Preview: Big K.R.I.T. Breaks Down His Album "Live from the Underground"

Mississippi-born Justin “Big K.R.I.T.” Scott has been waiting for next Tuesday (June 5) to come since 1999, when he was an aspiring teenage rapper dreaming of releasing an album.

When he stopped by the Complex office on a recent afternoon to talk about his forthcoming debut album Live from the Underground, his excitement was palpable, like a kid looking forward to Christmas.

“I can’t explain it,” he said with a beaming smile. “Sitting here talking to you about the album. It’s over. I’m just excited to drop it as my supporters are. They have been waiting and it's actually fittin’ to come out. Man, it’s a milestone. You dream of this—to go into the store and physically see a copy of it. It’s overwhelming. It’s a lot of different emotions. I’m nervous. I’m scared.”

One thing he doesn’t have to worry about is its quality. Underground is a step forward from his critically acclaimed mixtapes. The album—which you can preview here—promises to please those fans who have been rocking with him since he was on the first floor. Here, K.R.I.T. gives us a song-by-song preview of his self-produced set, explaining all the song concepts and how they came to be.

Interview by Brad Wete (@BradWete)

Big K.R.I.T.: "'LFA' stands for Live from the Underground. 300 block is where I am from. It's an introduction to what you can expect from the album, like a guide. If you listen to the poem it starts off with Va$htie. She did two of the interludes. That's her voice in the beginning. To really enjoy this recording you have to listen to it to the maximum volume possible."

"After that it's just a poem. A lot of people know me for the poetry I put in my mixtapes. Really based around what the entire album is going to be about, you should free your mind and open your mind to what I am talking about. It's about having fun, spirituality, overcoming and all that, but in one record."

Big K.R.I.T.: "I am one of them people that feel strongly about having a track that sums up the entire album. If I am going to name my album Live From The Underground, I am going to need a 'Live From The Underground' record that kind of helps you understand the vibe and the groove and the a pacemaker at the same time. To kind of get the whole album going, that's really what it was."

"It's actually taken from a record that I did maybe a year and a half ago that I didn't finish. Jonny Snipes was recording me writing to this beat that I made. He's like, 'Yo, just spit it in the camera real quick.' I spit the hook and the verse-and from that point, I picked up with the record and finished it. And then actually having the record 'Return Of 4Eva' on K.R.I.T. Wuz Here when I was talking about Live From The Underground, it all makes sense-tie all the three priorities I drop into my one album."

Big K.R.I.T.: "'Cool 2 Be Southern' is just giving back to people from the South. Being from where I'm from and being country and being OK with it, making the kind of music that I make, I feel like we are flexing. I am not ashamed to be from the South, I am not ashamed to be country, and that's cool. Just taking it from all the other legends I grew up listening to. When we're talking about UGK, OutKast, Scarface, 8 Ball & MJG, they were Southern artists and they didn't care"

"They were like, 'We Southern. We country. So what?' And it's just like a celebration of that. And even the content, the rapping is just going back to what people normally know us for and think they know us for as far as style, food and things like that and flipping the metaphorical aspect and turn that to my car and how I feel about as far as my rhymes and things of that nature and putting in all that into my music. I had an opportunity to work with an amazing trumpet player, trombone player. It's got a second line feel to it. It's crazy."

Big K.R.I.T.: "This song says so much. I remember talking and I first let Wally Sparks listen to it. He was like, 'Yo, it don't even sound like you rappin'. It sound like you talkin'.' It's kind of dedicated to the haters and the non-believers. People told me at one point that this wouldn't happen. Or this wouldn't be forever or 'Nah, it's not gonna work.' At the same time, everybody feels like they have a hold on what they got going on. I know what I am doing. Like, 'I got this."

"It's a common term in everyday life. Somebody tries to come up into your realm like, 'Yo, maybe you should do this like this.' You're like, 'I am good, homie. I got this. Hold up. This what I do.' So, it's one of those records, man. If you believe in yourself wholeheartedly, then that's how you should feel. And it goes back to even my rap name like K.R.I.T. It means King Remembered In Time. I want to be a king in what I do and I feel like a king as a man. So you can't really tell me no different. Even if you don't like the record, I appreciate you listening to it. But I made it based off how I felt."

Big K.R.I.T.: "My album was supposed to come out in September of last year. 'Money On The Floor' was the first single we pushed. It was one of those situations, again, where we believe in this single. This isn't your traditional single. It's so Southern and to be able to feature 8 Ball & MJG, which are two legends I love and I grew up listening to and believed in meant so much to me"

"And to have 2 Chainz on it, it was kind of me showing love to him because he put me on a record named 'Pimps' on Codeine Cowboy he had dropped before a lot people were really even recognizing. He jumped on it and he did what it did. Texas really helped break it. It was one of those records where I can go around now to prepare for the album and perform. I think what started its growth was the fact that my album didn't come out in September"

"So you got this gap between September and now where this record has just been there. But I still put it on the album because I felt like it deserved it. I appreciate the features that I have on it and it worked back then so I think when people hear it combined with all the music that I put on the album now, it's going to make more sense."

