Expat Tampa rapper ?nowledge is back home and shares redemptive new LP at Friday release show

?nowledge Credit: Courtesy After nine years away, Tampa rap scene expat Elgin Cintron is back home fresh off releasing Higher Ground, his first new LP in 10 years. The album’s title is a nod to Hurricane Ida, which flooded the New Jersey home he shared with his wife and destroyed his studio. “The trauma of having to escape through chest high waters to get to safety along with the shell shock of losing everything I ever owned in the blink of an eye really put me in a musical funk for a few years following the flood,” Cintron, better known as ?nowledge, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, adding that it took awhile for him to start creating again since he lost two brothers and his dad over the last five years, too. “The album really takes people on the rollercoaster ride of my life since the last project I put out while keeping the theme hopeful and redemptive.” The record is rife with collaborations, including some with Tampa emcee Rahim Samad, beatsmith Sponatola, and Cintron’s n