No zed G.O.A.T list can ever be complete without the mention of the name “KRYTIC” stylized as K.R.Y.T.I.C (Kicking Rhymes You Thought I Couldn’t) according to most hiphop heads in zambia, Krytic is the best rapper/lyricist to ever come out of Zambia . his raw talent, unique style and ability to tell relate-able stories in his bars is just amazing. He got interested in rap as a young kid, in about grade 7 Krytic was exposed to a rap song while in a bus on his way to school. such amazing talent could only be inspired by one G.O.A.T Tupac. – changes was playing on the stereo and it just hit him some type of way..
“I was only thirteen at this time. The music I had been subjected to was over spill from my parents and would hardly fit into any cool category (I only realized how wrong I was later on in life). Between my father’s Franco collection and Michael Jackson’s History album, I was totally unprepared for the new sound that accompanied the ride to and from school. Looking back now I look at it as Neo being introduced to the Matrix by Morpheus. The sheer variety of music that assaulted my unprepared ears was too huge to leave me unchanged. Music had never been emotion driven for me. It had always been something like life’s ambiance. Songs like “Barbie Girl” were reminiscent of birthday hats and cake. Until that fateful morning.”
“I see no changes, I wake up in the morning and I ask myself //is life worth living? Should I blast myself? // am tired of being poor, and even worse I’m black // my stomach hurts so I’m looking for a purse to snatch”-Tupac (Changes)
I will NEVER forget those first few lines.
Many people don’t even consider Tupac a great rapper. But those few lines were more informative to me than most ZNBC (our national broadcaster, just in case you are accustomed to quality news or are not from Zambia) bulletins have ever been to me. Between picking that morning’s rushed breakfast out of my teeth and staring out of the window, I was suddenly dragged many miles away, to a time when being black was the worst thing that could have happened to you. I had usually over heard my parents and their peers discussing different issues in the world. They discussed it in such a way that it made me feel like I would never have to worry about voting until I was their age. That wasn’t THIS! This was different.
I went through a variation of emotions as I sat there and listened to that song. Firstly, I felt responsible for a lot of the things that were wrong with the world. Tupac made me feel like by just sitting on that bus I was being more of the problem than the solution. Secondly, I felt like I was listening to a different song from everyone else on that bus. From the way they were all sitting there talking over the music I felt like it wasn’t reaching them like it was reaching me. We were listening to two different things. I had taken the green pill and now the world was nothing but zeros and ones. The third thing I felt was illiterate. There was a whole world of similar news bulletins over instrumentals out there and I evidently had been watching the wrong channel this whole time.
Over the next few years I did exactly what a fiend that had discovered a new drug would do. I fed. I fed ferociously.
in the mid 2000s he started crafting, and it wasn’t like anything we had ever heard before. “IT WAS DIFFERENT” is a way to sum it up, unique works of art would bump through those speakers whenever his song
comes on. it was not easy though, rapping (espcially in english) and making it big. the industry was polluted with the so called watered down “Dunka” music and the art in his line just went over people’s heads, this didnt stop him though. Krytic kept pushing… Krytic tells his story through his music, he has never been one afraid of facing a topic head on and writing about. this can be seen in most of his records. he talks about his struggles, pain, losses, regrets, etc. it isn’t just music…it is him….Copperbelt boy Krytic. there are tracks like “letters to the sky” where he talks about all his lost friends…you can feel the pain in his lyrics even though this was just a freestyle. a song like “we’ll get it right tonight” where he talks about his best friend committing suicide… it’s a very emotional song and you can almost picture everything line by line. songs like “Sins of the father” off the most recent album art is tic, he talks to his father (deceased) about how the choices he made had affected the entire family in a negative way and also talks about how he know if the dad got another chance he would still do everything the same…just like his son has grown to become…sins of the father.
K.R is one of the best freestyle giants and street battlers we have in Zambia who has been accepted by other industry giants like Tiye P.Tiye P had to go an extra mile in praising by writing a song for Krytic calling him modern day Dady Zemus. to that Krytic responded “It had me tripping why am still alive when am the one that you wrote the tribute for”.
K.R.Y.T.I.C is a living legend and The Greatest Of All Time (G.O.A.T)
