Right out the gate Big K.R.I.T. comes hard. I actually had to pause the first track to collect myself before I could continue listening.
I’ve been a K.R.I.T. fan ever since I heard Children Of The World one hot summer weekend on MTV Jams. My friend and I stopped to look at each other when the song ended. The pure fire we had just experienced amidst the 2010 hits of Young Money, Gucci Mane, and Soulja Boy had completely caught us off guard. It was lyrically saturated, full of gumption, and it was SO southern. A combination we’re not used to hearing in mainstream hip-hop.
“I
got a chip on my shoulder the size of a boulder.”
Krit brought it all back and hit us with a jazzy and soulful first track entitled King Pt.4 on his new mixtape It’s Better This Way. I admit it was his typical M.O.A jaded rapper feeling ignored due to restrictive southern rap stereotypes, who was long overdue for mainstream success. A tale we’ve certainly heard from him before. But it’s his raw emotion that forces you to listen to his story time and time again. It’s what leaves you saying…” Damn, why ya’ll do him like that?." You have no choice but to empathize and that is the magic of Krit, a Master storyteller with candy coated words.
The rest of this mixtape is pretty classic Krit. If you are already a listener you won’t be disappointed. If you’re not, you are most certainly late but I won’t hold it against you. This is as good a mixtape as any to hop on the bandwagon. Krit supplies us with the all the juicy 808, seat back, one hand on the steering wheel, gold grill, head nodding tracks we’re looking for. I personally always listen to him in the summer, windows down, music blaring. He manages to encompass all the catchiness of a hit record with all the production and content of a classic record. And he has no problem delivering this to us time and time again. I would imagine this is why he is so frustrated with the industry. The reason why I enjoy this artist has everything to do with the factors I mentioned earlier, when I first heard his music back in 2010. The combination of his style, lyrics, and delivery, hit the center of every target for me. As a musical genre, hip-hop does little to acknowledge the talented rappers of the south. When it comes to naming top rappers/lyricists of almost any decade, how many of those names appear below the Mason-Dixon line? Let’s name the few that mainstream does acknowledge: Lil Wayne, T.I., UGK, Outkast, and depending on who you’re talking to the infamous Jay Electronica ( yes, he is in fact from New Orleans). Long story short when it comes to merit, especially lyrically, this is an area the south gets the once over. From the gate Krit has always had this factor working against him and he’s not shy to say it. Despite that, he doesn't shy away from his roots. His origin is proudly represented in his music and it’s one of the most important aspects of his sound.
The track that stood out most to me was track 8: Into the darkness. It’s a sound I don’t recall hearing from Krit before. It embodied more of a PartyNextDoor vibe. It never lost the Krit flare of course but it was still interesting to hear him experiment with a different sound. Krit also manages to feature a number of different artist on this mixtape. I was surprised to hear Ludacris, and BJ the Chicago Kid was one of my personal favorites on Vanilla Sky. Overall, this body of music gave me everything that I wanted to hear and reminded me once again why my itunes reads 9 albums and 137 song under his name. He may not have the fame or recognition he desires but his effort and talent shows. He’s taken no shortcuts, he’s put in the work and his music is reaching the ears of those who appreciate it and really want to listen. It’s a long road but maybe, ...it’s better this way.
@Natural_Nation’s Favorite Tracks:
[King Pt.4].[How Bout That Money],[Party Tonight],[It’s Better This Way],[Piece of Chain], [Shakem Off]
Stream It's Better This Way below via DatPiff
Two of the best in the game colloborated to murder a beat done by 9th Wonder.
