Big K.R.I.T. Explains Why He’s Rapping Harder on New Trans-Galactic LP ‘Cadillactica’

You’re singing a little on this record. Do you ever get nervous or self-conscious when you have to sing?
Nah, because I sing out of necessity sometimes. A lot of my hooks, back in the day, I sung because there was nobody to sing the records for me, so I had to sing ’em. And you get onstage and you sing and you find out people don’t mind your tone – cause I’m not trying to kill it. I’m not like overly doing it. I’m calm, I’m in my key, my register, and we keep it moving, man. I feel people can see through the fact that I’m not the top singer on the planet and just know that I mean it.

It’s evident you stepped it up lyrically on this album. Is this something you consciously did?
I think it was time to go back. You get in the point where people tell you, “Man, you know, people need to be able to rap your songs.” And you get caught up in that. So, I wasn’t all that caught up in it this time. I was really on some like, “I want you to listen, I pray you get something from it, but I want to tell you something.”

This is a headphone listen. This is not a go to the club…
It might not be in the club, but from your house to the club, or maybe when you’re leaving the club. You could be leaving the club, going home, you gonna put my album on. If you goin’ to work you gonna put my album on. If you happen to be makin’ an hour-and-a-half drive, you gonna put my album on, because people spend more time in their car then they do in clubs.

“I can do whatever on this planet. Music is just supposed to be that free.”

How do you train for rapping twice as fast?
A lot of records I made before the “Control” verse came out. Then the “Control” thing happened and it was positivity there, because I understand hip-hop is competitive. But there was a lot of negativity that I’d never experienced before in my career. It was people that never even noticed my music and because of that, they prejudged what my music may have been. So with that, it kind of threw me into an overdrive to do a “Mt. Olympus.” To start, “Aight, with these records, I’ma go in even harder,” because now I know that Cadillactica might be the album that people may first hear from me. So I went back to my house. I went back to just recording in my room. I went back to writing as much as I could and not focusing on metaphors so much, but saying exactly what I meant to say and doing it my way.

So, there’s part of you that is out to impress people?
Always. I always wanted to prove myself. I think I naturally can’t help but want to do something and push the boundaries. I don’t think I’ll ever become comfortable with just being here. I always want to take it further.

Have you and Kendrick ever talked about this?
Nah, nah, nah. I totally get where he was comin’ from, lyrically. For me, but I haven’t had the opportunity to have a conversation with him, but, to me, it ain’t no bad blood.

Did you find it inspirational the way Lupe Fiasco or Kid Cudi just said, “Forget it. I’m stepping out of this lane and creating my own lane.”
Yeah, because, at the end of the day, I look at Outkast. When you say, “Man, what kind of music does Outkast make?” You be like, “They make Outkast music.” What kind of music does N.E.R.D. make? They make N.E.R.D. music. I want to be one of those people, because there’s so many layers to the music I create that I don’t want people to expect me to do one thing. So with this album I think I was able to start to show ’em like, “Aww, shit.”

So if someone calls you a “country rapper” after this record comes out?
I mean, I’ll take that amongst all the other things that most people may call me. They might be like, “Damn, K.R.I.T. is a soul singer,” and I’ll be like, Yeah, you right. And on top of that, I’m a lyricist, and on top of that, I’m also a producer and all these things. Then, at the end of the day, when they comprise all of that, hopefully they’ll be like, “Man, K.R.I.T. is K.R.I.T.”