2019 feels like Big K.R.I.T.’s moment in the sun. The 33-year-old rapper-producer has been making trunk knockers, Southern anthems, soulful confessions, and pushing his pen for over a decade. In 2010, K.R.I.T. dropped K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, his sixth mixtape. In 2019, the wordsmith released K.R.I.T. IZ HERE. The story of triumph writes itself.
Going from the past to the present, from case-locked to caps-locked, 2019 feels like K.R.I.T.’s official arrival and declaration of unwavering confidence. K.R.I.T. IZ HERE is the artist’s most celebratory record. It is K.R.I.T.’s grand statement of purpose. Where 2010’s Wuz Here was focused on proving K.R.I.T.’s place in rap, the 2019 offering has a much broader vision.
“It’s me and the confidence I have to tell people what I do is at its highest,” K.R.I.T. tells me over the phone. “I still have a lot more work to do as far as — to me — sonically and creatively. I can’t become complacent; I always have to do more. I’ve been blessed to grow continuously… I feel like I haven’t reached the level I wanna be at, and Lord knows I may never.”
K.R.I.T. IZ HERE works for myriad reasons. Lyrically, K.R.I.T. is in his braggadocious pocket, without sacrificing sharpness. Sonically, too, he stepped out of his comfort zone and employed a gang of producers — Rico Love, Tae Beast, DJ Khalil, and more —…
