Kirk Knight

Serving as the musical director and foundational force behind the Pro Era crew, Brooklyn rapper and producer Kirk Knight merges classic hip-hop drive with an inventive futuristic edge, crafting tracks defined by shadowy, atmospheric textures and relaxed flows that drift from isolated R&B into brooding, self-reflective verses. He built his reputation through multi-platinum recordings for Smoke DZA and A$AP Ferg prior to issuing his own material, including the 2021 release After Dark.

Born Kirlan Labarrie, he began writing rhymes and crafting beats as a young teenager. A chance meeting with Joey Bada$$ opened the door to Pro Era membership. In addition to his work inside the collective, Knight accumulated credits alongside Statik Selektah, Lee Bannon, and Smoke DZA, plus Bada$$, for whom the track “Big Dusty” marked an early breakthrough. After signing with Cinematic Music Group in October 2015, he dropped Late Night Special, handling production or co-production duties on every song; guest spots came from Bada$$, Noname Gypsy, and Thundercat, and the project entered Billboard’s rap chart at number 24. He kept supplying beats for Joey Bada$$, CJ Fly, Nick @ Knight, and additional artists while developing his own catalog. In 2017 the instrumental for A$AP Ferg’s “Plain Jane” became a major success, eventually earning seven-times platinum status and raising Knight’s visibility ahead of further solo work.

His late-2018 album IIWII merged introspective R&B elements with trap production, after which he joined longtime associates Flatbush Zombies for a European tour. After Dark arrived as his next studio effort in 2021. Alongside ongoing production duties, he issued fresh material in 2023, including the synthetic-trap cuts “Wired” and “Import Export.”