Big K.R.I.T.: "At the end of the day when I was working on the album, I was like, 'Yo, I want to be able to combine all the things people love from K.R.I.T. Wuz Here to Return Of 4Eva and 4EvaNADay and make my whole album out of it.' I'm not talking about the songs, just the energy, the concepts, the grit and the amount of subject matter that I had"

"Being on the road and still performing my feature of Wiz Khalifa's 'Glass House' to this day, that 'What you mean you ain't nasty?' is still a line that everybody says to stop the music. I was like, 'Shit, I'll make a hook out of it.' And the record came out crazy. It's 808, trunk-rattling. And I reached out to Ludacris because just coming through the 'Country Shit' record, I knew he was going to say something crazy on this record. I was like, 'Yo, jump on this song, man.' And he did. It's crazy."

Big K.R.I.T.: “'My Sub Pt.2' is picking up from the first 'My Sub,' which was on Return Of 4Eva. It's giving the people who knew about my music, been up on all my music, something else from that feel. The mixtapes are what I considered as albums; they are going to be people who buy Live From The Underground and may not have listened to my previous music."

"That's cool and all, and I am excited about that. I remember the people that listen to it earlier and giving them something else. There was a story in 'My Sub' in the first one that didn't get finished so I am bringing it back. And this is the jacking, so this is what happens after I get to the club and I get to the female. I'm excited for people to hear this record and to what happens in part two."

Big K.R.I.T.: "It's the after-effect of 'My Sub Pt.2' for one, and it's a popular saying in life. Either you dealing with someone you really trust or people expect a certain expectation and a certain thing from you and it's like, 'Yo, don't let me down. We believe in you, don't let us down.'"

"It's kind of that feeling when you have to reach out to somebody and you're like, 'Yo, I am giving it my all and I hope you come through for me, too.' I feel like this record is more synthesized than all the other records. As far as the synths and the drum cadences and just the drums I chose to use, it's just a real Midwest, a real kind of S.O.S Band feel to it. I wanted it to be mad dramatic, having a power-ballad kind of feel. I think people are going to enjoy even from the singing hook to the context."

Big K.R.I.T.: "When you get back to your surroundings, it's about having a female that believes in you and is by your side regardless and understands you may have a job that you can't be around all the time. Either doing music or being a traveling shoe salesman or whatever, when you have to be traveling and you hit her with the 'Leave the porch light on.' Where I'm from, it's like, 'I'll be back so don't turn the porchlight off.'"

"It's a warm welcome when you get home and someone is waiting on you. It's got that feel. I got Anthony Hamilton who was perfect for this record. It's got mad grit to it and this was the only record where I didn't write the hook. With him, I wondered what he'd say. I didn't want to write the hook. He came through and, minus my verses, it sounds like a hook he would have on an R&B record of his own, so it worked out."

Big K.R.I.T.: "You know, I had to reach out to Bun to jump on that. It has a very gritty, riding old school feel to it. But it's brighter than a lot of my old school music. 'Me And My Old School' which was on 4EvaNaDay and “Time Machine” which was on Return Of 4Eva, there were definitely-except the instruments."

"They were a little bit darker. It was sample-based. And shout out to Mike Hartnett for playing the guitar on it. Also, it's featuring my partner Big Sant who's dropping his project. He's been on every single one of my projects since K.R.I.T. Wuz Here. His voice is crazy. He gives you that old school, just riding, slapping feel."

Big K.R.I.T.: "Another energetic record. Another record where I got an opportunity to be a little arrogant. It's one thing. It ain't even about me. It's about believing in yourself again. That high self-esteem where you feel like you got it all figured out or you feel super fresh or you feel your car's super clean or you got the right kicks on."

"And then utilizing all that energy and putting it into one record and making it super bass-heavy, but still incorporating a soul sample that moves. I'm not chopping up a sample and using the hook and going from that hook and using the guitar. Nah, I'm chopping up and making it into something totally different."

Big K.R.I.T.: "Traditional hydroplaning is when you're driving kind of fast and it's raining and your car is coming off the ground riding on rain water. When I talk about hydroplaning on this record, it's being high and drunk at the same time-you know what I am saying? You off the ground just enough where you still riding. You still in your zone. You're in that tunnel vision. Of course, we got to get Devin on there. It's great. He that dude for that kind of record"

"It's a transition in the album where I get the opportunity to go like all the records before that is uptempo, it's up-paced. I was trying to figure out how to slow my project down in order to get to different content and different subject matter. And that was the transition like cruise control. Boom. 'Yeah That's Me.' Boom. Cruise control. You go to 'Hydroplaning' and you go from that to contemplating and thinking. I am excited to hear that again. There's live instrumentation in that record. Shout out to Mike Hartnet for playing the guitar on it. The drum cadence is totally different than all the other records."

