Profile // ‘The Ballad of Kuf and Christine’
A hip hop artist and a harpist wander and wonder at America
by A.D. Amorosi
Photo by Gina Dominica
EXCERPT //
If ever a wordsmith contained the qualities of the ferocious and the sublime, matched by an always finessed feel for the communal, it is Philadelphia’s Kuf Knotz.
Continuously and smartly seeking out the potential of the shared experience since his start in hip hop in the mid-2000s, which led to the release of 2010’s Boombox Logic, Knotz has shown a knack for seamlessly stringing together disparate musical genres and lyrical propositions for a common good. Consider that this is the same rapper-poet who not only co-wrote an official team anthem for the Philadelphia Phillies (“Unstoppable”), but worked, too, in collaboration with the first university student-run record label in the United States, Drexel U’s Mad Dragon.
To then team-up with local music therapist and harpist Christine Elise—with whom he co-founded a community outreach performance project for old-age homes, hospitals, and schools, HG Music LLC—is but one more show of union, as fierce and interactive as it is transcendent. Together with a live touring relationship that has kept the twosome on the road (with several amusing road tales to show for it), Knotz’s relationship with Elise, both in their mid-30s, has yielded an elegantly soulful, classical/hip hop hybrid, Kəˈmyo͞onədē—community—which is stirring in its display of healing-filled serenity and crusty funk.
Elise says she was wowed by Knotz’s positive expression and good lyrical vibes when they met at a 2017 fundraising event for the Philadelphia-based Beyond Bars—a nonprofit music and skills program for people affected by incarceration and violence—where the rapper performed.
Elise, honing in on Knotz’s polarity and zeal, says, “I remember telling a fellow board member that night that if I was ever in a band, I’d like it to be like that.”
The harpist got that opportunity upon a chance meeting with the rapper during a run-in at a Wynnewood supermarket, where she offered her services. “If you ever need a harpist...” she said, and Knotz took Elise up on her word not long after. //
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