In December 2020, Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge performed at the Double Happiness festival. The show was live and the artists were isolated with no audience except for the camera crew. “I hate it, bro. I want the people, I want the sweat,” Paak joked. But NxWorries squeezed plenty of fun out of their barely 10-minute set. His most impressive moment was directly on their second album, Why Lawd? “Stop playing with my boy Knxwledge,” Paak croons in resonant vocals, showcasing early single “Where I Go,” a smooth jam that channels early 2000s Monica and Knx in equal measure. WrapTypes series. When the clip appears on the album version, it sounds majestic yet humble. Paak and Knx have toured the world, sold out arenas and worked with many larger than life collaborators. But this stripped-down rendition of “Where I Go” contains both the intimacy of a dodgy date and the focused performance of a band ready to sell out a 10,000-person venue.
NxWorries debut in 2016, Yes Lod! it was as carefree as a new mack daddy rap&B album could be. The heavy pounding of Knxwledge's grueling backlog of beat tapes paired well with Paak's ringing croon-raps, somewhere between Joe Tex and Black Dynamite with a taste for vegan sausage. Eight years later, with higher individual profiles, how would NxWorries regain that Air Force luster of patent leather? The luxurious Why Lawd? it not only succeeds, but expands their vision. The beats are more ambitious, the lyrics more contemplative about affection, rejection and bliss. They sound as infatuated with love and loss as they are with future joys and sorrows just over the horizon.
Yes Lod! came to party and dash, but Why Lawd? takes a slightly more developed approach. First proper track “86Sentra” begins as usual, with Paak dangling used cars in front of love interests and rapping about playing the Super Bowl over an ominous organ. In “MoveOn”, he reflects on the pain he himself has suffered by living recklessly. Then, as if testing that insight, “KeepHer” fleshes out the story of an ex-wife determined to ditch his bullshit for a new lover, no matter how much money he throws at her. “She don't love you like I—/You don't look good in that Hyundai,” he says, before begging her for goodbye sex in the next verse. It's satisfying to see his slimeball charm turned against him: Paak is rarely, if ever, on the receiving end of a breakup song.
