Big K.R.I.T. Artistfacts

August 26, 1986
Big K.R.I.T. was born in Mississippi and played in the school orchestra as a child. He used to play tuba and believes he can still play as the instrument is has only 3 buttons.
At age 12, Big K.R.I.T. started rapping and trying to find his own voice. He released his first mixtape when he was just 18 and was quickly signed to Def Jam Recordings only 2 years later.
Growing up in Mississippi, Big K.R.I.T. can relate to other rappers who feel segregated. The rapper says influences like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X inspired a whole generation to stand up and make change. Big K.R.I.T. told Hip Hop DX that civil rights activists taught him that he needed to stop rapping for himself and his city and start making music that's special to everybody.
In 2011, Big K.R.I.T. told The Boombox that even though he's not a political person, he's glad to see people taking a stance, like the protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement. He's also happy that there are artists out there that take the focus off themselves and put aside their music in order to support the movement.
In 2011, Big K.R.I.T. collaborated with the Philadelphia Hip-Hop/R&B band The Roots. The rapper appeared on a song called "Make My" from The Roots' album Undun. Big K.R.I.T. says his dream collaboration is to work with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Although he's come close to hooking up with Sharon Jones before, as of 2012 the collaboration had yet to happen.
When it comes to sampling, Big K.R.I.T. likes to take songs that aren't obvious so that the result sounds like his own creation. He cites producers like Pete Rock, J Dilla, and 9th Wonders as masters of this type of sampling. Big K.R.I.T. says he likes to take electric guitar riffs from bands like Whitesnake and The Scorpions and make them sound bigger than they did in the original versions of the songs.

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