Mississippi rapper Big K.R.I.T. earned his second No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums with his new album "Cadillactica." As Billboard noted:

[The album moved] 44,000 in first-week sales (his best week ever), according to Nielsen SoundScan. The 28-year old rapper last debuted atop the chart in 2012 with Live From the Underground (41,000 units). The new set includes a host of featured acts, including Raphael Saadiq and Wiz Khalifa. The second single from the set, "Pay Attention" featuring Rico Love, spent a week at No. 24 on the Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks chart in August.

"Cadillactica" is a concept album, which K.R.I.T. explained in an interview with Complex:

"I wanted to tell where the Cadillac came from on the "Live From the Underground" [a previous album] cover. That was very important for me. But "Cadillactica" in itself is literally my sub-conscious. I wanted to make a planet of it and give it a name…and on this planet, life is a little bit obscure. And it’s about the journey in life on Cadillactica, from the beginning of the planet itself to finding life on the planet and how life unfolds on this planet, what people go through on this planet. From being young and rambunctious to find [sic] your purpose in life and being content with what you’ve done. And then ultimately the end. [I was] figuring out a creative way of telling that entire story of a planet nobody’s ever heard of before."

But even that somewhat vague answer doesn’t do the album justice. Guest appearances also include Raphael Saadiq and E-40 on standout tracks "Soul Food" and "Mind Control." Each song speaks to a facet of black life in the South. There’s the "Mo Grease Than Beat" skit at the end of the especially strong title track that offers up a drive-thru order that comes with "two sides, some poverty or some famine…and if you don’t want that famine, you can always get some low self-esteem or a biscuit." There are love songs to speakers ("My Sub, pt. 3") and cars ("Do You Love Me" ft. Mara Hruby) and K.R.I.T.’s demand for the rest of the world to respect Southern rappers ("Mt. Olympus"). But mostly there’s K.R.I.T. at some of his finest moments lyrically. 

"I think it was time to go back," he explained to Rolling Stone in October. "You get in the point where people tell you, "Man, you know, people need to be able to rap your songs." And you get caught up in that. So, I wasn’t all that caught up in it this time. I was really on some like, ‘I want you to listen, I pray you get something from it, but I want to tell you something.’"

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album: