K.R.I.T IZ HERE - Big K.R.I.T: Review
is a Mississippi born rapper and producer who has roots deeply ingrained in the history of southern hip hop. After signing to Def Jam records in the early 2010's he released some notable singles and a moderately successful debut album, but since then with a lot of industry backing K.R.I.T has failed to win over the commercial audience, and has been met with highs and lows from critics. After dropping one of his most acclaimed albums late in 2017 K.R.I.T released an EP last year and is following this up with this full length.
Review By Lavender:
This is a review that I can explain almost entirely in the preamble. For years I followed Big K.R.I.T's career of signing to Def Jam records to being a XXL Freshman, and I've heard almost all of the massive amount of music he has released in this decade. While he is clearly talented the cancer that has plagued K.R.I.T's career is a horrible lack of consistency as with mixtape after mixtape he failed to put his talents together into a set of well executed songs. In 2017 when he dropped 4eva Is A Mighty Long Time many critics who had expressed very similar complaints to me over his career did a complete 180 and threw massive amounts of praise at the record. Once again though I was not convinced, while I do think Mighty Long Time is the best record of K.R.I.T's career so far it suffered from some blatant inconsistencies in its huge and bloated tracklist that reminded me of so many other underwhelming projects from an artist whose talent level should indicate a better output.
K.R.I.T IZ HERE is yet another record in line and for nearly all of this records 56 minute runtime I could point to glaring flaws in numerous of his past projects but the level of exhaust I've achieved trying to follow his career is teetering on a breaking point. Too many of these tracks feature some wack ass bars, generic southern instrumentals with a completely unappealing trap flare. badly placed features that can't sing, and flows that clearly rip off many of K.R.I.T's southern rap inspirations.
I will say there are two tracks here I think stand out and I find myself wanting to return to that are worth addressing. Make It Easy has some killer soul samples and K.R.I.T walks a great line between vulnerable and unrelenting in his sharp delivery. It features a lot of the best lyrics on the record and sees K.R.I.T's serious song topics actually met with some serious lyricism for once on the record. Energy is a song that is mostly good for its hook and while I wasn't in love with it at first it very quickly became one of my favorites in K.RI.T's discography. It has a great throwback southern rap instrumental with even more soulful samples and dark trippy high hats.
After making the choice to continue giving K.R.I.T chances when I saw the positive reception for 4eva Is A Mightly Long Time I am now sitting here a year and a half later and no more impressed than I ever have been before, and saying the same things people have been saying for years about K.R.I.T and his inconsistencies. After this record, one of his worst in a few years I'm honestly not sure how much patience I have left for another release that pushes or even exceeds an hour, full of material I'm pretty sure won't be worthwhile, this one's certainly wasn't. 3.5/10
