- Born on August 26, 1986 in a small town called Meridian, Mississippi
- Had initial aspirations to be a baseball player, but In his early teens started rapping in around 1999, 2000
- Soon after, he started making beats with a PlayStation game because he couldn’t afford to pay producers for them or buy music equipment
- Began recording songs on a karaoke machine because he couldn’t afford studio time
- Didn’t really take rapping seriously until he dropped his first mixtape, Big K.R.I.T.: See Me On Top, around 2004
- Started connecting with DJs to promote himself as an artist.
- K.R.I.T. wanted to expand outside of his local scene so he began traveling to Atlanta to push his music and network
- He met Atlanta’s DJ Folk (best known for his work with Young Jeezy), and got a song featured on Folk’s mixtape, From the Trap to the Stroll . This was when his underground presence started to buzz.
- K.R.I.T. released his mixtape, See Me on Top 2 in 2007 that was hosted by DJ Folk. It was then that K.R.I.T. decided to move and settle down in Atlanta.
- His reputation grew and hot singles off that project began to attract a fan base.
- Despite his buzz, he was rejected by record labels because his music didn’t sound like what was popular on the radio at the time.
- Cinematic Music Group’s President Jon Shapiro (Jonny Shipes) was introduced to K.R.I.T. by DJ Folk back in 2006. Jonny, who was handling up and comers Sean Kingston and Nipsey Hustle, approached him with a deal, in 2009, to handle his career for 6 months with no obligations or paperwork.
- Within 2 months of this deal with CMG, he released 4 videos and his critically acclaimed mixtape, K.R.I.T. Wuz Here in 2010.
- 2 months after that mixtape was released, Sha Money, who was the VP of Def Jam, reached out to K.R.I.T., and signed him to the record label.
“I played baseball, which is kind of a big thing where I’m from, until high school. I was going to play in college, but I quit on the strength of doing music. I did one year at a community college in my hometown. When I dropped out, there were some deals on the table—it was like, “it’s now or never,” so I did what I had to do for my career.” – Big K.R.I.T.
