A new dutty south MC has arrived in the form of Mississippi’s own Big K.R.I.T…
Not only does B.K. rap but his first major label offering, Return of 4Eva is entirely self-produced, and exceptionally so. His soulful melodies weaved together with honest lyricism all delivered with that requisite Southern twang, reminiscent of rap legends UGK and 8 Ball and MJG (not a bad comparison). The self-proclaimed ‘King Remembered in Time’ started rapping as a teen, producing his own beats using MTV Music Generator. From then on, he honed both crafts saying, “I just kind of took to producing and rapping because it was easier for me to make it all seamless and cohesive.” After briefly grinding on the underground circuit, K.R.I.T. was signed to Def Jam last year and has since garnered an even larger following, injecting some much-needed freshness into the Dirty South genre. i-D online caught up with K.R.I.T. as he delivered some phone-based, Southern hospitality!
Are you a producer before a rapper or vice versa? I’d like to say as far as being an artist, a rapper is really more me because I really like writing music and I like the impact words have. You can definitely talk about what’s going on right now and change people in a positive way with your words. Music, as far as producing, is dope but can only be so jammin’. Like when I do accapella breakdowns in my songs and the crowd say the words back, I know they felt the content more.
Explain the meaning of K.R.I.T? It stands for King Remembered in Time. It’s a humble way of saying I’m gonna be on top of my lane as far as music is concerned. Be a king of my brand of music. It is a name I have to live up to.
Who or what inspires your music? Life inspires my music a lot. Things that I go through everyday be it spiritually, emotionally, financially. I draw from all these experiences and rap about them only because that’s a topic everyone can relate to no matter what your colour is or your religion. Being human is hard enough. Also, definitely UGK, 8 Ball and MJG, Outkast, Goodie Mob, Dungeon Family, Scarface, Willie Hutch, Bobby Womack, Curtis Mayfield, The Controllers, a lot of soul music as well. BB King, Muddy Waters, a lot of people like that.
Why did you decide to produce the entire Return of 4eva mixtape yourself? As a milestone, just looking at all the great producers who did the same thing, talking about Kanye West, David Banner, Pimp C, Super Tight, and I just wanted to be one of those artists that could actually put together a whole project as a producer as well. It was a dream for me to do my first major label album myself. It was a lot of hard work but I’m proud of it.
Tell us about the track ‘Sookie Now’ from your latest mixtape… It’s a saying you use when everything is OK. You can use it when someone’s agreeing with you on something, or when something is extremely exciting in a situation. For example, if her favourite song came on my Gandmother would say ‘oh sookie now!’ It’s just a happy reaction to something.
What are your plans for the summer? Work. Working on an album, finishing it up, touring possibly. ‘Rock the Bells’, I’m on the ticket and I’m excited about that. And just performing and making music.
Click here to see more from our i-Ntroducing series.
