**THIS STORY APPEARS IN THE JUNE 2012 ISSUE OF XXL.

Words C. Vernon Coleman II
Images Zach Wolfe

K.R.I.T. was here. At least he was a few seconds ago. The 25-year-old Mississippi rapper was right here at the edge of a parking lot in Northwest Atlanta, talking about he needed to find an outlet for his barber to plug clippers into. He was hoping for a quick cut before a photo shoot on this cloudless mid-April afternoon. But now he’s missing.

After a short search, Justin “Big K.R.I.T.” Scott is found in the women’s bathroom of the nearby Johnstone Supply, getting a fresh two-blade. How a young Black fella with sagging cargo shorts, “True Blue” Air Jordan 3s and a shirt that reads, “Fuck These Haters & Fuck These Hoes,” managed to convince the store’s old, steely White managers to let him use their business’ commode as his personal grooming space is anyone’s guess. Call it Southern charm.

That charm, along with a buttermilk flow and uncanny honesty, is why K.R.I.T. (an acronym for “King Remembered In Time”) is often mentioned as one of the best young talents in hip-hop today. He’s no overnight sensation, that’s for sure: He’s put in work since 2005, when he dropped the first of his six mixtapes. In March 2010, he joined forces with New York indie imprint Cinematic Music Group, with whom he has released his last three, K.R.I.T. Wuz Here (2010), Return of 4Eva (2011) and 4evaNaDay (2012). K.R.I.T. wrote and produced every soul-steeped track on these “free albums,” as he calls them, capturing the ears of hip-hop purists, backpackers and Southern rap dignitaries alike with a sound reminiscent of the Dirty’s mid-’90s golden era. He also has a growing list of production credits for established stars like T.I. (“I’m Flexin’”), Chris Brown (“Yoko”) and 8Ball & MJG (“We Buy Gold”). Now comes his major label debut, Live from the Underground, out on Def Jam Recordings in June.

“People expect that type of quality from me now,” he says, sitting in a dimly lit room at Atlanta’s Parhelion Recording Studios a few hours after the photo shoot. “I don’t want to let anybody down. I want people to see there will always be some kind of consistency. That is extremely important to me. I got to keep the consistency.”

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He’s been keeping it for a long time. Raised in the small eastern Mississippi city of Meridian by his parents, who separated when he was young, and his paternal grandmother, “Ms. Lenny,” K.R.I.T. set aside professional baseball ambitions for music making in high school. “I sold my first beat in 11th grade,” he recalls. “That fucked me up. It’s like, I can go out here and make money right then.”

After a short stint at Meridian Community College, he left school to pursue his rap dreams. He released two solo mixtapes, See Me on Top Vol. I & II, and began traveling to and from Atlanta to promote his records using cash he made selling beats to local rappers. In 2007, Cinematic head honcho Jonny Shipes, a former club promoter who managed L.A. rapper Nipsey Hu$$le, reached out to K.R.I.T. via MySpace. “I started stalking him,” says Shipes of his long courtship. “I told him, ‘Yo, I can do this, this and this for you.’ He literally thought I was some crazy kid from New York.”

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Two years later, in late 2009, K.R.I.T.’s career was stalling out. Money was tight; he’d been evicted from his home. “When I called him that last time, he said he was walking to the store with the last change he had,” recounts Shipes, who never wavered in his pitch. “He was like, ‘Fuck it. Come down, let’s try it.’”

In January 2010, Shipes flew to Mississippi with a camera crew to shoot a video for K.R.I.T.’s mixtape heater “Hometown Hero.” The next day K.R.I.T. learned his grandmother had passed away. “You are moving so much and thinking you have plenty of time to do this and that, and something like that happens,” says K.R.I.T., shaking his head at the memory. “That changes everything.”

Refocused, with a now-or-never mindset, he went to work on K.R.I.T. Wuz Here. A compilation of old and new songs, that fourth mixtape captured the pulse of the Southern hip-hop community—and the ear of former G-Unit records president Sha Money XL, who signed K.R.I.T. to a deal shortly after Sha became senior VP of A&R at Def Jam in June 2010. Two years, two mixtapes, four tours, one XXL Freshmen issue cover (in 2011) and two proclamations of “Big K.R.I.T. Day” later (he was honored on October 2 in Meridian and on April 4 in Lauderdale County, Mississippi), Live from the Underground comes as a hard-won victory for perseverance.

Spearheaded by the shake-joint anthem “Money on the Floor” featuring 8Ball & MJG and 2 Chainz, and the rambunctious second single “I Got This,” Live boasts features from Bun B, Anthony Hamilton, Melanie Fiona and a slow-cooked cut entitled “The Praying Man” with fellow Mississippian and legendary bluesman B.B. King.

“I’ve dropped enough music for people to understand where I’m going,” K.R.I.T. says. “It’s about being able to put K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, Return of 4Eva and 4evaNaDay together and making one body of music. Personal, but not so personal you can’t relate. Soulful, but not so soulful you can’t get excited. It’s still performance-based. But it’s all ride, get-to-where-you- going music.”

Will Live be enough to get K.R.I.T. where he wants to go, though? Will it push him into the upper echelon of national rap acts? After all, his MO is more homely than Hollywood. And his reserved demeanor doesn’t scream superstar. “He’s on the path of becoming a great force in hip-hop,” says Houston luminary Bun B, who appeared on K.R.I.T.’s “Country Shit (Remix)” last summer. “In the meantime, just let the brother make some music. That’s how he wants to do it—just really try to make some music he feels represents him. We ought to give him a chance to do that.”

The pressure is on. K.R.I.T. is an artist many see as a torchbearer for the South’s next wave. For now, however, he continues to focus on his craft. “Whether I’m considered the next great or not, I’ve had the opportunity to show you can be yourself minus the smoke and mirrors, the jewelry and all that,” says K.R.I.T. “And it’s okay. I just want to make timeless music.”

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