ROCKWELL KNUCKLES - Artist Profile

Real name: Corey Barnett
Born: 1982 or 1983
City: St. Louis, MO

Image source: Bandcamp

Rockwell Knuckles was born in north St. Louis, MO, and attended high school at Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School, a private Roman Catholic high school in St. Louis. Rockwell began rapping at a young age, and chose his current rap name after a bus stop fight, where he was complemented on his "rocky knuckles" after punching a student who was bullying him. Realizing that most St. Louis rappers took named ending in "-y" (Nelly, Chingy, Murphy Lee, etc.) he altered the name from Rocky to Rockwell, as in "What do I do? I rock. I rock well."

After high school, Rockwell briefly attended Harris-Stowe State University, an HBCU in St. Louis, but dropped out to pursue music, joining a rap group called Pangea. However, by 2003 the group had broken up, leading Rockwell to move to Los Angeles, where he joined a production crew known as Art Thugs. A July 2004 house fire that would claim everything he owned led him to branch out on his own for a solo career. He released his first mixtape, The New Standard, in 2005, and his first album, Northside Phenomenon, in 2007. His music gained him a buzz that would lead to recognition from the St. Louis publication Riverfront Times and eventually a gig performing at SXSW in 2010, alongside the likes of Lupe Fiasco, Big K.R.I.T., and J. Cole. Reviewing his performance, Uproxx predicted that he, along with Yelawolf, would see a major career boost from his SXSW performance.


Rockwell has since landed a song on the International Freeski Film Festival Award-winning soundtrack to the film One For the Road. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Solo Discography
"New Standard" (mixtape), 2005
Northside Phenomenon, 2007
Choose Your Own Adventure, 2010
You're Fucking Out I'm Fucking In, 2011
Take Me To Your Leader, 2017
It's All Happening, 2017

GUEST APPEARANCES

• 
  2007
• "Her Perfume She Wore," Black Spade feat. Rockwell Knuckles and Wafeek (To Serve With Love)
  2008
• "Charity Case," Vandalyzm feat. Rockwell Knuckles (Megatron Majorz)
  2010
• "Breakthrough," Black Spade feat. Rockwell Knuckles and Vic Mensa (Build & Destroy)
• "Words of a Hustle," Family Affair feat. Rockwell Knuckles (Welcome To the Underground)
• "Collage," Hawthorne Headhunters feat. Rockwell Knuckles and Tef Poe (Myriad of Now)
• "Anomaly," Nato Caliph feat. Family Affair, Indiana Rome, Kyjuan, Rockwell Knuckles, and Tef Poe (Knowledge Cipher)
• "Bad Guy," Tef Poe feat. Rockwell Knuckles (Money Never $leep$)
• "U Should Know By Now," Tef Poe feat. Rockwell Knuckles (Money Never $leep$)
• "Crazy," Tef Poe feat. Rockwell Knuckles and Theresa Payne (War Machine)
• "Fire Sale," Tef Poe feat. Rockwell Knuckles (War Machine)
• "Bouncing," Tef Poe feat. Rockwell Knuckles and Theresa Payne (War Machine)
  2011
• "The Force," Black Spade feat. CJ Conrad, LaMar Harris, and Rockwell Knuckles (The Sweetest Revenge)
  2012
• "C4," Fresh Daily feat. Rockwell Knuckles (The Brooklyn Good Guy)
• "Collage," Hawthorne Headhunters feat. Rockwell Knuckles and Tef Poe (Myriad of Now)
• "Trust No One," Tef Poe feat. Rockwell Knuckles (War Machine II)
• "Nervous (Shook Ones)," Tef Poe feat. Rockwell Knuckles (War Machine II)
• "Machine," Tef Poe feat. Rockwell Knuckles (War Machine II)
• "The Beginning," Urbz feat. Obviously Offbeat and Rockwell Knuckles (First Contact)
  2013
• "Holding On," Nato Caliph feat. Rockwell Knuckles (Understanding Understood)
• "Rushmore," Rekstizzy feat. Quelle Chris, Rockwell Knuckles, and T. Shirt (Whatever You Say)
  2014
• "World End," Indiana Rome feat. Family Affair and Rockwell Knuckles (Dope Dealer)
• "Coming Home," Sean Falyon feat. Rockwell Knuckles and Theresa Payne (#IDSBIC)
• "Hog In the Lane," Tef Poe x Burn One feat. Rockwell Knuckles (Cheer For the Villain)
• "King In My Own Mind," Tef Poe x Burn One feat. GLC, Reggie B, and Rockwell Knuckles (Cheer For the Villain)
  2016
• "VIII," Adult Fur feat. Rockwell Knuckles and Sixela Yoccm (Innernette, Vol. 1)
• "It's a Beautiful Life," Guido Elmi feat. Rockwell Knuckles (La Mia Legge)
• "Get My Heart Back," Theresa Payne feat. Rockwell Knuckles (Get My Heart Back)
  2017
• "Bring Me Down," Tef Poe feat. Rockwell Knuckles (Black Julian)
  2019
• "Urgent, Important, Please Read," DJ Shadow feat. Daemon, Rockwell Knuckles, and Tef Poe (Our Pathetic Age)

