While it’s 100% true that I’m a Big K.R.I.T. “stan”, don’t get it twisted…that doesn’t mean that he can never do wrong in my eyes. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to like every single song he makes, and it damn sure doesn’t mean that I’m going to make excuses for anything he does wrong. But what it does mean, is that I believe in the guy enough to introduce more and more new people to his music every day, hoping it will feed their soul the way it feeds mine. I see his vision clear as day and I support him, like I support many other artists. I don’t give a flying fuck if you hate Big K.R.I.T., because that says way more about you than it does him.
So, with that said…
This is my favorite album of K.R.I.T.’s. I wasn’t expecting it to be at all, honestly..but it is. I usually take a serious liking to an artist’s more personal projects because I’m a very emotional chick and I love to hear the realness of it all. Fuck what the label wants me to hear, I want you to give me what you want me to hear. Take Beyonce’s “4” for example. An album she poured her all into, and gave no fucks about making hits necessarily. She broke all of her own rules, took creative control and did what she wanted to do and told her story the way she wanted to…and not many people liked “4” as much as her other studio albums, but to me it’s her best work because it’s her most honest work. For those same reasons, I feel this is K.R.I.T.’s best work…this is who he is. Take it or leave it.
If I hadn’t heard any of K.R.I.T.’s music prior to this album, I’d still be able to listen and figure out what kind of man he is, how he’s feeling right now, where he’s been and where he wants to go. This is the album that I can tell people to listen to if they want to know exactly who Big K.R.I.T. is. 4evaNaDay is about his growth and his new experiences from K.R.I.T. Wuz Here and Return of 4eva. This is definitely his most personal and most vulnerable work to date. He literally took us on a beautifully produced and impeccably mixed journey through his mind, and his heart. This album has me looking at him in an entirely different light. I’m amazed and floored by his creativity, vision, and execution. 4evaNaDay has ZERO features. Who’s doing that these days? K.R.I.T. knew that the only person who could tell his story was K.R.I.T.. The personal conversation with his dad, Grandma Linnie’s super sweet voice, the relationship frustrations with his girl as he battles the need for success versus love, and whether or not he can juggle both, are reasons why this album resonates with your human side. Knowing him thru K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, Return of 4eva, and all of his songs prior to those — you can’t help but feel closer to him after hearing 4evaNaDay, as well as having more respect for him. K.R.I.T. knocked down his walls with this album and really gave us more of him as a person. Listen to the lyrics. I beg of you to please pay attention to them, because aside from the flawless production, the lyrics make this album so incredibly special and mature. It’s 100% Justin Scott…and it’s free. I listen to many different rappers for many different reasons…but whenever I want the truth I listen to K.R.I.T..
When I first heard 4evaNaDay all the way thru, I didn’t know what to think. My reaction was the same with K.R.I.T. Wuz Here and Return of 4eva. I was numb and I couldn’t form an immediate opinion. Mainly because I was trying to soak in the amount of awesome I just heard. Coupled with his super honest lyrics and amazing production, all I could do was sit there stunned. DJ Wally Sparks advised me not to skip around on this album, not that I ever would, but because this is a conceptual album that’s meant to be played from beginning to end, I had to obey him. I didn’t want to ruin my own experience, so I started from “8:04” and ended at “The Alarm”. I froze. It’s incredibly well-crafted and just fucking gorgeous. I immediately burned it, threw it in my car, and fell even deeper in love with it. I could hear everything the way I was meant to hear it, and it gave me life like a motherfucker. I love every crevice of this album, and I wouldn’t change a thing. You either get 4evaNaDay, or you don’t.
This album ties together into a beautiful story of a young man realistically chasing his dream and stumbling along the way. The album starts with K.R.I.T. giving himself a morning pep-talk, on top of a super jazzy and soothing beat, assuring himself that he’s going to have a great day no matter what. However, that tricky thing we call life happens…and things don’t go as planned. Grandma Linnie’s peaceful voice on “Yesterday” reminds K.R.I.T. to always thank God and stay blessed, then we get into the meat and potatoes of the album. K.R.I.T. gives an energetic middle-finger to his haters and nay-sayers on the title track “4EvaNaDay” — “My mama said wassup, bitch! How ya feel?”, and then throws us into the passenger seat of one of the best songs he’s ever produced, “Me and My Old School”. A SICK and insanely groovy track about his candy-painted time machine. I never thought he could outdo “Rotation” and “Time Machine”, but “Me and My Old School” is so much more grown up and has a much more soulful feeling to it — an instant classic. We celebrate the year K.R.I.T. was born on the super jammin “1986”, a track laced with relevant throwback references and actual factuals significant to Justin Scott. As we begin to really jam to it, he switches up the beat similar to what he did with “My Sub”, and it turns into an entirely different song. It’s so dope, one of my favorites on the album. The bittersweet “Down & Out” is a hopeful ‘keep your head up’ record with a beat that won’t bring you down at all. It makes you wanna say “Fuck it, I’m gonna just try to be happy anyway”. K.R.I.T. puts you in a hazy Dramamine mood with “Sky Club”, a song about what he experiences at his live shows, the groupies, the fans, the