Big K.R.I.T. Shows How He Makes A Beat From Start To Finish Then Drops A Killer Verse (Video)
Big K.R.I.T. is the latest guest on Mass Appeal’s Rhythm Roulette beat-making challenge. In the series, producers are blindfolded, asked to choose 3 random records and then tasked with making a track using their selections. Many have participated in the series, including Erick Sermon, Just Blaze, El-P and Black Milk, but K.R.I.T. has the distinction of being the first and only participant to make a beat AND rap on his own track.
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Once in the record store and blindfolded, K.R.I.T. digs through bins, eventually picking records by Linda Clifford, Seatrain and The Culture Club. From there, he heads to the studio, where he is joined by Chaka Zulu (co-founder of Disturbing Tha Peace with Ludacris). It’s unclear if it’s the way the episode was edited or a reflection of K.R.I.T.’s production style, but this is one of the most linear installments of Rhythm Roulette yet. K.R.I.T. very methodically explains each record and how he foresees using it to construct his track.
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Starting with Linda Clifford’s I’m Yours album, he senses he will use it as the base of the production. He needle drops through the record finding everything from old Soul to Disco to an uptempo, funky selection. Given his penchant for soulful burners, he gravitates to that section as well as the Funk portion, opting to pass on the Disco bit. From there, he moves on to Seatrain. The late 60s/early 70s roots band’s music is a combination of piano-driven, soulful rock. Next up is Culture Club. After listening to a melodic keyboard section, K.R.I.T. looks up, smiles and says with excitement “they were using different instruments back then…You could get everything from a keyboard back then. Yamaha made a killing back then. Yamaha was winning. Shit!” He also finds some big drums from the record.
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Armed with his sounds, K.R.I.T. commences to piece together the production. Starting with the soulful selection from Linda Clifford, he lays the track’s melody. He then moves to her Funk section to fatten it up. From there, he creates the drum pattern, using the Culture Club sounds, before layering in the piano from Seatrain. Tapping and humming, you can see and hear his mind working.
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As the soulful concoction nears completion, Chaka Zulu mentions that it sounds like a track that is ripe for a “Southern version” of Ice Cube’s “It Was A Good Day.” Taking the cue, K.R.I.T. is inspired to create a verse and hook for the song. Excited by the fact that he is about to become the first to produce and rap during a Rhythm Roulette, he says “The difference…I can rap too!” He spends some time writing the song, steps in the booth and confidently knocks it out of the park.