Somewhere in Taipei, three MCs are dressed like it’s 1994 and rapping like they mean it. KNOWTIS – 2CHANGE, AMINATO and someshiit – dropped “Baggy Pants” on 16 October 2026, and it is a love letter to the oversized denim, the Karl Kani jackets and the boom-bap that once ruled New York. The beat comes from _tarolin of the underground Taipei crew NODTOWN: dusty drums, a head-nod tempo, nothing chasing the charts. The video, directed by Andy Law with the group as style consultants, follows a young man who finds his confidence again one wide-legged step at a time.
Each verse digs into a different drawer of the culture. 2CHANGE runs through the brands – Karl Kani, FUBU, JNCO, Phat Farm – like a vintage-store inventory. AMINATO paints the street scenes and the body memory of the baggy era, shouting out Heavy D and Marley Marl. Then guest YoungLee, champion of Taiwan’s TV rap contest 大嘻哈時代, carries it from the basketball court to Queensbridge and Nas’s Illmatic, twisting an old saying into his point: classics don’t age. Taiwanese press framed the song as a tribute to the “寬褲” – the wide pants – as a symbol of hip-hop attitude rather than just a fit.
KNOWTIS are not newcomers to the conversation. Their debut single “Knock’em off” was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Song at the 16th Golden Indie Music Awards (金音創作獎), Taiwan’s top prize for independent music, and they followed it with the three-track KNOWT!S single in January 2025. “Baggy Pants” is the first taste of their forthcoming album Mosaic. YoungLee, for his part, is fresh off his own 2026 album 漂亮美好歐光榮 – a comeback after the quiet years that followed his TV win.
Days after release the video had only a few thousand views. That’s the gap WorldWidePop is here for: a crew in Taipei keeping 90s New York alive with more care than most of the people who were there. Turn it up.
Sources
- 嘻哈組合KNOWTIS攜手YoungLee推出單曲〈Baggy Pants〉致敬嘻哈符號「寬褲」 – Blow 吹音樂
- MTV音樂頻道 | 金音入圍＋大嘻哈冠軍！KNOWTIS 攜手 YoungLee 10/16 發佈新曲〈Baggy Pants〉
- 寬褲不只是穿搭！KNOWTIS 攜手《大嘻哈》冠軍 YoungLee 推新歌〈Baggy Pants〉 – COOL-STYLE
- 金音入圍團體 KNOWTIS 新單曲〈Baggy Pants〉今日首播 – Dcard
- Video: KNOWTIS – Baggy Pants ft. YoungLee – Hip-Hop: The Golden Era
- 起點二十 / YoungLee – KEEDAN.COM
- KNOWT!S – Single – Apple Music
- Baggy Pants – Spotify
- KNOWTIS Official
