Big K.R.I.T. - Hometown Hero (f/ Yelawolf)

Hip hop, man. There are just so many words.

This might be my favorite hip hop song of the year. We're into September now, so that's saying something. It has at least three great things going for it:

(1) The "Friday Night Lights" lead-in
(2) That sample, especially in the chorus
(3) Yelawolf's incredible second verse (by the way, Yelawolf looks like this. Who saw that coming?)

That's a pretty good list of positives.

On the other hand, though ... this song has some of the worst single lines I've heard all year. The Kim Kardashian reference in the first verse is just record-skip bad, and both Ilana and Elliot seized on it right away the first time they heard this song. For some people, I think it could be enough to ruin the whole thing. It doesn't quite fit rhythmically, it doesn't rhyme, it doesn't really connect to anything else in the verse. Plus, a reference like that just completely dates a song. Imagine listening to this in ten years. You'll either laugh or just be totally confused. There's no way you'll nod your head sagely, like "Ah yes, Kim Kardashian, what an apt reference that was."

But ... if your job is to just talk as fast as you can for four minutes, don't we have to cut you some slack for one bad line (though the "picture in her locket" line from the third verse also makes me cringe pretty bad)? Have you ever looked at the liner notes for a rock album? With all the repeated choruses and instrumental sections, it's often amazing just how few words are involved. Your average rap song is a novella by comparison.

So I guess I'm willing to give Big K.R.I.T. the benefit of the doubt here. Probably 90% of the words in this song are fine.* But I definitely understand if people don't like it.

* This is also why I never understood the absolute glee Democrats took in pointing out every stumble of every George W. Bush speech throughout his Presidency. The man spoke, on record, for pretty much eight years straight. You think it's proof of his idiocy that he sometimes messed up his subject/verb agreements? I mean, the guy probably WAS dumb. But not because you've put together a 45-second audio clip of him stammering.

Big K.R.I.T. - "Hometown Hero" (f/ Yelawolf)