On paper and by rights, ‘I Got This’ should be a fairly straightforward summer banger.

Big K.R.I.T’s new offering hits all the criteria of a barbeque-ready hit. Low-slung, ‘What You Need’ style bassline? Check. Sing-song chorus? Check. An old-school sense of fun? Checkity-check. Particularly in the context of K.R.I.T’s excellent new mixtape 4eva N A Day, this early cut from his full-length debut Live From The Underground ought to come out swinging. And yet, and yet: something here doesn’t quit fit.

Perhaps it’s the instrumental’s weird mix of West Coast and Dirty South: the G-Funk lope of the verses gives way to a pounding hoedown beat in the chorus (K.R.I.T’s “fuck these hoes” hook even sounds a little like ‘Dosie Do’). There’s a disjunction between K.R.I.T’ languid voice and the tinny, dust-kicking instrumental. The rapper’s use of echo also sounds oddly artificial: he’s essentially doubling up as his own hype man for the majority of the track. Pocketbook-ready quotes aren’t really K.R.I.T’s thing – and this is after all, a good time joint – but ‘I Got This’ could probably do with a memorable ear-worm or funny slogan. K.R.I.T’s definitely still got ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ is. But the track shows that producing a ballers anthem is far from an exact science.

Joseph Morpurgo