NxWorries: Why Lawd? [STONES THROW RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This Stones Throw pressing comes with a green ribbon obi and a green inner sleeve. The album won Best Progressive R&B Album at the 67th Grammy Awards, and Pitchfork singled out Knxwledge's production as some of the best of his career.

This edition

• Obi strip
• Green inner sleeve

About the album

Eight years is a long gap between records, but Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge never really went away; they just got busy. .Paak teased a new NxWorries album in 2020, singles trickled out over the next couple of years, and Why Lawd? finally landed on Stones Throw in June 2024, a week before it reached streaming.

Knxwledge builds every track out of tiny slivers of old soul records, so "Daydreaming" leans on Stanley Clarke and George Duke, "OutTheWay" borrows from Surface, and "EvnMore" closes on a Yuji Ohno loop. .Paak sings over the top with a mix of swagger and candour, and the guest list keeps things moving: H.E.R. on "Where I Go," Snoop Dogg and October London on "FromHere," Thundercat on "KeepHer," Earl Sweatshirt and Rae Khalil on "WalkOnBy," and Charlie Wilson on "NVR.RMX." Dave Chappelle opens the whole thing on "ThankU." Bernie Grundman and Mike Bozzi handled the mastering.

The duo finally took it on the road together in 2025, their first tour as NxWorries. Nineteen songs, most of them under three minutes, which makes it the rare album you can finish before the kettle does.

Also at Kops: more NxWorries on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Stones Throw (cat# STH2500), the 2024 album.