If You’re In DC Next Month…

October 27, 2010 JUKEBOXDC Staff Events No Comments  
Champion Sound
No ID Needed
Feat. RAtheMC, AB the Pro, Lyriciss, Pro’Verb, Greenspan, Alkatraz, Cayan, SmCity, Emperess, Devin White, Lega -C, Ciscero and Ike & Seph
Live Art by Markee Bryant
Saturday November 6th
@ Everlasting Life Cafe
2928 Georgia Avenue NW
Washington, DC
(2 blocks from HU Campus)
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Inside The BOX.: Big K.R.I.T.

October 27, 2010 JUKEBOXDC Staff Exclusives No Comments  

 By Samantha Luck, with reporting by Eric Butler for JukeBOX.

A double threat, Big K.R.I.T., producer and rapper sets out to make a mark on Hip Hop. Multitalented and driven, his pursuit of the thrown has provided him with a highly acclaimed mixtape, collaborations with the industry’s most popular up-and-comers, and a position on the Def Jam roster. With multi-city tours and a new album in the making, the self-titled and self-assured King Remembered In Time doesn’t show any signs of letting up.
 
Read the interview after the jump.
JukeBOX.: What was it like performing in front of the New York scene? Down in the heart of Brooklyn?
Big K.R.I.T.: Man, it went down man. It was definitely an organic experience. People out there just drinking, performing, man. Doing some kinda bean bag game. I can’t even explain it. We did our thing. Me and Smoke DZA rocked out. So hopefully we’ll have some kind of footage of that coming out soon. But it was definitely dope.

Alright. Coming out as a new artist, you really blew up of the K.R.I.T. Wuz Here mixtape and I seen you had some projects before that. So how would you best describe your music and progression as an artist thus far?
I’m definitely trying to make timeless music. With K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, people could hear the growth, you know, in the music. And if you go back to a lot of my earlier music, I was still trying to find myself with cadence, subject matter, content, even the beats. So with K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, I was like “Alright, I figured it out.” It’s 5 years in the making and it’s really about me rapping about my life. Nineteen records that I produced, different emotions that I went through….It was really like a last hoorah.
 
Big K.R.I.T. – Hometown Hero

So when you say like a last hoorah, did you put in an exceptional amount of effort into this one trying to really make noise? Did you feel like you had something to prove with this one?
Oh yeah. Definitely. If this is gonna be my last one, then we definitely gotta go all out. Then with records like “Viktorious,” you know, I was really just venting about the situation at hand. Too many people paid attention to what I got to say. “See Me On Top” is another record that I was really venting about my situation and actually being signed before and other situations, working with people and having to start over so much in order to make people listen to the music. I moved back to Mississippi two or three times and just started over like with a street team and promotion and all that. K.R.I.T Wuz Here, again, was like the last hoorah. That’s why it’s 19 songs…I really couldn’t cut any of the music because I had to put out as much quality music as possible at that point just to make people really pay attention and listen. And it exceeded all expectations. Everything that’s happened since K.R.I.T. Wuz Here- this has definitely been a blessing.
 
Speaking of blessings, how do you feel about that Def Jam deal you got? Describe how you felt when you got the call.
It was crazy man. Last year was totally different for me. This year is all fresh and brand new. I’m energized, I’m ready to go. We dropped K.R.I.T. Wuz Here May 4th and I signed with Def Jam in June. Sha Money XL heard the music and immediately wanted to make something happen. To run across a cat like him and Jonny Shipes and them understand music, really not try to change up my music or where I’m coming from and let me rock out as a producer and a rapper, that doesn’t come often. That’s definitely a beautiful thing too because they just let me do me. But yeah, man, it’s an exciting time as far as Mississippi’s concerned cuz to be signed to Def Jam, that’s history, that’s Hip Hop and to be apart of it is crazy.
 