Big K.R.I.T.: "Melanie Fiona killed it, for one. And that record, 'If I Fall' has been around my catalog for a little while. Originally, I had sung the hook because I had nobody else to sing it. I got used to hearing it the way I did it. She totally changed the energy of it. She made it so much brighter and kind of killed it. It made me super excited to use it for the album. It's one of those records that means a lot to me. The verses are three different kinds of topics."

The first verse is me being the kind of artist that can't afford to rap and do what I'm really trying to do. I have to work a job. I need to find a way financially to take care of myself. The second verse is based off of my parents worrying about me. My mom being worried about me. Me doing things I shouldn't be necessarily doing in the streets versus going to school and things of that nature. The third verse is about a relationship when you're with someone you love and think it's going to work out. But the older the relationship gets, the more you feel like you're not compatible and sometimes you pick up bad habits and I picked up a habit of drinking. At one point in my life and it affected the relationship I was in."

"And the hook makes it all make sense, because it's really one of those situations where 'If I fall, will you be by my side? No matter what I go through. Be it not following my dreams and working an every day nine to five, will you still be there for me if I don't be a millionaire? Will you be there for me if I get jammed up or if I am out here doin' dirt, will you be there for me if our relationship don't work can I still call you to lean on you?' And that's what the record's about."

Big K.R.I.T.: "Obviously, people know about the book. It's about a father who wasn't rich financially, but was rich with a lot of knowledge. So for me, it's about my dad and him giving me a lot of game and a lot of jewels early in my life. It kind of helped guide me in the right direction now. When the time comes when I have a child, it's really me kind of giving him the same kind of game and the kind of morals, just in my way. And that's really what it is, man"

"It starts off with a poem and it's just being able to have a father that looked out really. I think that helped me in my career and in my life. It's one of those records I can say I really dedicated him as far as his feelings of, 'Yo, be a man.' It's got a different vibe to it. I wouldn't say it's like the Will Smith record 'Just the Two of Us.' [Laughs] That was a dope record, but it's way brighter than my record. My record has a slower pace to it, but I think people are going to enjoy the concepts and for all the new fathers and the fathers out there trying to make a way for their children, I hope they listen to it and understand what I'm doing for them, too."

Big K.R.I.T.: "It was a very strong record and me being from Mississippi and dealing with the whole racism aspect. I feel like [those] topics, as far as the life that people went through, aren't over and should be talked about. I feel like it was a perfect record for me to put on my first project. Slavery still exists. It may not be in the South. It may not be African-American per se, but it still exists."

"It's a mental thing as well. Working on this record, I came up with the concept to do three different verses and come from three different perspectives as far as somebody that's a slave or in prison. I was riding around listening to it one time, then I talked to my man Wally and said, 'Yo, why don't we fucking put B.B. King on the track?' We were all laughing. 'That'd be hot! That'd be dope.' And we started talking about it because the shit we saying was mad real. Then I really thought about it and I was like, 'Yo what if I really did it?' Just to see, I had my lawyer reach out to B.B. King's folks and he had an individual named Jason that does a lot of his marketing now. He was a fan of my music"

"He knew about my music. He kind of helped put the wheels in motion to get the record to B.B. and play it for him. He loved the record. I ended up flying to Las Vegas and actually ended up being in the studio with him while he sung the hook and played the guitar on the record. My grandmother put me on B.B. King growing up. She was a big fan of B.B. King. 'The Thrill Is Gone' is one of the first records I was introduced and it's still being played right now. This is definitely for my grandma. This is monumental just for me as an artist and musician to do a record with somebody so legendary. He was so cool, man. He was talking to us about the tour life. He had mad jokes. He was just chilling. He was like, 'Yo, I really like this song.' I was like, 'Man, I am glad you do.'”

Big K.R.I.T.: "It's the outro. I like to think of it as five or six different hymns put together. You know, walking around just humming, coming up with different hooks in my head, sometimes I don't use all of them. That song was more of a song where I could use all the soulful hooks that I felt like were dedicated to my grandma when I was going through at the time when she passed that I could put on one record. And I did. It's a lot of singing. It's kind of one of those healing records. It's the last song because, one, I couldn't crank the energy again after this B.B. King record."

"The record is so strong. It's kind of like I had to kind of take away from that. It's more spiritual. Actually, when I say I featured Ms. Linnie on there, I don't mean a sound byte like her talking in 4EvaNaDay. She is actually singing on this record. It ties back into 'I Gotta Stay' which was on K.R.I.T. Wuz Here. I managed to find tapes of her singing acapella. I had an opportunity to feature her on my actual outro and her ending the whole project as well with what she says at the end. I am not going to say what she said, but it's crazy. I didn't have to get shift her vocals. I didn't have to switch vocal alignments. No Auto-Tune on her vocals. It rang perfectly with the keys that the record has."