Before They Blew: A Look At Yelawolf, Big K.R.I.T. & The Clipse’s Early Days Posted by Lucas Garrison on 06/05/13 | Filed under Top Stories, Opinion, Yelawolf, Clipse, Before They Blew, Big K.R.I.T

Although Throwback Thursday is still on the horizon, Nathan and I were feeling nostalgic today thanks to Complex.com's collection of the best yearbook photos from some of hip-hops best and brightest. Hopefully, you too are in the mood to take a stroll down memory lane too. If not, too bad. Quit your whining, strap on your walking kicks and get ready; who knows, you might even find something from these next three well known artists that you didn’t know existed.

Since it’s been a few months since we have heard from Alabama native Yelawolf, it might be a good time to look at where he got his start. Although you now know him as a Shady Interscope emcee, this isn’t the first time a major has signed him. Back in 2007, Yela was part of Columbia Records, but was dropped that very same year. Before he was given the boot, Yela had enough time to drop “Kickin’” which was part of an unreleased mixtape, “Fearing’ And Loathin’ In Smalltown U.S.A.”

The interesting thing about "Kickin’" is it doesn’t seem like it is that much different than his more recent stuff. The videos landscape, repping Alabama to the fullest, is similar to “Pop The Trunk”, and so is his style. Both cuts have an against-the-grain, almost unmastered sound to them (although “Pop The Trunk” is a little more polished) and Yela’s knack for crafting a memorable hook is ever present on “Kickin’”; Its good to see some things never change.



Pusha-T is a hot name right now, and No Malice too is making his way back on the scene with an album on the way in “Hear Ye Him”, dropping in July, but it hasn’t always been easy for the pair. Well before the Thornton brothers were well known as The Clipse, they too had their fair share of label struggles. In 1997, the pair was signed to Elektra but after their single “The Funeral” flopped, their album, “Exclusive Audio Footage” was locked away, never to see the light of day.



When thinking about artists who are ahead of their time, Clipse does not immediately come to mind, but I feel like this song would be very well-received today. Funeral has that grimy '90s sound, which seems to be a trending style nowadays, especially in New York. Not hurting the songs hypothetical popularity is the fact that Pharrell produced it as well as all of “Exclusive Audio Footage”. I think its safe to say Pharrell did not have the following in ‘97 that he does now; I’m sure his fanbase would love to hear a whole album of Pharrell Beats that have a more edgy sound than his radio-friendly (yet still dope) style.

While the last two artists have early sounds similar to their current sound, this next one sounds like a totally different emcee. Big K.R.I.T.’s rise can be directly attributed to his impressive mixtapes like “K.R.I.T Wuz” Here and “4Eva N A Day”, but before those, Krizzle already had a few mixtapes ot his name, including his first from 2005, “See Me On Top”. The name might sound familiar as it was also a song on “K.R.I.T Wuz Here”, but K.R.I.T’s sound is very different and almost unrecognizable. It might be the mixing and mastering, but Big’s flow is so different from what it is now. His flow now is one of the strongest around. His command of the mic is great and he really grabs your attention with his booming flow. The flow on “See Me On Top”, however, is much lighter and is pretty incredible to listen to. Its pretty cool you can literally track his growth from this to his more recent material. It really shows you how much work he has put in and how much better he has gotten in the last few years. It’s not to say “See Me On Top” is bad, but I strongly prefer the more forceful, mature version of Krizzle than the younger, unrefined version .

So what about you RefinedHype Nation? I am fully confident that some of you out there have some gems to share with us that we might not know about. In an industry where anything more than two days old is ancient history, sometimes its fun to look way back at some of our favorite artists. We often focus on where an artist is headed, but looking back at where they came from is equally as satisfying and makes for great conversation.

See Also:  Yelawolf Unleashes “Trunk Muzik Returns” For Your Listening Pleasure (Listen & Download)
See Also:  Holy Sh*t, It’s Been 10 Years Since Clipse Dropped “Lord Willin”