Album Review: Big K.R.I.T. - K.R.I.T. IZ HERE
Despite how prevalent and universal the sounds of trap are in mainstream music nowadays, their genesis was in the flourishing Southern hip hop scene, and the influence of figures like Lil Jon and T.I. still factors incredibly prominently into the work of their current-day contemporaries. Enter Big K.R.I.T., who has been making waves since the beginning of the decade with a string of stellar albums, including 2010's K.R.I.T Wuz Here, 2011's ReturnOf4Eva, and the 2017 double album 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time, his most impressive and lauded release. His style is unabashedly Southern in all aspects, and deserves credit for wielding its trap influences gracefully, meshing a more accessible sound with his knack for conscious lyricism and theming. On K.R.I.T. IZ HERE, however, the more refined and enjoyable aspects of his music are often not present, leaving in their place a barren husk of stock instrumentals and subpar rapping that only occasionally deigns to reach the highs that fans have come to expect from the rapper's unique approach.
Another distinctive hallmark of K.R.I.T.'s music are his bloated albums; while his aforementioned double album at least justified its scope, his records routinely hit at least an hour in length, and this one is no exception. After a relatively strong opening, the album quickly runs out of steam as the listener is treated to a middle section full of unnecessary and uninteresting tracks. This is also where the aforementioned trap stylings rear their head with a vengeance; cuts like I Made, Believe, and Learned From Texas (among others) range from painfully mundane to audibly offensive. Energy at least marries its 808 percussion with a catchy hook to create a decent trap banger, if a generic one; K.R.I.T.'s flow and energy help give this and other tracks a bit of character, but overall he is fighting an uphill battle against the lackluster instrumentals.
Another issue that K.R.I.T. must desperately try to compensate for are his mostly abysmal features, very few of whom add anything of worth to the tracks they appear on. Obvious has Rico Love doing a blatant and terrible impression of The Weeknd, whose emotive crooning and R&B instrumental style prove to be completely incompatible with K.R.I.T.'s Southern drawl and technical approach to rapping. Lil Wayne delivers a characteristically crass verse on Addiction, whose bass line sounds disturbingly identical to the Kanye West/Lil Pump joke song I Love It. The resemblance is amusing, but neither K.R.I.T. nor Wayne commit hard enough to the song's absurd aura, and their lyrics are too weak to be taken particularly seriously. J. Cole attempts to continue his string of superb guest appearances on Prove It, and while he does outshine K.R.I.T.'s meandering verses and the song's terrible chorus, his grudge against people who don't like his music comes off as overdone and childish.
Luckily, the album at least has the decency to end on an incredibly potent one-two punch that highlight the rapper's more appreciable qualities. Life In The Sun is a soulful, piano-laden dirge which finds K.R.I.T. spitting urgent, metaphor-heavy verses, even finding time to throw in a pointed jab at Kanye West's political fumblings: "Wire your jaw just to talk like Kanye/MAGA your hat just to feel like you paid". The closer M.I.S.S.I.S.S.I.P.P.I. features just as many clever bars while also finding room to fit in colourful horn stings, an incredibly smooth upright bass line, and a healthy mix of old-school and modern percussion. The song ends off on a hilarious (if inane) skit as the album's last words: two refined gentlemen who sound like Tyrion Lannister musing on the 'undeniable lyrical massacre' delivered by 'the Biggest of K.R.I.T.'; as on all his records, K.R.I.T.'s vibrant character shines through in the end.
After such an dense, expansive record as 4eva Is a Might Long Time, the more approachable style that Big K.R.I.T. employs on his latest effort is somewhat understandable, yet fails to deliver on its promises. Not only is K.R.I.T. IZ HERE yet another example of a bulky, extended tracklist, but so many of its songs rely on trendy, unpolished production which actively hinders the rapper's ability to stand out among his peers. That his rapping is still so technical and satisfying does, along with a handful of standout tracks, save this album from being an utter failure, even if most of K.R.I.T.'s newer fans will likely feel incredibly let down after the highs he reached in 2017. While it certainly deserves its spot in the canon of one of the decade's most consistent artists, it's hard to see K.R.I.T.'s latest work ever being celebrated as one of his best.
6/10
Favourite Tracks: K.R.I.T. HERE, Energy, M.I.S.S.I.S.S.I.P.P.I.