Big K.R.I.T. @Forecastle Festival 7/17/15 Live Review

Big K.R.I.T. is truly one of the best rap artists out right now. He showed that last night at Forecastle Festival. Putting his heart and soul into every lyric he uttered and truly speaking his mind through his music. You can’t find that at too many rap shows nowadays. He even came out a few minutes early which that has NEVER happened at a rap show I’ve been at.

You could see the fire in his eyes from the start. He drove through his whole catalog of music from old hits such as “Rotation” and “Country Shit” to new hits such as “Mt. Olympus” and “My Sub Pt.3”. With the audience jumping and flailing around and shouting the lyrics right back at him you could tell it was influencing K.R.I.T. to go harder. You could see the sweat pouring off his face and flying off of him as he jolted around the stage. I’m not for sure if it was because he was rapping his ass off or if that it was in the mid eighties with very high humidity.

Touching on every album/mixtape he has out right now, Big K.R.I.T. even added an amorous vibe to the audience with “Let Me Fuck Your Brains Out” and “Pay Attention”. Saying “I’m just trying to help y’all fellas out right now”. Over all he just seemed really comfortable on stage and delighted to be performing in the South.

There was also a guest appearance. Big K.R.I.T. brought out one the rappers he listened to growing up, Talib Kweli. Talib performed his classic song “Get By”. He was in Louisville because he was performing later that night at the Mercury Ballroom as a part of Forecastle’s late night series.

K.R.I.T. broke down near the end of the concert into “The Vent”, dedicating it to “Whoever knows someone who is going through a struggle”. He has to be one of the most humble rappers. He continuously mentioned throughout his show how grateful he was to all the fans that support him and his music. At the end of the show he ran down to the end of the gate by the stage, then walked down the entire row of metal gates and thanked everyone that was lined up, shook their hands, and took pictures with them. You could just tell how sincere the man was.

Touch Down 2 Cause Hell- Boosie Badazz Review

Touch Down 2 Cause Hell marks Boosie Badazz’s first album since his release from prison in the march of 2014. This is the first album from Boosie Badazz I have listened to and I can tell you that I am very pleased.

The album surpassed my expectations by far, granted my expectations for the album weren’t all that high. I thought this album was going to be a typical new era trap cut with no depth to it all. I found myself wrong. This album is riddled with true stories of Boosie’s trials and tribulations. Including growing up poor, struggles with gang life, and his infamous five-year stint in the penitentiary for miscellaneous drug charges.

Boosie also touches on the racial tensions that are near an all time high right now on the tracks “Black Heaven” and “Hands Up”. “Black Heaven” transcends black culture by creating a black heaven, in which Boosie comments what major black figure heads from the past are doing in heaven right now. “Hands Up” addresses police brutality against unarmed civilians and the bias of the judicial system when it comes to cases like that, more specifically the Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin cases.

The album features Rick Ross, J. Cole, Rich Homie Quan, Young Thug, and more. Boosie found just the right mix of underground and mainstream sound for this album. He delivers witty lyrics that have meaning behind them while recruiting some of his features to bring the mainstream sound to his album. It’s a good formula for commercial success in my opinion, spit some real bars over a great beat then have a Rick Ross type rapper come on the track and spit a good verse with no substance to it.

This album does have its downfalls though. Some of the features I think Boosie is just to good for. Such as Young Thug on the track “On Deck”, I feel like Young Thug brings the song down. He doesn’t bring anything to the table, just his shrieking voice over the hook that Booise would’ve done better himself. On a couple of tracks Boosie finds himself falling into the dreaded clichéd mainstream sound, only rapping about molly, women, and money. You can hear this sound the most on the track  “On That Level”.

For having nineteen songs this album manages to minimize filler songs, the only two in my opinion being “On That Level” and “How She Got Her Name”. If this album was a couple of songs shorter I would rank it a tad higher, but I am giving this album a 7 out of 10. The harsh realness of this album really propels it. Boosie has turned me into a fan. I look forward to what he has next