“Knockoff” by Poppy
Poppy is a singer who has lived throughout the United States, being born in Boston and spending part of her teenage years in both Nashville and Los Angeles. Her discography dates back to 2016, and her most-notable song to date has been 2019’s “Bloodmoney”, in that it earned Poppy a Best Metal Performance Grammy nomination in 2021. Whereas the trophy ultimately went to Body Count’s “Bum-Rush”, that marks the only time in the history of that particular award, from its inception in 1990 to date, that a female soloist had been nominated.
The songstress’s fifth studio album is titled “Zig”. Its second single, “Knockoff”, was released on 19 July 2023, with the singer first teasing it about a month prior. This is a song that was written by Poppy alongside Ian Kirkpatrick (her ex-boyfriend), Simon Wilcox (who also acted as backup vocalist), Sean Douglas and the track’s producer, Ali Payami. And the music video to “Knockoff” was directed by an entity known as Le3ay Studios.
The Lyrics of “Knockoff”
Premise-wise, this narrative revolves around the singer having hooked up with a guy whom she apparently feels may be the one. But before getting too excited, Poppy wants to make sure that he ain’t “no knockoff”.
A “knockoff”, most simply put, is something fake, and this term is usually applied to counterfeit versions of pricy products. But again, within the context of these lyrics what it alludes to is the vocalist having developed a zero tolerance for “fake love” and guys who aren’t serious.
Or as expressed in the first verse, she “can’t take no more mistakes”, meaning that Poppy has had her fair share of less-than-ideal romantic experiences and now wants something more permanent or “the real thing”, as she puts it.
Also as implied, some of those past mistakes may have been via her own doing. Before all is said and done, the vocalist reveals that she “used to be scared of something real”. What that means, in context, is that in the past Poppy wasn’t really too serious about romance herself. But she’s “ready now”, having made herself vulnerable, so to speak, to the addressee at hand. So it’s obvious that she’s really feeling him and perceives great potential in their relationship.
