Big K.R.I.T. – Ready For The World

It’s hard to believe that two years ago Big K.R.I.T. was considering leaving the game behind. He was at wits end trying to figure out what it would take for him to breakthrough. But last year he dropped “K.R.I.T. Wuz Here” and his life changed forever. The Mississippi emcee went from struggling to be heard to being signed and landing on the cover of XXL. But is K.R.I.T. ready for the world? He sits down with TWV to discuss his big 2010, what to expect in 2011, the pressure of dropping a major label debut and why he’s against flooding the internet with music.

TWV: The past year has been quite the interesting one for you. You dropped “K.R.I.T. Wuz Here” and blasted off into the stratosphere. But it all started with the blog love.

Big K.R.I.T.: Yeah man. It’s been a lot of hard work. I think the fact that it got down to my last hurrah in 2009 (makes it that much more special). Johnny Shipes reached out last February and Creative Control shot all of my videos. This was also the time Curren$y was popping with his mixtapes as well. It was an honor to be a part of that movement and it all came together with perfect timing. A lot of the blogs had been hearing about me but all they needed was to see visuals. I think that is extremely important to attack YouTube and start putting the face with the music. Once the people saw it, they started asking about it. Blogs like DJBooth reached out and basically told me “Whatever you want, we’ll put it up.”

TWV: How do you feel from the past year to now where you headlined showcases at SXSW when last year you were just trying to be heard.

BK: It’s amazing. A lot has changed since “K.R.I.T. Wuz Here.” One, people know about the music. Our stage performance has changed because we had the opportunity to tour with Wiz Khalifa on Wake & Bake and then tour with the Smokers Club alongside Curren$y and Smoke DZA. Just to be around other artists and in front of new crowds every night kept me on my toes. Now this year it was like “Let’s go!”

TWV: I was upstairs with Sha Money XL watching you perform and he literally jumped out of his seat when you performed “Country Shit…”

BK: Yeah! *laughs* Sha is crazy like that. He jumps around like he’s on stage.

TWV: How does it feel to have someone like Sha Money, who brought 50 Cent into the game, going nuts over your music?

BK: Dog…it’s unreal to me. A year and a couple of months ago, this was not happening for me. It’s almost totally unbelievable. I couldn’t call none of this. I’m in a position where I feel blessed. I don’t take it for granted, I don’t feel like I deserve this and I appreciate everything that comes my way. I’m going to keep it pushing.

TWV: What’s the plan now that you’ve gotten somewhere you didn’t really expect to be? You have ReturnOf4Eva out but you don’t really put out too much music. Is it because you worry about over saturating the market?

BK: Yeah. Back in the days before things went digital it was much different. An artist would drop an album and there wouldn’t be any more songs coming out other than what’s on that album. You live with that album. Then a year or two later, here comes another album. I kind of want to be a part of that whole scene. I don’t want to drop an album and then people can’t live with it. It’s been a year since “K.R.I.T. Wuz Here” and now we’re gearing up again. This album has 20 songs and, Lord willing, it has the same shelf life. We’ve been riding to it since September of last year. I’ve been working on it for a while and we still listen to it now. That says enough right there.

TWV: Being from Mississippi, you have someone like David Banner…

BK: The homie.

TWV: How has he helped you with your craft?

BK: Banner has been around. He’s definitely a person that I call to ask questions about things I don’t understand. He explains the part of the game that I don’t completely get yet. The music is going to come. We’re going to definitely do the music part of the relationship but right now it’s about him being down to help me with the music business. Making sure I don’t make the same mistakes he made coming up. It’s that type of relationship. Normally, when you create with an artist you definitely want it to be organic. You don’t want to just do a song for the sake of what everybody else wants you to do. That’s the homie. A lot of people don’t realize that me and him were cool way before a lot of this music stuff was popping for me.

TWV: With that being said, it seems like both you and Banner come from the same school of thought. You both inject streams of social consciousness in to your music but are still able to party and have a good time to it. How important do you feel it is to talk about certain issues in your music?

BK: It’s important that you have something to say when you make music. I’ve got records where I’m being fly, but somehow I’ll talk about God or believing in myself. Sometimes you have to sneak it in though. You have to slip in a little knowledge for the listeners. It may be a like a year or two later and somebody will catch what you said later. You don’t want to be too overbearing with it. I’ll tell you my beliefs and hopefully you fuck with it. I’m definitely going to give you some kind of content and something to think about. I’m not here just making records for nothing.

TWV: You’re Def Jam debut is scheduled for the third quarter. How excited are you to get something like a major label debut out to the world.

BK: Extremely! And I’m also my worst critic at the end of the day. So the amount of pressure I’m going to end up putting on myself, as far as making sure it is perfect is going to be unbelievable. I’m working with a lot of different artists that I respect. Lord willing I will have them featured on the album. I’ll be producing on it. People will hopefully be happy with what I come with.

TWV: What about that pressure you mentioned? Can it be overbearing?

BK: I’m cool with it. It’s now or never. I went through a thing where I was trying to top “K.R.I.T. Wuz Here” and honestly I’m not going to be able to top that. It was an introduction to a lot of people who may not have heard of me and the music was for that moment. Now I just have to build off of that momentum and create music off of the moments I’m experiencing now. This is my journey.