stress, flying back and forth from city to city and how he stays cool thru it all. He’s never afraid to talk about the not-so-pretty side of real life — he’s done so with “They Got Us”, “American Rapstar”, “2000 & Beyond” and more. On the record “Package Store”, K.R.I.T. gets gritty and spits a suspenseful and raw vocal visual of community struggle, hostility, and vicious cycles. He has an amazing ability to tell stories so vividly, its as if you’re right there watching it thru his eyes. He raps about his own struggles while holding the mirror up to your face as well, like on the gut-wrenching track “Alarm”. He cries out to those who are lost and get caught up in the glitter of the spotlight to wake up and stop being blind to their bullshit…“Do you believe…that doin right will make you richer, and just because you paid these white folks still won’t call you ‘nigger’?” — say that!! From his love for strippers and the need for their distraction from his shitty day on the super knockin and hip-rolling “Temptation”, to his drunken honesty on “Handwriting” — a gripping and frustrating spazz about his industry woes, gumption, and whether he should quit music entirely or keep going — K.R.I.T. keeps it real. “Handwriting” displays K.R.I.T.’s cadence in a way I’ve never heard, I was really impressed with the entire mood of the song — it’s one of the most important records he’s ever done. Then there’s “Red Eye”, a track where K.R.I.T. paints out his relationship problems in black and white but somehow keeps it neutral. You understand where his girlfriend is coming from, you understand where he’s coming from, and all you can do is hope they work it out. Easily one of the realest songs ever made. As K.R.I.T.’s emotional roller coaster of a day winds down, he calls his girl for some adult fun to make up for his lack of “give a fuck” from earlier in the day. Things get very explicit as they make-up on the song “Insomnia” — a moment on the album when every woman who’s in love with K.R.I.T. pretends she’s the chick making all of the super horny moans while bent over with his hands on her hips, gripping a fistful of her hair (or maybe that’s just me lol). “Insomnia” is a seductive love song and reminder for the one lady who’s held K.R.I.T. down since the beginning, that he ain’t going nowhere — even my stan ass can’t be mad at that lol. There’s a guitar solo in the song that awakens your libido and might even cause you to reach over, grab your phone and call the one person who helps you sleep ;)
K.R.I.T. is definitely putting his name in that “Dopest Producers Ever” hat, because 4evaNaDay is fucking stellar and has totally exceeded my expectations. His production simply gets better with time. The instrumentation of this album is just a preview of what we’ll get from Live From the Underground and I cannot fucking wait. The music seduces you and soaks into your old-school bones, causing your body to make movements that you cannot control nor should you attempt to. K.R.I.T. has been giving you chicken soup for your country soul since he started rapping, and you can’t be mad at that. 4evaNaDay is a warm welcome into K.R.I.T.’s world where you immediately learn what’s so important to him — remaining true to himself. You can’t listen to any K.R.I.T. album like an album full of singles, either — he’s not that type of artist. He gives a fuck. He’s a perfectionist. Far too much effort has gone into each track for it to be treated like a desperate and annoying radio single. Maybe there will be a time for on-purpose radio singles, but for right now he’s giving us the real. These are songs that will tell his story to every new ear that hears it, so it has to be right for him because once it’s out, it’s out. K.R.I.T.’s work ethic and integrity won’t allow him to put out a song that he doesn’t believe in. That’s why I fuck with it so hard. “If it don’t touch my soul, then I can’t listen to it”.
If you can come up with a reason to hate on K.R.I.T., you’d have to be trying really fucking hard. And there are people out there who try really fucking hard to find reasons to hate him. It’s usually the ones who would rather listen to a commercialized lie to them and paint an unreal fuckass picture of a life they wished they lived, or they simply hate him because he’s becoming successful without needing to tear someone else down — a rarity. K.R.I.T. doesn’t make hateful music. He isn’t living a life he’s never lived. He’s me and you. He isn’t on some“Fuck THIS rapper and I’m BETTER than the next man, shit I’m better than YOU!” type shit, like so many other egotistical dickwads in hip hop. He’s real, he’s humble, he’s kind and he belongs here. He makes you party, he makes you think, he makes you horny, he brings awareness, he makes you cry, he makes you want to take control of your life, but he always makes you jam. If you don’t like his actual music — that’s fine. You either fuck with it or you don’t. But you really can’t hate on a guy like Big K.R.I.T.. To hate K.R.I.T. is to hate the truth.
K.R.I.T. Wuz Here and Return of 4eva are also honest reflections and confessions of Big K.R.I.T., and in my opinion cannot be compared to each other because they’re both incredible and very important chapters of his legacy. They’re the stepping stones that bring us to where K.R.I.T. is today, and where he is today is different than where he was with K.R.I.T. Wuz Here and Return of 4eva. Get out of your comfort zone and realize that he cannot make the same album over and over again just to please you, he’s growing and you should too. Dealing with his demons all while trying to keep the faith, K.R.I.T. opens up like he’s never opened up before on 4evaNaDay..making it a beautifully wrought soundtrack of honesty, and a day that I never want to end.
He promised you timeless music, and that’s exactly what he gave you…for free. And to that I say, thank you Krizzle <3
#K4L
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