be Canada's only good life level/next level emcee-known for being hyper lyrical, stylistic, unpredictable and well rounded. Using multiple rhyme styles on his albums and even singing on hooks as well as employing a wide array of unique rhyme schemes, advanced wordplay creativity, extended vocabulary, and even some stream of consciousness- not conforming to any structure on a few songs. Knowself was always the emcee doing off the heads everywhere- all the time as it was a habit by the time he was 15 and everywhere he did off the heads -he dominated easily throughout the years. He displayed his skills at his live shows, radio appearances (triple bypass), endless ciphers, battles, recorded off the heads with original beats and rapping everywhere with his crew. Knowself started rapping in 1990 and made numerous pause tape (cassette loops of other peoples beats) albums/Ep's between 1991 and 1996 as well as tracks with his own beats between 1993 and 1996. He reached out to Buck 65 in 1996 and showed him a verse or 2 and Buck decided to put him on. Became good friends with Buck 65 and Sixtoo in '96, '97, learned a lot from them and began working on material with them. Also became good friends with Tachichi in 1997 when they were sitting in/co-hosting Buck 65's Treatment program weekly (for about a year) on CKDU college radio in Halifax in '97/'98 and would talk about emceeing and rappers non stop. Knowself met DJ Moves in spring of 1997 and they started working on their Pseudo freedom album soon after, just as Moves and Maxwell (Josh Martinez) were finishing up Maxwell's debut EP .When DJ Moves moved to Toronto In late 1998 to work with Len, Knowself made the move also but was not able to stay due to low wealth (lol) but was happy to be a part of that scene for a couple months and get to know new good people. In 1999 Knowself began working with Ginzu3, Jesse Dangerously, Skratch Basitd and Cee for his 2nd project which was almost never released but contains a bunch of important tracks. Also in '99 was when Knowself started visiting Sixtoo's Triple bypass online radio show where Knowself would drop numerous off the heads alongside Tachichi, Kunga 219, Sole, Sage Francis, Adeem, JD walker, etc. In 2000 Skratch Bastid asked Knowself to be a judge (along with Shingai and Deidris) in a historic emcee battle he hosted in Halifax, stating that you might as well be a judge cause you would defeat every emcee in the battle obviously. Sole of Anticon (in 2000) had also offered Knowself a deal that included Knowself moving out to Oakland to live with Anticon and record and release projects but Knowself was not ready for such a huge change. That same year Knowself opened up for Choclair and Kardinall offishall alongside DJ Moves, Tachichi, The Goods etc. Also in late 1999/2000 Knowself began to record his 3rd album Aleph with Smoke Dogg, a childhood friend and that process produced some of his best songs with Skratch Bastid doing the scratches/turntable trickery on 8 songs including the 5 minute scratch heavy album intro. In 2025 Knowself DJ's at home in his spare time, still listens to golden era rap non stop and does his auto/random off the heads everyday and has only advanced but has little time for recording as he is raising his 3 kids and running a small business. -Those days ('96 to 2002) were amazing and we achieved/grew so much together- all of the Halifax scene. It means a lot to me. I basically disappeared from the rap scene after 2004 but that's OK-I'd rather be a big bang than a slowly dying star. It's not having super longevity and being prolific that matters the most- it's about the quality of what you offered up. Some rappers do 20 albums that all sound very similar- using the same rhyme scheme, same subject matter and style non stop- I was never about that. I broke a lot of ground and that's what I wanted to do for hip-hop- offer some new different, original stuff that added something unique and enriching to rap. I made my mark and then some. -Knowself (2025) (article by SAS-2025/edited by Knowself)