Yeah we had issues with his major label debut, 2012’s Live From The Underground, but when Big K.R.I.T. returns to his mixtape roots, he’s unfuckwitable. Released in April, King Remembered In Time is the Mississippi Man’s tenth mixtape and he sounds as sharp and poignant as ever.

My favorite sequence begins with the anthemic “King Without A Crown,” where Krit spits, “I make my own beats/I write my own rhymes/I grip my own grind/I grip my own grain.” The following “REM” features James Blake’s “The Wilhelm Scream” sample, and Krit defends his place in the rap game. “One album I’m still kicking/Def Jam, tell em I’m still with it/Tell ’em I’m still winning/Tell em I’m still in it.” Then he addresses fans: “All that still hear me/Pray that they still get it/I feel like I failed y’all/It’s hard to live with it.”

But Krit won’t let the stress get to him. On “Meditate”, he details his battles with alcohol. “To be real I don’t think you feel me at all/Can you hear me at all?/Can you steer me at all?/To the liquor store.” Thankfully Krit comes to his senses by the song’s close. He spoken words: “I’ve still lost, but I love and I’m living/There’s nothing better in this world than to be for sure/And I’m sure, I’m sure enough in what I do, and how I do it.”

Krit retains his strong identity even when collaborating with others. A snippet of “Just Last Week” showed that his Future feature was not like the rest. And don’t scoff at the inclusion of Trinidad James on “My Trunk”, he fits the cruising music correctly and reveals, “Half these young niggas on rims/But my Chevy sit on rallys.”

Like a baseball team in the bottom of the ninth, KRIT has come back like a champion to remind folks of his place in the Southern rap landscape. Remember? Muthafucka this is Justin Scott. Salute!—YN