"NEW STANDARD"

Released: 2005

Label: Mech Ind.

TRACK LIST
1. What2say

2. Greetings

3. Waiting On U

4. 4eva & a Day

5. Spread It Around

6. People!

7. Follow My Lead

8. Get-a-Way

9. Momoco

10. $4 (feat. Represent and SinSenatti)

11. Gooday

12. Benchpress Flow

13. B-EZ (feat. SinSenatti)

14. A'ightthen

15. Brothaman...

16. Red Story (feat. Represent)

17. Rocky

18. Actlikeaho!

19. Roses R Red

20. Yes

21. Grand Tarantino

22. Heaven Was Hell (feat. Wafeek)

23. No Bounds

24. Finer Points (feat. Tef Poe)

25. Peak Minutes

26. N the Streets

27. Glaze

28. Rockwell This...

29. Only Me

NORTHSIDE PHENOMENON

Released: 2007

Label: F5 Records

TRACK LIST

1. Northside Phenomenon
2. LiveWire

3. The Tomorrow People (feat. Family Affair)

4. Wasted

5. Reign's Comin' Down

6. Hello Morning (feat. Phillippe and Seymour Liberty)

7. Life's a Test

8. Top o the World (feat. Black Spade and Cleopatra Jones)
9. Watch the Streets (feat. Sinse)

10. On My Way (feat. Phillippe and Thunder)

11. Who R You

12. Leave Us Alone (feat. Gotta B Karim and Kash)

13. Show No Fear

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

Released: March 1, 2010

TRACK LIST

1. Chapter Zero: Kids Love Clowns

2. Choose Your Own Adventure

3. Holograms

4. Government Name

5. Shooting Star

6. Wish You Were Here

7. Bad Guy

8. Sorta Invincible

9. Hero For Hire

10. Hell Is Repetition

11. Messages

12. No Sympathy

13. Relax Your Mind

14. Center of Attention

15. 2 Go 2 Far

YOU'RE FUCKING OUT I'M FUCKING IN

Released: March 1, 2011

TRACK LIST

1. Bullet Train Army

2. Silly Human

3. Play Catch

4. Baking Soda

5. Point of No Return

6. Unstoppable

7. Intergalactic

8. Motto of Today

9. You Got It

10. Nomanisan Island

11. Controlled

12. Every Angle

13. Natural Born Leader

TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER
Released: August 15, 2017

TRACK LIST
1. Take Me To Your Leader (Intro)
2. Take Me To Your Leader, Pt. 2
3. Just a Blur
4. Helmet
5. All Aboard (feat. Dharma Jean and World Famous Tony Williams)
6. Microwave Generation (feat. Theresa Payne)
7. Stranded (feat. GLC and Tef Poe)
8. Underhanded Plan
9. Left For Good
10. Pouring Rain (feat. World Famous Tony Williams)
11. On the Road/Wonderful Face
12. Gone With the Wind (feat. Tef Poe)

IT'S ALL HAPPENING
Released: August 15, 2017

TRACK LIST
1. The Ones That Knock (feat. Nick Menn)
2. Morning Light
3. I Shall Devour (feat. Corey Black)
4. Won't Forget
5. Her Other Favorite Song (feat. Bo Dean)
6. Broken Mirrors (feat. Nick Menn and RT-Faq)
7. Holy Ground
8. Just Livin' (feat. Family Affair and Tef Poe)
9. In For the Kill
10. The Orange Glow
11. DSB (feat. Indiana Rome and Saint Oeaux)

For Rockwell Knuckles's music with Pangea, see the page for that group.