BIG K.R.I.T.’s LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND DEBUT ALBUM ON DEF JAM/CINEMATIC EARNS #1 iTUNES OVERALL CHART DEBUT, AND TOP 5 SOUNDSCAN DEBUT ON BILLBOARD 200 !

Def Jam

(June 25, 2012 – New York, NY) In the wake of a colossal #1 iTunes Overall Chart debut for his first official album, LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND, released June 5th on the Def Jam/Cinematic label, Big K.R.I.T. is set to embark on his first major headlining tour of North America, opening July 11th at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit.  The one-month, 27-city tour of the U.S. and Canada concludes on August 12th at the Ritz in Tampa.  After a short break,  Big K.R.I.T. jumps over to Europe for a half-dozen festival and club dates in Switzerland, Norway, Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Holland through the end of August.  (Please see complete itinerary below.)

LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND, which debuted at #5 Soundscan on the Billboard 200 albums chart, is the eagerly awaited follow-up to K.R.I.T.’s series of critically hailed indie mixtapes that he has released over the past seven years.  Critical reaction to LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND was overwhelmingly positive: “K.R.I.T. isn’t flashy,” noted Rolling Stone, “but his spry, liquid verses are full of empathy, even for the haters: ‘It’s hard to celebrate for others when you’re dying poor.’  His underground is open to everyone.”

XXL magazine declared, “Big K.R.I.T. both epitomizes and stands out from today’s crop of young MCs.”  Added Entertainment Weekly, “K.R.I.T. may be transitioning from mixtape favorite to major-label player, but his self-produced space-age funk maintains a coat of thick Mississippi mud.  He uses his new clout to invite guests like Melanie Fiona and Ludacris to sip moonshine and spin backwoods tales of soul survival (‘If I Fall’) and country debauchery (‘What U Mean’).”

A featured artist on MTV’s “Fab 5 Jams” for 2011, K.R.I.T. was also inducted into XXL’s 4th annual Freshman Class lineup (for 2011), and gathered critical raves all year.  The predecessor to LIVE FROM THE UNDERGROUND was 4evaNaDay (K.R.I.T.’s most recent mixtape, released March 2012), the sequel to 2011’s returnof4eva (which has generated over 150,00 album downloads to date).  In praise of the latter, Spin magazine summed up the rapper’s appeal: “Mississippi’s Big K.R.I.T. embodies all the best lyrical elements of Southern rap: street wisdom, freaky sex, car culture, sports metaphors, [and] general weirdness.”

K.R.I.T. celebrated the arrival of 4evaNaDay with a mixtape release show at New York’s Highline Ballroom in March, followed up by the SXSW (South By Southwest) Music Conference, where he headlined BET’s Music Matters and Pandora shows.  In April, Big K.R.I.T. hit the road with platinum rapper J. Cole for a 3-week, 17-city college tour.  During the tour’s final week in May, K.R.I.T. headlined his own Mixshows at the Middle East Club in Boston and Toad’s Place in New Haven.  (Prior to all this, K.R.I.T.’s most recent major tour was 2011’s 31-city North American “Smokers Club Tour” with fellow Island Def Jam acts Method Man and Curren$y.)

Big K.R.I.T. has won over 250,000 Twitter followers and over 150,000 Facebook fans.  returnof4eva’s “Country Sh*t” video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G49Tdw4KDw) has topped 6 million YouTube views.  Also from returnof4eva, “Hometown Hero” boasts over 2.5 million YouTube views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpdX14zmQtI.

Hailing from Meridian, Mississippi, 24-year old Big K.R.I.T. (born Justin Scott) grew up listening to early R&B records in his Grandmother’s house, and his music reflects those influences: “I’m reintroducing a type of sound from the South that a lot of the newer generation doesn’t know about, and reminding the older generation of what Southern hip-hop used to sound like.”  A poet and lyricist since age 14, he was signed to Def Jam by Sha Money XL.

“Underground for me is about being more for the people,” says Big K.R.I.T. “I’m forever underground… With this album, I really sat down as a producer and as an artist and constructed the best beats possible and came up with the best content possible. It just happens to be underground.”

BIG K.R.I.T. SUMMER TOUR ITINERARY

Date                      City                                                Venue
July        11           Detroit, MI                                  St. Andrews Hall
12           Cincinnati, OH                            Madison Theater
13           Chicago, IL                                   Pitchfork Festival
14           Madison, WI                              Barrymoore Theater
15           Iowa City, IA                               Blue Moose
16           Lawrence, KS                             Granada
18           Denver, CO                                 Bluebird Theater
19           Boulder, CO                                Boulder Theater
20           Ft. Collins, CO                            Aggie Theater
21           Salt Lake City, UT                      Urban Lounge
23           Portland, OR                              Hawthorne
24           Vancouver, B.C.                        Fortune Sound Club
25           Seattle, WA                                Neumos
27           San Francisco, CA                     Slim’s
28           Santa Cruz, CA                           The Catalyst
29           Santa Barbara, CA                    Velvet Jones
30           Los Angeles, CA                        El Rey Theater
31           Santa Ana, CA                            Observatory

Aug.       1              San Diego, CA                            Porter’s Pub
2              Tempe, AZ                                  Club Red
3              Tucson, AZ                                  Rialto Theater
4              Albuquerque, NM                   Sunshine Theater
6              San Antonio, TX                        The White Rabbit
7              New Orleans, LA                      House Of Blues
8              Jackson, MS                               Hal And Mal’s
10           Orlando, FL                                 The Beacham
12           Tampa, FL                                    The Ritz

Europe:
Aug.       17           Orpund, Switzerland              Royal Arena Festival
18           Trondheim, Norway               Pstereo Festival
22           Paris, France                              Nouveau Casino
23           London, Eng.                              XOYO
24           Amsterdam, The Neth.         Melkweg
25           Bramer, Holland                       Boogie Down Festival