Originally published by EveryDejaVu on November 11, 2014.
Big K.R.I.T. – Cadillactica
By Zach Haught
Over the past few years, Big K.R.I.T. has suffered from the same challenge many others from the new school face: when it comes time to drop your debut album, how do you top your mixtapes? K.R.I.T. had been releasing mixtapes for years but didn’t manage to get any attention until his back-to-back classics K.R.I.T. Wuz Here and Returnof4Eva. 4Eva n a Day continued his positive standing with fans and critics, but this success did not come without a price. His debut album, Live from the Underground, dropped during the summer of 2012 and left many wondering where the magic of the tapes went. There were underdeveloped songs and tracks that needed those samples they couldn’t get cleared to work. On top of that though, Live from the Underground felt a bit stale. That’s not to say the album didn’t have its fair share of great songs, but his music had gotten to a point where you knew exactly what you were going to get. This issue continued onto his King Remembered In Time mixtape, although one could get the sense that he was making attempts to step out of his comfort zone with tracks like “R.E.M.”
It’s this level of familiarity that comes with most new K.R.I.T. songs that makes aspects of Cadillactica so rewarding. The album kicks off immediately in unfamiliar territory, taking the listener to the album’s titular planet through “Kreation (Intro)” and “Life.” K.R.I.T. ventures into a new realm of futuristic, out-of-this-world production, but it’s not so jarring that he sounds out of place on his own production. This intergalactic journey continues with the DJ Dahi and DJ Khalil produced title track, which even if the track wasn’t fantastic (which it is), should be noted for breaking K.R.I.T.’s trend of entirely self-producing.
Outside of otherworldly production, K.R.I.T. continues to experiment in other areas. “Pay Attention,” produced by Jim Jonsin, Rico Love, and Finatik & Zac, is Krizzle’s most radio-ready song to date. That being said, the strip club anthem remains one of the highlights of the album. “King of the South” takes a sinister, almost futuristic sound to the streets for what is sure to be a banger in rotation for months to come. “Saturdays = Celebration” is notable purely for the fact that it’s the first time an Alex da Kid-produced track didn’t make me want to hit the next button immediately. The epic sounds of beat and hook provided by Jamie N Commons sound tailor-made for use in ads for TNT’s next action-drama series or NBA game, so be on the lookout for that within the next few months.
Beyond these tracks, K.R.I.T. remains true to his usual tricks. However, he manages to make them feel fresh in a way that they haven’t in the past year or two. Whether it’s movies or music, sequels are usually disappointing, but K.R.I.T. manages to breathe new life into his trunk-rattling series with “My Sub Pt. 3 (Big Bang).” Rather than trying to recapture the magic of the previous addition to the trilogy, each brings something new to the table with this one taking a minimalistic approach. “Do You Love Me” is familiar in both production style and content, but something about this song just flat out works. Mara Hruby, K.R.I.T.’s girlfriend, provides a beautiful hook from the perspective of a car. Songs like “Mind Control” and “Mo Better Cool” both feel incredibly familiar upon first listen but are far too catchy not to enjoy, despite disappointing showings from E-40 and Wiz Khalifa on the former.
K.R.I.T. is never lyrically disappointing, and it’s rare to find him on a bad beat. This album suffers from different reasons entirely. Even on his best projects, length always seems to be an issue. There is always a few tracks that might not be bad, but they should have been excluded for either not being strong enough or retreading concepts that have already been covered. The main song that comes to mind here is “Angels.” I don’t dislike the song, but it adds nothing to the project and makes the last portion of the album more of a chore to listen to than it should be. You never want an album to overstay its welcome.
When this album ventures into sonically fresh sounds, it is truly at its best. As strong as some of the “classic K.R.I.T. songs” on here are, I wish the experimental nature of the first half of the album wasn’t more or less abandoned during the second half. If K.R.I.T. continues to push his limits and finds new ways to keep his sound interesting, I have no doubt he could craft an 11 to 12 song album that stands out as a contender for his magnum opus.