It is widely assumed that higher-level, conscious rap artists would be above the petty squabbling, pricked egos and Twitter fights of the mainstream rappers. It is often the much more commercial stars who start feuds whenever they feel the need to buy a new crib or refuel their private jets.
Yet fans now find themselves facing the end of the quarrel-plagued Little Brother, the under-the-radar, much-acclaimed North Carolina hip-hop group made up of Big Pooh and Phonte. Super successful soul music-sampling producer 9th Wonder was a founding member, but he left the group in 2007. Pooh and Phonte carried on long enough to drop some mixtapes and are set to bury the Little Brother name with their latest and reportedly final LP, Leftback.
The first flaw of the album can be eyed without ever pressing play. Simply put, Pooh and Phonte need 9th Wonder but failed to secure even one of his beats for an iTunes bonus track (9th Wonder did not approve the release of “Star,” which he produced, increasing the tension between the former group mates). Aside from being one of the most demanded beat-makers for any rapper with a good ear, 9th Wonder is also a perfect fit for Little Brother in every dimension. His impeccably smooth retro compositions on The Minstrel Show attested to how good hip-hop music could truly be, while Pooh and Phonte decried how bad modern rap truly was.
Judging by the number of 9th Wonder-lite sounds scattered throughout the record, Pooh and Phonte miss the man just as much as their fans probably do. “Tigallo for Dollo” is a convincing enough imitation, and Phonte deftly pulls the curtain back on his artistic crisis of late: “21 years old/ I used to slang verses/ But 10 years later I am not the same person/ Whole new perspective/ Not the same purpose/ Sometimes I have to question if I even want it.”
This lack of creative fire probably led to the exorbitant number of guest rappers. Nine of the 13 tracks on the album have someone other than Pooh and Phonte pop up, and the party crashers are not always welcome.
In addition to some ill-advised collaborations, Leftback includes some odd production choices: “So Cold” features a cheap-sounding R&B chorus and, more distressingly, introduces some terrible synthesizers into the mix.
The hook (“We love to party/ Love to ball/ We love to floss with no shame”) may be perceived as the joke that it is by any Little Brother fan paying attention. Unfortunately, it is presented without any of the acidic commentary Phonte and Pooh usually throw onto vapid ballads.
“Second Chances” features the washed-up singer Bilal and another cliché chorus: “They say don’t give second chances/ But ain’t nobody gonna make me feel like you do.” Of course, there is some witty banter about the beauty of the McDonald’s Dollar Menu, but a weird, produced-by-committee feel abounds.
Phonte and Pooh make their awareness of viral comedy explicit in “After The Party,” as the infamous Jamie Foxx takedown of Doug Williams at Emmitt Smith’s roast is quoted and repurposed. The duo are utter, intentionally hilarious failures as lotharios as they rap, “One deluxe pass on the jump-off express gets you one meal at the 24-hour restaurant of your choice followed by 15 minutes of passion on my mama’s futon.”
But the faux-seduction slow jams may not elicit laughs after the second or third spins. “Two Step Blues,” for example, surely does not have much of a shelf life.
Why Little Brother ever wanted to end this way — squeezing out every last laugh it can and staying defiantly jesting — we will never know. Black Star embarked on its now-infamous hiatus by making one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. But Little Brother is set to dissolve with something much less definitive.
If there was one time Little Brother fans rallied around the group and felt true investment in its artistic campaign, it was when BET was rumored to have refused to spin a Little Brother video because it was deemed too intelligent, as the network allegedly feared th-e group’s music and ideas would escape the channel’s audience.
With Leftback, such fears will be entirely unwarranted.
vmain13@umdbk.com
RATING: 2 stars out of 5
