Though progressive genre-blending blues-rock musician Gary Clark Jr. released his Grammy-nominated debut album Black an Blu back in 2012, he’s far from done with it. Gearing up for the release of his new project Blak and Blu: The Mixtape, he’s revisited the album’s title track for a remix featuring a verse from Mississippi heavyweight Big K.R.I.T. Structurally, there’s not a distinct difference between this and the original. It’s more of a remix in the traditional sense, just an added rap verse from Big K.R.I.T. But both Gary Clark Jr. and Big K.R.I.T. have an old school way about them that makes the formula work, particularly because K.R.I.T. already raps with somewhat of a bluesy flow.
There’s currently no release date for the mixtape, but we do know it’ll feature collaborations with Erykah Badu, Bilal, Jill Scott, Robert Glasper, and Talib Kweli; Clark and Big K.R.I.T. recently worked together on Kweli’s latest album Gravitas for the song “Demenology.” Clark will also head out on tour next month in support of Kings of Leon and will perform at the Summer X Games in June along with headliner Kanye West.
Stream the “Blak and Blu” remix below.
(SPIN)
