Yesterday, the world lost an icon, B.B. King. The bluesman, who inspired generations of musicians and fans over several decades, was battling diabetes and died in his sleep after being hospitalized for dehydration and exhaustion in his Las Vegas home. Word of his death spread quickly, and many who were influenced by King shared their memories on social media. While musicians (and even President Barack Obama himself) paid tribute to the King of Blues, it was Big K.R.I.T. who shared his fondest memory of working with King back in 2011 for K.R.I.T.'s debut album, Live From the Underground. The young rapper and King collaborated on “Praying Man,” a conceptual song about slavery that still resonates today. Earlier this afternoon, we spoke with Big K.R.I.T. about hearing “The Thrill Is Gone” for the first time, his late grandmother’s love for King’s music, and why he wants to carry on King’s legacy through his own music.
As told to Eric Diep (@E_Diep)
I just remember being young. Playing outside with my friends and all that and coming inside and seeing my grandmother play B.B. King records and play them over the radio. Every time “The Thrill Is Gone” would come on. It’s one of those songs that kind of always affected people the same way as if it’s the first time they heard it. She was such a fan. I think when she heard certain music from him, it always took it back to a certain part, certain moment of her life as well. I would see her just stop or I would see her kind of post-up by the radio and listen. She had a big poster—as soon as you walked in the house and you turn around, it’s right there in the den, a huge poster of B.B. King on the wall. I never saw my grandmother really champion an artist before, or anything of that nature, but B.B. King was one of those people that she definitely listened to a lot and that would definitely be the first artist that she put me on.
I got to the point where I got older and I started to further discover things on my own as far as his music and records that I enjoyed. And actually searching and finding the Completely Well vinyl. iTunes come around and you can buy things of that nature. I feel like to actually have the tangible, vinyl record—being able to discover that he went to a jail and performed “The Thrill Is Gone” at Cook County jail. Things of that nature. When it comes to artistry and the passion of [his] music, it resonated with so many people throughout the world and it just wasn’t from Mississippi. When I go places, trying to embody the same amount of soul, the same amount of grit and be just as humble. He definitely laid a blueprint and being able to do that and put it in your music so well.
When I did [“Praying Man”], I mean, it was after my grandmother has passed that I actually had the opportunity to work with him. I expressed to him that she was the person that put me on his music. You know, it’s really me just paying homage to her for me to work with him because she loved his music so much. It wasn’t from a shock value perspective at all or anything like that. I just wanted to do something where I knew I could tie generations—something that I grew up listening to and bring it into now. And not let it be such a hip-hop record, but somehow make it soulful and make it bluesy—something that he would do on his own but with my twist. And it’d be a song that had content, subject matter.
I was proud to be able to work with him and I was honored. I would like to think that my grandmother would be proud of me too to make that happen.
Being in the studio with him is completely one of those moments where I’m not 100 percent sure [how] it happened. You have stuff that happened and you just looking around and you like, “Yo, is this really going on?” And you find yourself kind of looking at the people that you around, that you know. And staring at them on some like, “Do you see this is B.B. King?” side eye. For him to hear the song and actually like the record and for him to actually be a part of it was mind-blowing too. All I wanted to do was for him to sing the hook originally. After he laid the record, and he laid the hook down, he asked me if I wanted him to play Lucille on the song as well. That was just bonus.
He sat there and he played through the record completely three times straight through. All three times, flawless. I only ended up using one take of the record, so there are two different perspectives that he played. It just showed me how flawless it was and how easy it was for him to tap into the music and dive in and do him. It was mind-blowing to the point where I was in the booth area at the time and he was going over the words. And we were going over the words together. It’s hard to explain. It was an exciting moment and one of those moments where I never forget.
I would like to say that I lost a friend through music. He definitely inspired generations of people. The kind of music he created is gonna live on regardless of the fact [he died yesterday]. I’ma keep championing it. I’ma keep telling people about it. Lord willing, I’ma keep sampling it and putting the youth on to it. For those who don’t know. It would be a shame if people really missed out on the kind of catalog that he had. The kind of passion he had in his music and what he said in his music a lot of times. And just the kind of role model that he was to the people in general. I would like to say that I definitely thought that I was a friend.
