Big K.R.I.T. makes thick, melodic hip-hop with a Southern twang. He crafts it all by himself – he’s the most recent rapper credited with both producing his beats and writing his rhymes. And he didn’t emerge from one of the usual Third Coast rap incubators, like Atlanta, Houston or Memphis; he’s from Meridian, Miss. K.R.I.T.’s by-the-bootstraps backstory lends the man born Justin Scott the sort of all-American appeal many seek in a rap musician. The lineage to which he lays claim – OutKast, UGK, 8-Ball & MJG – is one over which most rap fans still linger.