Big K.R.I.T. – Children of the World

So being a rapper and producer, doing your own tracks and your own lyrics, what’s your process? Do you put down your beats first or do you put down your lyrics first? Do you make them play together?
Normally the beat come first. I like to sit down and just be like “Man, I want some real playa playa shit.” So I make that. Then as I’m making the beat, I’m developing some kind of idea. I do use titles, I play off titles sometimes. Like sometimes, I’ll come up with a title of a song way before I write it. The record “Return Of Forever” that I did with my brother Big Sant, that he’s featured on, the very first song.on K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, I really played with that title like two or three months before we did the song. And so it depends on the vibe, but normally the beat comes first cuz after that I can feel it and I really just let the track tell me what I should say from that point on.

When can we see you in our city, up in D.C.?
I’m not 100% sure if we have a Smoker’s Club date down in October for me to be up there, but I’m pretty sure we gon’ be there soon.
 
Big K.R.I.T. in the studio with Yelawolf
　
Is there anybody you want to collaborate with on future projects? I know you’re working on an album and everything. So is there anybody out here that you really want to work with that you haven‘t worked with yet?
Man, to definitely get Bun B on a record, Scarface on a record, OutKast, Cee Lo Green, Goodie Mob, 8Ball, MJG. I already got the opportunity to get Wiz (Khalifa), Curren$y, Yelawolf on a record. They’re artists that I definitely see them doing their thing and look up to. And definitely like soul artists. Like I don’t know if ya’ll are familiar with Vivian Green and her song “Emotional Rollercoaster”. Like I don’t know where she at now but to do a record with her, cuz that song was so dope. To be able to do a record with Coldplay. It’s more than just Hip Hop, I’m a producer too so I love all genres of music.
 
Outside the genre of Hip Hop, what artists do you crank to?
Willy Hutch is an artist that I listen to a lot. Him and Bobby Womack cuz they have so much soul in their music. I get a lot of inspiration from listening to their music. It’s kind of what I’m riding to right now just to try to get back to the mood of how I want my album to sound. Real soulful and real heartfelt. It’s nothing better than to listen to those type of singers.
 
Big K.R.I.T. – Now Or Neva
 
You definitely got the soul thing down. But what does K.R.I.T. stand for?
It stands for King Remembered In Time. It’s a humble way of saying I’m going to be the king of what I do. My name, my brand of music, and hopefully I’ll live up to that. It’s definitely a goal you set for yourself and I’ma live up to my name. I promise you.

On DJ Booth’s website, for K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, your representative Goodie Talks was quoted as saying ya’ll dug deep in the crates of music and movie samples. “The first person who can tell us which sample we used will get $1000 cash…” Can you describe the process?
I really came from other producers that did their thing like J. Dilla or Pete Rock, how they chop up samples, and DJ Premier and sometimes he chopped them up so crazy that you couldn’t tell what he sampled so that’s why I was like as a producer it’s an art form in digging in the crates.
 
 
 Big K.R.I.T. – Somedayz
 
Producers like Pete Rock, J. Dilla, DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, they chop up each sample so tough that you can’t tell where they came from and so I want to do the same thing with my samples, like records like Good Enough, if I didn’t let you know what I sampled, you couldn’t tell me. There are definitely other songs where I sampled stuff where it’s real hard to figure out where I chopped the sample, how does the groove go along, really trying to disguise it. Even with the movies, we really wanted to make it special and the dude that’s talking throughout the whole CD, it just all made sense and trying to dig deep and make the project special. And so as a producer, it’s an art form in itself digging in the crates and to see just how much I can chop this sample up. Then you hear it, and you be like “Damn, that’s what you sampled?” Speaking of that, we’re finna drop The Excavation…it’s like all the songs that I sampled, like just the original and then how I sampled them. That’s gonna be coming out very soon.
 
It’s like a double disc type of thing?
No, it’s not a double disc. It’s 22 tracks, but it’s snippets of the samples. Normally it’s the exact part that I sampled, so [this is] just so people can hear how I was inspired by the original song.
 
Big K.R.I.T. performing on the Smokers Club tour (in Houston)
 
Where do you see K.R.I.T. in 5 years?
Branding. I got a group with my big brother Big Sant, the Alumni, we finna start putting out projects. Continue work. Getting hit records under my belt aside from being a rapper, just as a producer and really just making timeless music.

