Produced in the early 2000s, Little Brothers’ debut album, The Listening, provides an experience ripe with emotion. 9th Wonder (Pat Douthit), Big Pooh (Thomas Jones), and Phonte’s (Phonte Coleman) raunchy yet irresistibly quirky rhyme style combine soul, crunchy beats, and comedy into a rare piece of Hip-Hop that encapsulates the genre’s ‘down-to-earth’ spirit.
Standout tracks include “Groupie pt.2.”, “The Yo-Yo”, “The Listening”, and their breakthrough single, “Speed”, which played a large part in the initial construction of the trio. Little Brother connected during their college years at NC-Central -9th and Pooh clicked through source magazines, while Phonte and Pooh linked during a dorm-room freestyle session. While the trio wasn’t initially tight, 9th Wonder, Phonte, and Pooh were casual friends and part of a clique later known as the JUSTUS League. The trio would collaborate on their first single, “Speed”, in 2001 while continuing their project, The Listening, which was released in 2003.
Breaking away from the conformity of the Bling Bling era Hip-Hop, The Listening focuses on the genre’s sampled roots. The album opens with the track “Groupie pt.2.” a love letter to fans. Produced by 9th Wonder and sampled from Sterolab’s “The Emergency Kisses”, the track features 9th’s trademark bounce atop a resonating and playful sample; lyrically, Phonte and Pooh’s bars poke fun at groupies at large while playing into the irony of the group’s small town status.
“Speed” is the next must-listen on the album and the group’s claim to fame; Phonte and 9th Wonder produced the track in August 2001, with Pooh being a later addition to the song/group after JUSTUS league member Median’s verse fell through. The two vibe over 9th’s soulful sound selection, creating a story that plays with the struggle of the runaround and the need to “slow down” in the face of “capitalistic onslaught.”
The next breakaway track, “The Yo-Yo” is a true testament to the group’s raunchiness and comedy, with bars, “N****s with dreads try to battle Me with sandals and capris on” and “Even though ya’ll n****s might not cuss like me … ya’ll just trying to f**k like me” speaking to the group’s bearing on pretentiousness and the hilarity of performance poetry; the track is ripe with 9th’s signature bounce, with the staccato of the lyrical motif “yo-yo” echoin’ to the punchy rhythm of crunchy programmed drums.
The album wraps with “The Listening”: a visceral and raw track that drew 2000s hip-hop heads onto the Little Brother sound. The album bounced between dorms. However, the DIY sound of the album is not necessarily a takeaway. The sample selection and vocal performances of Pooh and Phonte lead to a track in which lyrics “float” over the ethereal samples of The Last Poets and Melba Moore, creating a vibe that is nostalgic and raw; this downturned sound is separate from the rest of the album, but in my opinion, the diffences of this track create an interesting motif and give “The Listening” a place in my “all-time” favorite tracks.
The Listening is a nod to the roots of Hip-Hop. Created during the Bling-Bling era, the album was a breath of fresh air for die-hard Hip-Hop heads. The nostalgic, sampled sound, atop raunchy, fresh vocals, identified the album as an early and continued underground classic.
Score: 8/10
Little Brother – The Listening (2003)
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label: ABB Records
- Morning (Chaundon) – 0:45
- Groupie, Pt. 2 (Big Pooh) – 2:58
- For You (Phonte, Big Pooh) – 3:03
- Speed (Phonte, Big Pooh) – 3:57
- Whatever You Say (Big Pooh, Phonte) – 5:27
- Make Me Hot (Phonte) – 1:36
- The Yo-Yo (Big Pooh, Phonte) – 3:35
- Shorty on the Lookout (Phonte, Big Pooh, Median) – 5:24
- Love Joint Revisited (Phonte, Big Pooh) – 4:25
- So Fabulous (Phonte, Big Pooh) – 4:43
- The Way You Do It (Phonte, Big Pooh) – 4:32
- Roy Lee, Producer Extraordinaire (Phonte, 9th Wonder) – 0:58
- The Get-Up (Phonte, Big Pooh) – 3:17 (prod. by Eccentric)
- Away from Me (Big Pooh, Phonte) – 5:23
- Nobody but You (Big Pooh, Phonte, Keisha Shontelle) – 3:01
- Home (9th Wonder) – 2:49
- Nighttime Maneuvers (Phonte) – 3:03
- The Listening (Big Pooh, Phonte) – 6:07
Total length: 66:24
