One thing that my daily postings has allowed me to do is listen to some music that I wouldn’t otherwise listen to.  Sometimes that is a good thing and sometimes that is a bad thing but at least I get to hear what is going on in the rest of the industry aside from what I personally listen today.  Over the weekend, I listened to two previous releases from some newcomers that I have overlooked for a while.  Both cats have major deals, one with Def Jam and one with Interscope.  Today, I wanted to share some thoughts on Def Jam’s new emcee/producer Big K.R.I.T.  I have been hearing about dude here and there for a while and it has all been pretty positive.  However, I was a little surprised when I heard he had signed to Def Jam only because it didn’t appear that he had that big of a buzz.  Not that there is a problem with that but judging from how cats are getting signed nowadays, it has been based on buzz.  K.R.I.T. has some good people behind him in the forms of Dame Dash and the Creative Control family and everything they have been working on recently seems to be doing well.  So, after remembering that DJBooth.net hosted his album/mixtape, K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, I wanted to listen to see what Def Jam was doing with their new artists.  Upon first listen, I liked K.R.I.T.’s sound.  His sound reminds me of UGK and 3-6 Mafia.   He is definitely from the south but still has that soul to his production and his lyrics.  After a couple more listens, I enjoyed the album even more and found more things I liked.  Although I never heard any lyrics that I needed to run back, dude is definitely one of the southern emcees that brings a more lyrically approach but still keeping it “country” as K.R.I.T. might call it.  On top of his rhymes, he also did all the production on the project.  I think that is the coolest aspect of his game is that he can producer, write songs and rap pretty well.  He also seems to sing a little bit which is dope too.  He has some nice cosigns and now with Def Jam backing him, I can see K.R.I.T. being Def Jam’s version of J. Cole.  I only say that because they both seem to be relatively unknown with major deals.  I look forward to seeing what K.R.I.T. will do in the following years.  I am sure he will be feature on XXL’s Freshman list next year and hopefully he will get a big single and breath some more soul into the mainstream.  Shout out to DJBooth.net for hosting some of hip hop’s freshest voices.  Tomorrow will be another feature from a major label artist doing some cool things.  Happy Monday and check out the video for Hometown Hero and the audio for Country Shit from Big K.R.I.T.  below.