You definitely got the blueprint down for how to get out here and make it. How’s it been so far on Def Jam, being new to the label and trying to get your music out there? How’s the grind been on the business side?
It’s great, man. At the end of the day, it’s really about me continuing the work ethic that I had before the deal went down. It’s definitely been a wonderful experience to be able to give hope to people around me like “Yo, you can do this. It’s possible to be yourself on these songs and a major label get behind you.” Def Jam definitely got big plans for me and what’s finna go down. They’re 100% behind what I got going on alongside Cinematic Music Group so the business part is good. I done went through too much with that to not get it right this time, you feel me?
 

Check out more from Big K.R.I.T.
Myspace – Twitter
You can also currently catch him and others on the Smoker’s Club Tour (get info here).
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Shyne Re-Reneges…

October 27, 2010 JUKEBOXDC Staff News No Comments  
If that makes any sense. You can read the new letter he penned apologizing to L.A. Reid after the jump. Thanks XXL.

A great leader has the unique ability to admit when he’s wrong. Without this ability you suffer the fate of Napoleon and end up dead on your way to Russia.
I was wrong about my assessment of Chairman Reid. After I stopped being all Carl Thomas emotional and things like that, I thought about the facts. Fact is L.A Reid was there when I was locked, a few feet away from death row and the Black Panthers. L.A. was on the visit floor on Rikers Island looking at me through them blinding bars, showing me he believed in that gang boy revolutionary music I make. A bond forged at the nadir of suffering [that’s] unbreakable. That’s why I chose L.A. Reid over all the other distributors. We already went through it. I’ll never forget what L.A. did for me behind that b-wall. Caged like an animal, stripped of all my rights; he gave me freedom— freedom to follow my vision. Freedom to make my momma smile after so many tears and sleepless nights weeping for her baby boy like Rachel the matriarch weeps for the Israelites.
We have to have perspective on the legend [that] L.A. Reid is. 100 million records sold!!! Some of the biggest artists and musicians in the history of popular music have been discovered, mentored or produced by L.A.! Sean Combs and Jermaine Dupri made the biggest hits in music under L.A.’s tutelage. Shyne Po sold almost a million copies from Clinton Maximum Facility with the help of Chairman Reid. Son is one of the best in music—period. More than that, he was the dude that got on the PJ and paid homage to the chief when I was in that cell in them state greens dodging informants and banging on anything that opposed.
I’m loyal to a fault! F#ck it!!! I’m rolling with L.A. “100 Million Sold” Reid ‘til Supreme comes home and runs the rodents outta Queens, N.Y. I’m in it ‘til Sherm “Jonathan Jackson” Worm wins appeal and sits on the throne in Queensbridge. ‘Til Hasan Miller walks out the feds and hops in that four-door Bugatti.
Along with Berry [Gordy], Quincy [Jones] and Russell [Simmons], L.A. Reid opened the door and paved the way for Africans and Latinos to become music moguls and pop culture juggernauts instead of inmates on death row. I pray one day I could discover the next Usher, Toni Braxton, TLC and OutKast; grow the careers of Bon Jovi, The Killers, Pink and legends like Mariah. L.A. Reid has accomplished what most in music never will. Transcending racial barriers before Obama and making music that moves the planet! Put the horse in the bag! If you with me, partner, scream Gangland!!!
“I’m dope boy fresh, Geronimo Pratt. Statue of Liberty sittin’ on my lap, pedal to the floor engine in the back, somebody gotta do it! Mr. Cee light a match!!!
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Kanye West & Jay-Z EP Now Full Album

October 27, 2010 JUKEBOXDC Staff News No Comments  

During Kanye’s recap of Runaway, he tells Sway that his Watch The Throne EP with Jay-Z will be now a full length album. No word as to when it will be released, but so far, producers include Pete Rock, Madlib, and Q-Tip.

“We putting out a whole album now. We had done five [songs] so far, but then a few of them kind of were out there, and I put them on my album. Sorry, Jay. But we got some more, and we’re going to the South of France at the end of the month to just record new ideas. But we’ll probably be done with the album in a day.”
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