A small, haze-filled concert venue off Canal Street - Santos Party House - plays the backdrop for the “Smokers Tour’s” New York stop. Backstage in a 15’ x 15’ room are 15 or so random people, many of them doing what the tour's title invites them to do. There, tucked quietly among his own followers is Big K.R.I.T. - not smoking - but excited about the tour performances that night.

To escape the noise, he agrees to be interviewed in the only remotely hushed place available, a single-stall, graffiti-ridden bathroom that appears heavily used. Still, the Southern boy from Meridian, Mississippi, is poised like it’s a red carpet and tuxedo night, and clearly humbled by the attention. In a lowly stall 2,000 years ago, a savior was born, and in this bathroom stall, one gets the feeling that the leader of hip-hop's next generation has just been born.

True underground Hip-Hop fans already know Big K.R.I.T. Since 2005, Big “King Remembered In Time” has been spreading his rap the old-fashioned way - from town to town and crowd to crowd. Like Jesus, he's different from his competitors. He raps and produces his own tracks. He sampled a song from England singer Adele for his popular "Hometown Hero." He's a rapper's MC - no real gimmicks or flash, just cleverly crafted spitting for his believers.

“Hip-Hop to me is like storytelling. It’s about telling your life story, so that’s what I do as far as my music,” says Big K.R.I.T. “You feel different ways all the time. One day you might feel like sh*t is all f**ked up; the next day, you’re feeling extra fly. I try to express my belief in spirituality and what I went through financially, poverty, relationships. It’s important that people understand that I’m a human being at the end of the day.”