Knucks is the fifth cover star of Clash issue 135. The magazine published the cover on 13 November, in association with Timberland, and used it to look ahead to his next album.

That project is still untitled. Clash calls it his most experimental release to date, inspired by a 1992 Reginald Hudlin rom-com, and says it repositions the North London rapper and producer as a self-proclaimed cinephile, blurring the lines between widescreen escapism and journal-entry snippets. There is less self-seriousness and more spontaneity about this era, the magazine adds.

As Knucks puts it, in the cover story: ‘Over the years, I’ve learnt that I have to be less hard on myself.’

The issue is up for pre-order from the Clash shop, and magazines will be shipping out from the UK from Friday 27 November 2026.

The feature, with words by Ana Lamond and photography and creative direction by Ahmed Idries, also traces how he got here. Knucks first came through in 2016, Clash writes, taking lunch-break freestyles into SBTV-era hype, then the pandemic-era EP London Class, trading verses with Wretch 32 and Loyle Carner.

His debut album, Alpha Place, deconstructed his South Kilburn upbringing over jazz-inflected drill. It brought a joint win for Album of the Year at the 2022 MOBO Awards, and a platinum frame for ‘Los Pollos Hermanos’, the magazine says.

Clash’s own framing is that he has quietly built a reputation as one of the UK’s most subversive rappers over the last decade, in a week when the Official UK Rap Chart already has a new reported No.1. A magazine cover, an untitled album, and a looser brief than before: the next chapter is being lined up in public, even if the title is not. If you are ordering from outside the UK, the Clash shop page asks you to allow time for the copy to arrive after that 27 November ship date.

Why this matters: A Clash cover ahead of an untitled, more experimental album is a clear marker that Knucks is moving into a new chapter, not repeating the last one.