This one works a little better than K.R.I.T. Wuz Here because it’s much more focused. K.R.I.T.’s lacking some of his Pimp C sneer here, but the byproduct of that calculated snarl was that it kinda created these weird pockets of energy that the record couldn’t otherwise keep up, and just by avoiding that, this one can really glide along. Dude seems to be transitioning, for better and worse, into a conscious rapper and that’s not a bad look for him. “Another Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism” is probably my favorite track and it gets into that weird area where it’s straight up corny and full of platitudes but still makes me like, cry it’s so intense and heartfelt. But there are also these little things that suggest K.R.I.T. doesn’t have a good sense of what he’s doing or is a little too focused on his retro aesthetic to get some outside feedback. Return Of 4Eva has 3 intro songs. Two songs in a row interpolate Dungeon Family songs. We go from “I’m just rotatin’ my tires, I’m just rotatin’ my tires” to “My sub my sub my sub,” and it’s like what dude? He knows how to make a platonically good album because he grew up listening on UGK and Outkast, and that could make him a total fucking threat if he is indeed, as I suggest in my Spin review, working his way through his influences until he breaks through to something new.
Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader?
“Return of 4eva” may have 3 intro songs, but two of them are pretty damn good intro songs. I am turning around on my intial impression of “Return of 4eva”, as I cannot dislike the production that is on the album. I agree that Big K.R.I.T. is better off staying away from his inner Pimp C, because listening to this back to back with UGK makes it painfully obvious that Big K.R.I.T. is still finding his voice. But, I would love to have heard T.I. from 2003 on top of some of these beats, as “My Sub” is a perfect mid 2000s crunk song with the wrong rapper on it.
dalatu
6 May 11 at 12:31 am
Ha, good point. I think KRIT’s conviction can make these weird choices more glaring, but yeah, I’m totally rooting for this guy ultimately and he’s better off moving away from his “ignorant” Southern influences. In a way, this dude’s what David Banner was supposed to be! But yeah, these fucking beats man. Even how Luda destroys “Country Shit.”
Brandon
7 May 11 at 3:00 am
[...] project finding it to be something I’ve already heard before from countless southern artists. Some have suggested this is K.R.I.T.’s way of finding his own vision for his forthcoming Def Jam debut and this is a [...]
KeithCharles Spacebar “BeforeCommonEra” – Members Only
19 May 11 at 8:42 pm