Phonte and Big Pooh seemed to speak for all the regular dudes who were just looking for good vibes, with intelligent and irreverent perspectives on life.
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The LP was full of upbeat bars over in-house producer 9th Wonder’s sumptuous, soulful beats. It sold like hotcakes to fans who couldn’t get enough of Little Brother’s spirited boom-bap reinvention. In New York City, beloved record shops like the now-defunct Greenwich Village institution Fat Beats - whose entryway was frequently crowded by CD-brandishing buskers who’d accost you, as you walked in, with “Yo, you listen to hip-hop?” - proudly displayed the album. Mere months after Get Rich or Die Tryin’ debuted in February 2003, The Listening revivified an underserved audience. Indie powerhouses like Rawkus and Def Jux catered to fans of unapologetically underground hip-hop, serving as alternatives to the blithely sadistic jingle of 50’s ubiquitous “Wanksta.” Little Brother were neither staunch subterranean agitators like other underground rappers, nor mainstream-sanctioned stars.
At the time, after 50 Cent and G-Unit’s hostile takeover, rap had begun to feel as polarized as voters were over whether the U.S.
Little Brother’s far-reaching, trendsetting appeal wasn’t apparent to everyone in the early 2000s. 'Midnights' Co-Producer Sounwave Says 'Karma' Was a 'Last-Minute Hail Mary' He Sent Taylor Swift
Years later, he’s still finding new ways of exploring that style on songs like “Father Time” and “Purple Hearts” from his recently released Mr. Kendrick Lamar, whose 2013 cut “Thanksgiving” featured Little Brother’s other half, Big Pooh, didn’t fully come into his own until he started making the kinds of ruminative songs that were very much in the vein of The Listening.
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And now, as we approach The Listening ‘s 20th anniversary next February, its influence still stands as a crucial model instructing today’s MCs on how to be more versatile and original.ĭrake was perhaps Little Brother’s most prominent fan back then - he’d also recorded songs with them on his 2007 mixtape, Comeback Season - but he wasn’t the only bold-name MC from the next generation who owes a lot to the group. It mattered that a heavyweight of Aubrey’s stature had taken the time to acknowledge a criminally underrated trailblazer. The melodic marriage of singing and rapping that Phonte had perfected eight years earlier on Little Brother’s 2003 debut, The Listening, is deeply entangled in Drake’s artistic DNA. The name of the rapper from the acclaimed North Carolina duo Little Brother probably wasn’t familiar to many of the fans who’d been suffering through a broadcast about music licensing just to see the emergent Canadian superstar. Join 50 and Charlie for this unforgettable rollercoaster of a story starting Wednesday October 19, on the iHeartRadio App or wherever you get your podcasts.When Drake stepped onstage to give his acceptance speech for the BMI Songwriter of the Year Award in 2011, one of the names he shouted out - along with his mom, Kanye West, and Andre 3000 - belonged to Phonte. Speaking publicly for the first time ever, Chicago-born identical twins Jay and Peter Flores share the incredible story of how they went from dealing $2 billion worth of drugs across the country as North America’s most successful cocaine traffickers, to government informants who brought down the infamous drug lord, “El Chapo.”įorever taunted by the gnawing question of “Did we do the right thing?” the brothers’ decision has cost them permanent exile from eachother, their father’s life, 14 years in prison, and a life sentence of always looking over their shoulder, waiting for their enemies to take revenge. Brought to you by Lionsgate Sound as a world exclusive with iHeartPodcasts. Hosted and executive produced by award-winning artist and producer Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson and broadcaster and journalist Charlie Webster. Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down a Drug Lord
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