Hailing from the “podunk” town of Cambria, as he said, Gehrig Kniffen has been putting in the work to make it in one of the most difficult industries in the world: the rap game.
What was originally the soundtrack for shooting hoops in the gym, this personal passion has led him to sharing lineups with E-40 and Too Short at the Bay to the Beach Festival in Avila Beach – a poster he still has hanging up in his house.
Raised on alternative and classic rock in a family of music lovers, Kniffen was first introduced to hip-hop during his youth basketball career and started freestyling with friends after practice, before there was any notion of making music seriously.
As he said in the song “In Love With A Dream”: “Fell in love with rappin’ ‘fore the passion,” as in he fell in love with the craft and art form before he even had the passion to make music himself.
After high school, Kniffen chased basketball for a few years in Santa Cruz and Weed, as well as Dallas, before coaching his hometown team at Coast Union High School in Cambria.
During this time, he started making lo-fi recordings in which he would play a beat off his laptop through his car’s speakers and record a one-take voice memo to be released on SoundCloud under the alias “gehrighashellabars.”
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Kniffen saw it as an opportunity to fully shift his focus from sports to music.
Living in Oregon at the time, away from the judgment of his peers, Kniffen was able to take his rapping more honestly and develop his own voice. “It gave me a chance to kind of separate and be a little bit more musical, I think,” said Kniffen.
Childhood friend and Cuesta College Recording Arts Program alum Tommy Howard, aka Tommy de Silva, formally joined forces as Kniffen’s producer, and the two took the humorous tone of earlier efforts and evolved the sound into more sincere music.
In 2022, Kniffen moved back to SLO County to be closer to de Silva and linked up with their friend Steven Arvizu, aka Dope E, to form the group “The Green Room.” With Kniffen as the main lyricist, de Silva producing beats, Dope E splitting his time between working, producing, and rapping, and the addition of rapper Mercutio X in 2023, the collective has made significant steps.
Originally, rehearsals started in de Silva’s green-walled bedroom, but the collective has since moved their workspace to The Sauce Pot Studios in SLO.
“[I] had no idea what I was doing. [I] just was doing it because I thought it was fun,” said Kniffen, looking back on his days recording tracks in the tennis court parking lot of his junior college. “And it’s so funny now that we’re in an actual studio and playing actual shows and releasing music that we take a lot of time on.”
With eight full-length albums and over 40 singles and EPs, The Green Room has been rather prolific in their releases and has constantly been working to improve its craft.
Gaining confidence through “reps and trial and error and learning,” Kniffen sees the musical process as a self-competition. This sentiment is reflected in The Green Room’s ongoing joke that “our best album is our next album.”
Through this work ethic, Kniffen has found the impulse to write bars by putting a clever spin on everyday life – from a new word overheard to sports or news. “Once I started writing consistently, it’s like everything in life becomes inspiration,” Kniffen said.
He has also found a new passion in his musical journey through live shows. Within months of returning to the SLO area, Kniffen had his first performance at a pop-up cypher put together by the Central Coast Beat Social at Milk Room, a vintage clothing store on Monterey Street.
“It reminded me of having an awesome game and getting off the court being like, ‘Wow, I feel great right now,’” Kniffen said. “It was so fun.”
After that first cypher, Kniffen was set on creating more live shows and has been organizing them ever since, with the presence of returning fans being a strong motivator.
Kniffen’s favorite part of this journey has been the community he has joined and helped create through his live shows and studio recordings. This is reflected on “Bubblegum Alley,” Kniffen’s latest full-length release, which boasts over 20 features.
From 805 and Oxnard rappers to a duo from Sacramento and even a Georgian rapper he reached out to on TikTok, Kniffen has enjoyed the shared network and support of his peers. “It’s dope, man, I love it,” he said. “I’m grateful; it’s been a cool experience.”
Aware of the genre’s shift to live instrumentation during shows, Kniffen has joined forces with a handful of local musicians to form Legion of Groove – an “all-star team” pulling from various acts. LOG’s first show was at the 2025 New Times Music Awards.
LOG won “Performance of the Night” to go along with Kniffen’s other three New Times Music Awards, and the group decided to keep the momentum going.
Kniffen likens the group experience to being on a sports team where everyone plays their roles, with the band currently consisting of: KB on keys and vocals, and David on bass, both of IMVA, Gerald Purify on drums, of The Vibe Setters and The Groove Collective, and Ezra Henderson on guitar and vocals.
With this new project, Kniffen sees positive momentum. “We’re grinding, chipping away, trying to figure out how to make the best music, throw the best shows we can create, create a community that rocks with us and that we rock with them, and you know, whatever happens, happens,” Kniffen said.
Behind the live shows and music videos is an undeniable grind. Working full-time at a restaurant, Kniffen treats his rapping just like his basketball and baseball careers: instead of extra jumpers and swings, the required effort to achieve his goals now comes in the form of studio sessions, writing bars, and performances.
“We’re not really close yet, so there’s a lot of work to be done, but I love it, and the work is what’s fun to me,” Kniffen said. “The late-night studio, the writing songs, the figuring out how to get better, is the enjoyable part.”
He is also fully aware of the potential for “failure” in the rap game. He acknowledges he might just be “another white kid that grew up somewhere and likes rapping and it doesn’t hit for people.”
Despite this, Kniffen is at peace with wherever his journey takes him. He simply strives to be open and authentic in his music, dedicating himself to the craft of lyricism and clever punchlines and seeing where things go.
As he said, “Whatever the case is, if you actually love it, if you actually care about it, if this is actually something you want to do, you should do it kind of regardless of what the results are.”
Gehrig Kniffen’s music is available on all streaming services, and more info is available on Instagram @gehrigkniffen.
