"Knock You Out" is a song recorded by American singer

Mýa Mya Marie Harrison (; born October 10, 1979), (stylized as Mýa), is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. Born into a musical family, she studied ballet, jazz, and tap dance as a child. Initially, Mýa began her career as a VJ ...

. A collaborative effort, it was written and conceptualized by Mýa and Marsha Ambrosius utilizing boxing references as

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

s throughout the entire song, while production duties was handled by frequent collaborator Lamar "MyGuyMars" Edwards. Musically, a spacey

neo soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contempo ...

song, "Knock You Out" is described as an

Isley Brothers Isley is an English surname. The name can also be used as an anglicized variant for the German surnames Eisele and Eisler. Notable people with the surname include: *The Isley Brothers, American musical group **Ernie Isley (born 1952), American mus ...

-indebted bedroom jam with guitar licks and spaced-out vocal harmonies. Released April 13, 2018, "Knock You Out" served as the fifth single from ''TKO (The Knock Out)'' (2018).

Background

As tradition, on February 14, 2016, Mýa released her seventh studio album ''

Smoove Jones ''Smoove Jones'' is the seventh studio album by American singer Mýa. It was released exclusively through Apple Music and iTunes on February 14, 2016 by Planet 9, Harrison's label, while physical copies were made available for purchase throug ...

'' (2016) to commemorate the release of her debut single "

It's All About Me 'It's All About Me' is a song by American singer Mýa. It served as her debut single from her self-titled debut studio album and recorded as a duet with R&B singer Sisqó. A psychedelic R&B slow jam, "It's All About Me" was written and composed ...

" and eighteenth anniversary in the

entertainment industry Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have dev ...

. The release paid homage to R&B/

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

/ hip-hop with old school elements from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and was released exclusively through

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

. Critically, ''Smoove Jones'' received "generally favourable" reviews from music critics. In 2017, ''Smoove Jones'' received a nomination for Best R&B Album at the

59th Annual Grammy Awards The 59th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on February 12, 2017. The CBS network broadcast the show live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ceremony recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, ...

, which were held on February 12, 2017. Two days later, as a gift to her fans and commemorating her nineteenth anniversary, Mýa released a music video for the fan favorite "

Coolin' ''Coolin is an album by the Prestige All Stars nominally led by vibraphonist Teddy Charles recorded in 1957 and released on the Prestige label.Cohan, N.Teddy Charles discography accessed March 30, 2015 Reception Allmusic reviewed the album stati ...

." Filmed in

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

, director Matt Sharp captures the singer's unmistakable beauty while she lets her vocals do the rest on a sandy beach. In late 2017, Mýa released the first single from the forthcoming studio album, Ready for Whatever on September 22, 2017. A

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Ready for Whatever" was produced and directed by Mýa co-starring R&B singer Kevin McCall as her

love interest ''Gli Innamorati'' (, meaning "The Lovers") were stock characters within the theatre style known as commedia dell'arte, who appeared in 16th century Italy. In the plays, everything revolved around the Lovers in some regard. These dramatic and pos ...

. Less than two months, its follow up single and sequel, Ready, Part II was released on November 24, 2017. The song paid homage to

R.Kelly Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and sex offender convicted of racketeering and multiple sex offenses. During his recording career, Kelly sold over 75 million records worldwid ...

It Seems Like You're Ready "It Seems Like You're Ready" is a song by musician R. Kelly, on his debut solo studio album titled ''12 Play''. It is the fourth song on the album and was charted at #59 on the Billboard airplay chart, number 29 on the Rhythmic Top 40 charts and n ...

. A third single, "

You Got Me You Got Me or U Got Me may refer to: Film * ''You Got Me!'' (film), a 2007 Filipino comedy Music Songs * "You Got Me" (The Roots song), 1999 * "You Got Me" (J.Williams song), 2010 * "You Got Me" (Ivy Quainoo song), 2012 * "You Got Me" (Mýa song), ...

" was released on February 14, 2018 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of her debut single "

Composition

A "spacey

" song, "Knock You Out" was written by Harrison and Marsha Ambrosius with production helmed by frequent collaborator MyGuyMars. Inspired by the vocal work of the

, "Knock You Out" is described as an indebted bedroom jam with guitar licks and spaced-out vocal harmonies. "Knock You Out" is performed in the key of

A Minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes ...

and set at a moderate beat at 70 beats per minute in common time.

Personnel

Credits adapted from Qobuz. *Mýa – vocals, songwriting *Marsha Ambrosius – songwriting *Lamar "Mars" Edwards – composer

Release history

References

{{authority control 2018 singles 2018 songs Mýa songs Songs written by Mýa Songs written by Marsha Ambrosius