Big K.R.I.T.: “4eva Is a Mighty Long Time”

Roots: Meridian, Mississippi. Home: Atlanta.

The first time I listened to “4eva” straight through — all 22 songs that make up this 85-minute masterpiece — I felt strangely haunted as I spent a few minutes trying to rescue my jaw, which had dropped to the floor. I knew, sometime back in my own musical journey, I’d felt the same awe. Then, I figured it out: I felt just like I did the first time I heard Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” Like that landmark, Big King Remembered In Time, aka Justin Scott, has made a record that seems somehow to capture every concern of his community at a critical moment in history. I could blather on, but the only way to understand this record is to sit down and give it your full attention for an hour and a half. You will be shocked and inspired. You will want to dance. You will be filled with knowledge, and you will know joy.

Our favorite track: Impossible to choose. All 22 are stellar.