''Live from the Underground'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American rapper and record producer

Big K.R.I.T. Justin Lewis Scott (born August 26, 1986), better known by his stage name Big K.R.I.T. (a backronym for King Remembered in Time), is an American rapper and record producer. Born in Meridian, Mississippi, he started his musical career in 2005. Af ...

It was released on June 5, 2012, by

Cinematic Music Group Cinematic Music Group is an American record label, management, publishing & touring company distributed by Geffen Records founded in 2007 by Jonny Shipes. Their roster as of 2020 consists of Joey Bada$$, Pro Era, T-Pain, Smoke DZA, Va$htie, Mic ...

and

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The ...

. As one of the

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

s on the album, Big K.R.I.T. did the

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

work for the entirety of the project. The album was supported by four

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

s: "Money on the Floor", "I Got This", "Yeah Dat's Me" and "What U Mean".

Critical reception

''Live from the Underground'' received generally positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 78, based on 23 reviews. Adam Fleischer of '' XXL'' praised Big K.R.I.T. for maintaining his "traditionalist Southern aesthetic" and "nuanced sociopolitical themes" from his mixtapes and giving the tracks "a grounded sonic variety" of "sounds reindividually diverse but complementary on the whole", concluding that: "In a time of formulaic approaches to club and radio hits, Big K.R.I.T. is navigating a space of bluesy Southern hip-hop like no artist in recent memory. With ''Live from the Underground'', through deeply authentic takes on his own life and surroundings, the 2011 ''XXL'' Freshman has found a way to create some of the most resonating, least selfish rap music around." Kyle Anderson of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' wrote that: "With its feral lyrical hunger and playful production, ''Live From the Underground'' is the best distillation of the South since OutKast's rule-rewriting heyday."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's David Jeffries gave praise to K.R.I.T. for "keeping quality control at top level" on his debut album by crafting "impeccable" beats and having a "precise and commanding" flow that sells "his exploration of major-label life ("I Got This", "My Sub")" while also delivering "some surprising pop experiments ("If I Fall", "Praying Man"), concluding that: "''Live from the Underground'' winds up both an easy introduction to the man's talents and a crowd-pleasing effort with no stale sell-out aftertaste. He could have gone deeper, but this is certainly deep enough." ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' named ''Live from the Underground'' the eleventh best hip hop album of 2012.

Commercial performance

''Live from the Underground'' debuted at number five on the US ''Billboard'' 200, with first-week sales of 41,000 copies in the United States. As of August 2012, the album sold 83,000 copies in the United States.

Track listing

*All tracks produced by

Personnel

Credits for ''Live from the Underground'' adapted from

. *2 Chainz – vocals *8Ball – vocals *Ian Allen – music business affairs *Eric Bailey – art direction, design, illustrations *Chris Bellman – mastering *Big K.R.I.T. – engineer, mixing, primary artist, producer *Big Sant – vocals *Eric Bisgyer – assistant engineer *C. Bridges (Ludacris) – composer, vocals *Mike Brown – vocal engineer *Leesa D. Brunson – A&R *Ralph Cacciurri – engineer, mixing *D. Copeland (Devin the Dude) – composer, vocals *Vol S. Davis III – music business affairs *Steven Defino – design producer *Andre Drizza – engineer *Chris Ebbert – assistant *Alex Eremin – assistant engineer *Tasha Evans – vocals (background) *Melanie Fiona – vocals *B. Freeman (Bun B) – composer, vocals *M. Goodwin (MJG) – composer, vocals *Tina Guo – cello *Anthony Hamilton – vocals *Keyon Harrold – flugelhorn, horn arrangements, trumpet *Mike Hartnett – bass, guitar *Tony Hightower – vocals (background) *Crystal Holy – vocals (background) *Billy Hume – engineer, guitar, mixing *W. Hutch – composer *Marjoriea Jacobs – vocals (background) *James Kang – assistant engineer *Martin Kearns – keyboards *Brian Kee – assistant engineer *B.B. King – vocals, guitar *Jason Kingsland – engineer *Tai Linzie – art producer *Ms. Linnie – vocals *Pat Postlewait – bass *L. Richie – composer *Tacara Roberts – vocals *Kathy Rodriguez-Harrold – horn arrangements, sax (alto), sax (tenor) *Sha Money XL – A&R, executive producer *Jonny Shipes – A&R, executive producer *DJ Wally Sparks – A&R, scratching, vocals *Steve-O – marketing *Mark Tavern – A&R *Antoinette Trotman – music business affairs *Va$htie – vocals *Lamar Williams – vocals (background) *Tom Wolf – harmonica *Nicole Wyskoarko – music business affairs

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2012 debut albums Big K.R.I.T. albums Def Jam Recordings albums Hip hop albums by American artists Albums produced by Big K.R.I.T. Cinematic Music Group albums