To say that the recent success of Mississippi MC Big K.R.I.T. (King. Remembered. In. Time) is a case of overnight success would be an inaccurate assessment. The multi-talented rapper/producer has been toiling his craft on the underground level for the past five years and he has finally hit pay dirt in a major way.

Since dropping the critically-acclaimed mixtape Krit Wuz Here in May 2010 K.R.I.T has garnered a wave of newfound fans. On top of that he inked a deal with Def Jam Records, nabbed a spot on XXL magazine’s 2011 Freshman cover, and then this past March released another well received mixtape, Return Of 4Eva, which featured the crowd please, “Country Sh*t,” featuring Ludacris and Bun B . Now, the southern rhyme slinger is finally gearing up to release his long awaited debut Live From the Underground.

But before he delivers that much-anticipated debut, K.R.I.T has one more accomplishment to be proud of. The rap upstart was nominated for two 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards, Rookie of the Year and Reese’s Perfect Combo Award [Best Collab] for “Country Sh*t.”

K.R.I.T. made an appearance on BET’s 106 & Park yesterday (September 7) to help announce other 2011 Hip Hop Award nominees. After his guest spot on 106 the country-bred spitter told BET.com he’s humbled by the nomination and planned to make good on all the attention by delivering a buzzworthy debut. Given his double threat talents K.R.I.T. plans to take a hands on approach with the project. The soulful beatsmith plans to produce the entire album himself.

“I’m definitely gonna produce the whole album” says the 25 year old rapper.

K.R.I.T. promises to sustain the same soulful and organic sound delivered on his prior mixtapes.

“I’m not really into the samples as much as I use,” K.R.I.T explains. “ When you get to this realm as far as putting out music retail, you run into clearance problems and things of that nature so what I tried to do this time was really create music that had a sample feel, had an old feel to it but wasn’t a sample at all” 

Working with hip hop veterans like Bun B, Ludacris and David Banner on past efforts K.R.I.T. says the same can be expected from his debut, but he wouldn’t give up much else on the creative approach.

“I still don’t wanna talk too much about who’s on the album,” he says. “It’s definitely some legends on there and some artist that are really kind of building a buzz for themselves now. I think people are really gonna enjoy the contrast.”

Live From the Underground is slated for release later this year.

Check out how Big K.R.I.T. stacks up against other 2011 Hip Hop Awards nominees.

(Photo: Courtesy Def Jam)