Big K.R.I.T. – King Remembered In Time

Big K.R.I.T. – King Remembered In Time
Self-released: 2013

Big K.R.I.T. stands planted firmly in the middle of the road. It is an unfortunate place for him to be. He burst into the general rap consciousness in 2010 with “Country Shit”, a dizzyingly gleeful ode to riding clean and getting money. UGK idolatry on sleeve, it quickly became apparent that K.R.I.T. had neither the charisma of Pimp C nor the distinctiveness or rhetorical flair of Bun B. He attempted to make up for his shortcomings as an MC with a relentless earnestness and his skills as a producer.

The earnestness gets old fairly quickly but Big K.R.I.T. has always been a hell of a producer, if rather limited. He tends to operate in three fairly distinct categories: trunk-demolishing bangers; breezy, soulful numbers that often utilize his solid singing voice; or “lyrical” endeavors that are either genuinely moving or hopelessly self-indulgent.

On King Remembered in Time, Big K.R.I.T stays true to his rapping formula while branching out in his production, with mostly excellent results. The only track on the tape not produced by Big K.R.I.T. is the tepid “Life is a Gamble” which is helmed by 9^th Wonder. Big K.R.I.T. samples James Blake on the surprisingly lovely “R.E.M” and M83 on the closing “Multi Til the Sun Die”, a track that plods so heavily that the only place for it to go was at the end.

He manages to climb a little out of the Southern funk that he does quite well, but which has permeated, nearly to the point of exhaustion, his catalog. “WTF” rides a pretty little string sample that contrasts with the venom he spits in the first verse. In the second verse he moves on to pessimistic musings on love that he sells pretty well.

“Perhaps you ain’t out here ho’in maybe this was meant to be, maybe you’re the very woman god sent for me”, he raps, but he sounds so dejected that you cant even be that mad at him when he drops the clunker of a line “I planted my seed in your greenhouse and it sprouted”.

The most intriguing track is unfortunately also the shortest as Future contributes his squawk on a snippet of “Just Last Week”, a tautly paced minute and forty seconds.

“My Trunk” is notable not only for the guitar noodling and how it knocks in a way that few Big K.R.I.T. tracks since “Country Shit” have, but also in how extraordinarily listenable Trinidad James’ verse is. It’s not good, or even particularly memorable, but the toothy meme manages to avoid derailing the song the way he so often does.

3.5 out of 5