Big K.R.I.T.’s new album: Cadillactica. Courtesy: BIGKRIT.COM
“Let’s just take our time,” Big K.R.I.T. raps in the opening lyric of his sophomore effort, “Cadillactica.” The title of the album refers to a fictional planet where K.R.I.T.’s spacey reimagining of the American South exists, all under his tutelage. Gone are the realities of the K.R.I.T.’s native Mississippi and its surrounding states that gave K.R.I.T.’s debut, “Live From the Underground,” a very down-to-Earth tone.
As he consults with an anonymous female co-creator, she prompts him in a breathless whisper, “Let’s create.” K.R.I.T.’s response is rooted in haste: “Nah, not yet.” His hesitation serves as foreshadowing for the more calculated decision-making he exhibits throughout the album. Unlike past releases from this son of Meridian, Mississippi, consideration, not confidence, is key. In result, “Cadillactica” boasts a deeper, more cohesive sound experience than his previous efforts.
Many popular K.R.I.T. conventions remain in the framework of “Cadillactica.” Since his introduction to mainstream rap audiences on Wiz Khalifa’s 2010 mixtape posse cut, “Glass House,” K.R.I.T. continues to distinguish himself from artists even in the South. Unlike other standout solo artists from the South, such as frequent collaborators Curren$y and Yelawolf, K.R.I.T. almost exclusively creates from a referential and nostalgic place.
Listeners new to his craft could comfortably find familiarity by reviewing Big K.R.I.T.’s own list of his top five favorite rappers in an early January interview with Hot 97 FM in New York. Of his selections, only one artist resided outside of the confines of the Mason-Dixon Line: 2Pac. The remaining artists: Scarface, Andre 3000, 8Ball & MJG and Bun B (who appears on his album), not only make up the pantheon of Southern luminaries in hip-hop, but also serve as the forefathers of K.R.I.T.’s signature Dirty South sound.
Their legacy lives within each line recorded on his records, allowing his albums to feel more like history lessons than practices in pushing the envelope. K.R.I.T. tasks himself with the responsibility of legitimizing Southern rap with his fiery lead single “Mt. Olympus” before demanding he be placed atop its infrastructure on “King of the South.”
“Raised by the king that’s before me, slowly crept up and still paid dues, I embody the South, the swang, the bang, the soul and the paint and the blues,” K.R.I.T. announces in the final verse of “King.” “Cadillactica,” in actuality, sees K.R.I.T.’s first departure from much of the soul and blues that characterized his early career. The producer-rapper, known for sampling deep-cuts from black music staples such as B.B. King and Al Green, took a new approach.
“With ‘Live From the Underground,’ I went to sampling without any knowledge of or knowing how long it takes to clear a sample,” K.R.I.T. mentioned in an October Q&A with Rolling Stone. “With this album, I took it even further with working with other producers and not sampling so much, but creating songs that sound like samples.”
His hard work pays off on records like “Do You Love Me,” “Third Eye,” “Angels” and “Mind Control,” where K.R.I.T.’s own beats give him more leeway to showcase his unique crooning than prior recordings in which he had to compete with the existing elements within his source material.
Each record on the album exudes maturity just above the redundancy routinely found in K.R.I.T.’s songwriting. Placed side-by-side each of the artist’s popular mixtapes play like an improvement upon the same formula, with handfuls of songs expanding upon the same topics, using southern-fried gimmickry to describe pleasantries such as big booties, big stereos and big fun. “Cadillactica” takes a leap in subject matter. The Raphael Saadiq-assisted single, “Soul Food,” pines for a return to a slower pace of life. “Saturdays = Celebration” finds K.R.I.T. ruminating on the topic of death. “In the event of my demise I won’t go kicking and screaming,
I know that God had a reason, just don’t give up believing,” he rhymes with a conviction that sounds like he is speaking inward to make sense for himself rather than to an audience.
Late into the project, K.R.I.T. joins nerd-rap impresario Lupe Fiasco for a futuristic flash-forward appropriate for the spacey concept that threads throughout “Cadillactica.” The starkly non-Southern “Lost Generation” concludes the album’s official tracklist just before the bonus songs begin. K.R.I.T. reaffixes himself at his God-like post alongside his female companion. As they look back on the landscape they created, she remarks, “I wish we could stay to see what happens.” Whether or not Planet Cadillactica can survive is yet untold, but certainly the experimental album it leaves behind will remain as a glimmering artifact in Southern hip-hop.
