Songfacts®:

• Janet Jackson makes a statement in "The Knowledge," asking us to educate ourselves so we'll stay strong and avoid the pitfalls of prejudice, ignorance, bigotry and illiteracy. It ties in with the themes of the Rhythm Nation 1814 album, which asks us to come together to help solve the problems plaguing society instead of leaving them to the next generation. According to Jackson, she and her team had the TVs in the studios on CNN, and watching the news informed songs like this one.
• The song has a bumpin' New Jack Swing beat crafted by Janet Jackson's producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who also wrote the song. It's musically similar to the song "Rhythm Nation" but delivered in more of a spoken cadence by Jackson and with a memorable breakdown in the bridge ("Prejudice... no! Ignorance... no!).
• "The Knowledge" is one of three songs performed in the short film Rhythm Nation 1814, made to accompany the album. Directed by Dominic Sena, it follows two kids as they work shining shoes while pursuing their dreams in music. When one of them gets involved with drug dealers, it turns tragic and one of them is shot. The film was aired in its entirety on MTV and also sold on home video, so there are some VHS and LaserDisc copies floating around.
  
  Jackson was thrilled to hear from a teacher who had students watch the film and send their reactions. "I was amazed," she wrote in the Rhythm Nation tour booklet. "That makes me feel so good, to know that I'm reaching the sort of people who might not otherwise pay that much attention to what's going on around them. It's precisely what I hoped to accomplish."
• "The Knowledge" wasn't released as a single but is a crucial part of the Rhythm Nation 1814 album, where it's the third song, developing the concept of unity and education in the fight against ignorance and injustice. Jackson also performed it live on the tour to support the album.
  
  It probably didn't get released as a single because the album was so larded with hits. Eight singles were released from the set, and seven of them reached the Top 5, with four of them hitting #1:
  
  "Miss You Much"
  "Escapade"
  "Love Will Never Do (Without You)"
  "Black Cat"
  
  The eighth single, "State Of The World," is another socially conscious song, and it failed to chart, so it was probably best not to push it with "The Knowledge."
• The first few songs on the album have spoken interludes. "The Knowledge" has an interlude called "Race." It starts with a gunshot, then the words, "We are in a race between education and catastrophe."
  
  After the song, the album transitions to more fun, upbeat songs, so the next interstitial says, "Get the point? Good, let's dance" and goes into "Miss You Much."
• The music video is culled from the part of the Rhythm Nation 1814 film where Jackson performs the song on a rooftop. Because the song wasn't released as a single, MTV ignored it. The other videos from the album all made hot rotation.
• There's a lot of counting in this song, tying it in with the Rhythm Nation 1814 title track, where Jackson counts down from five. The counts in "The Knowledge" go the other direction, up from one to four.