On the national level, Big K.R.I.T. has been one of those artists who came out of nowhere (Mississippi to be exact), but the release of his debut album/mixtape K.R.I.T. Wuz Here (hear what you’ve been missing) instantaneously got the entire internet on his ball sack like some itchy crabs. Yet I have to admit, I’m another one of those pesky critters, because I believe K.R.I.T. deserves all of the praise he’s receiving. Not only does he rap his ass off about everything from drugs and strippers, to religion, the prevalence of STD’s, and the lack of genuine work opportunities for the lower class, but he produces the ENTIRE album himself. And while most people talk about his down to earth mentality and his ability to balance his insightfulness with some straight ahead riding music, I think he’s probably a better beat smith than a rapper. His southern roots take center stage, yet his instrumentals sound like updated versions of Riding Dirty or The Fix rather than extensions of Crunk or Trap music. While few of his beats will make you want to stomp someone out (although “Country Shit” might), all are guaranteed to put a smile on your face and get your head rocking back and forth in that all too familiar motion. I give credit to his sample usage, which has been missing from too much of Hip-Hop recently. Obviously he’s proud of his sample game as well, because at the end of his press release announcing K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, this message was written:
“P.S. We dug deep into the crates for the music & movie samples on this one. The first person that can tell us which samples we used, will receive 1k cash & a pan of Shipe’s famous brownies.”
While I am not a contender for the prize (I could use the cash, but something tells me famous brownies from Mississippi don’t compare much to Northern California), there are few people from The Bay, who have been building their presence in the game as well, who can easily help answer that question. Moe Green and Davinci are both members of KMEL’s Bay Area Freshman 10’s inaugural class, have both been featured on ZIF in the past, and both MC’s had a recent single that shared a sample with Big K.R.I.T.. After the jump, see which tracks they are, and who I give the nod to on the production and lyrical end of things. Then in the comments, voice your opinion and let us know who you think made the better track from the common samples.
*Warning* Big K.R.I.T. released K.R.I.T. Wuz Here at a really low volume (actually my only complaint about the whole project), so you will probably have to turn his tracks up higher than the other two to properly compare them.
