lyrikalbj's Full Review: The Listening [PA] by Little Brother
Stand up and take a LISTEN
Little Brother got that ill Carolina vision
Of how hip hop came and changed the game
Not with stories of gun play and Bling fame
But with beats to the 9th power and word play
Phonte, Big Pooh, and 9th Wondah
Bout to take it back to when it was fun tah
Ok, ok, ok…I'll save the real lyrical skillz to these brothas because I'm a bit outta practice!
Anyways, my music world was turned upside down about a week or two ago when I went to Okayplayer.com and saw a 'featured artist' sight dedicated to some brothas straight outta Durham, NC. I'm from Raleigh, NC and through this day and age where every emcee brags about where they are from, my fellow Kha'kalack peoples didn't have any hot artists to claim as our own. Petey Pablo dropped it like it's hot with Timbaland coming from Greenville & Raleigh NC but his sound is more like Mystical over a Virginia or Dirty South beat. Well, my boy 9th Wonder (Little Brother's beat maker) and the rest of the crew are dropping some classic hip hop gems that are drawing well deserved comparisons to A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. I mean, the Okayplayer crew loved them so much that The Roots have taken them on tour with them as an opening act on some of their dates.
To be a bit more descriptive, 9th Wonder's style kind of reminds me of the hotness that DJ Hi-Tek or Jay Dee of The Ummah drops. You know, the kind of beats that could easily be a merge between hip hop and R&B. The result is a palette that allows Phonte and Big Pooh to smooth things out and put some guest vocals on the track just as groups like Blackalicious and The Roots do. Still head nod material, but just enough street to keep the club rockin on any given night. A perfect example of this is the smoothness of Nobody But You featuring Keisha Shontelle and Phonte on some tight melodic and lyrical stylings. Also, the group allows 9th Wonder to flex his beat making ability with mostly instrumental tracks or interludes like off base but funky Make Me Hot and the cool out moods on Home.
Don't get it twisted though, they hold some heavy wordplay with some comic battle rhymes in The Yo-Yo and Groupie Pt.2. In these songs you'll find their delivery and very similar to the earlier emcee comparisons. The last track on the album, The Listening, could easily be called Little Brother's version of De La's Stakes Is High where Phonte and Big Pooh rhyme about the state of hip hop today. "Brothas not listenin…" So, Little Brother puts together an album that values the worth of true lyrical ability along with hot beats. You won't find that killah killah vybe here. You could easily throw together a great mellow hip hop tape with most of the tracks on this CD. And when I say mellow, I mean simply sit back, nod ya head, and vybe to a masterful hip hop debut.
One of the main highlights for this album is the throw-back vybe found on So Fabulous. Thru the extravagant luciousness that is Little Brother's lyricism, images of Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh ease the mind as 9th Wonder forces your head to nod and your hands to clap to the beat. It was like the second the beat dropped and Phonte unleashed the "once again back is the incredible", I exhaled like Stella when she got her groove back! To build on that feeling, the track ends off with a Digable Planets bite givin' love to Greensboro and other associates of Little Brother's Justus League crew.
"One time for your mind
Two times for my Nukka Big Pooh
Three times for my Greensboro dimes
And seven times whatever…"
Another highlight was "The Listening" where Little Brother spins the tale of how music lets them escape and release stress. They stress how they've always wanted to deliver the same feelin that they had listening to Premier and Pete Rock and studying punchlines, delivery, and memorizing lyrics to old Big Daddy Kane songs. Then in the hook they flip it saying :
"They ain't listenin
They thinkin bout they Timbaland's
They say the ish we talk about ain't in'trestin'
We got a betta chance of blowin up in Switzerland
Holla if ya hear me cause
N***z ain't listenin"
As they do so, a sad and mellow harmony is bellowed by horns that really ends off the CD in a way similar to the way De La ended AOI:Bionix (see my review for more details).
Finally, true underground hip hop comes to NC…cop it and see how we do around the RDU beltline. Much love…
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