Ronald McDonald
Even in the darkest nights, I'm a MAC for life
Drake has cited Phonte as one of his favorite rappers on numerous occasions. dude has a song with Little Brother and shouts them out in a lot of his older work too.
9th Wonder Says Without Phonte, There Is No Drake (Audio)
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TheDarceKnight
Veteran
anybody want to suggest why Little Brother never made it on to radio and more popular..........beyond the usual answers..
....unless the usual answers are the ONLY ANSWERS
They were at their pinnacle in the age of "Shake that Laffy Taffy"..... soooo...
It's a shame man, because I think timing fukked them up more than anything. Maybe not. They got discovered in the perfect way, but on a major at the worst time. They were one of the first groups to basically make it from the internet (Okayplayer message boards after ?uestlove posted about them and their music), but if they somehow could've been in that Rawkus era, I've always contended that they could have been as big as a Talib Kweli or Mos Def.
Speaking of Mos Def, I even think that Phonte could have crossed over in a similar fashion. He has enough comic talent and writing abilities to have even crossed over into being a comic, author, actor, or some other type of entertainer outside of rapping and singing. shyt, Phonte would be a great producer. One of the most slept on talents in any regard, IMO.
Saigon was on Atlantic at the same time as Little Brother. They also fukked up greatest Story Never Told. Little Brother basically was on a major at the worst possible time. I wonder if GOOD Music could have been a good fit? Maybe not there either. Did the original GOOD artists even release albums?
9th explains why he thinks the Atlantic thing was just never really gonna work, and how Kanye embraced branding really early on.
DAT NICCA KELSO
Superstar
Didn't Cash Money not allow Drake to be featured on Phonte's album
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
TheDarceKnight
Veteran
Pretty sure that Phonte had "Too Intelligent?" on the back of his shirt when he did the BET Cypher. I don't know if you can see it here or not. Cool cypher though.Forgot about that...and I think you are right...
I wondered about that too. I think they were back on ABB at the time. I always thought it was ironic that Getback was probably their most "radio friendly" album, yet it came after the major, and when 9th was gone, etc.
That joint with Wayne could've been pushed on the right label. Same with Good Clothes, Step It Up, Two Step Blues, or even Extra Hard.
newworldafro
DeeperThanRapBiggerThanHH
^^^^ Surprised Drake never worked with Kardinal Offishall...
h2o_proof
Thread Closed...As Usual
So so true. They had a bunch of things working against them
- Execs didn't know what to do with them, they were giving away music at a time when the industry was trying to figure out how to recover from illegal downloading
- These are college educated nikkas from the South, which in Hip-Hop is a double negative for whatever reason
- They were poking fun at a lot of the things their mainstream contemporaries were glorifying in favor of just being normal nikkas
- Phonte doesn't have the "image" a record label would want to exploit as a Rapper/Singer
HacksawJimThuggin
All Star
that's my favorite hip hop group of all time 
DAT NICCA KELSO
Superstar
This was the closest thing that I could find.
http://www.kanyetothe.com/forum/index.php?topic=120153.0
TheDarceKnight
Veteran
I'm not sure either way, but to play devil's advocate, the LB/Wayne joint and the 2 joints that Drake would've been a part of for Phonte and 9th's albums would've been done about 5 years later.
The major thing is that Wayne pushed really hard for that collab. Little Brother didn't request for a Wayne verse or anything. They happened to be in the radio station as he was, they both were doing interviews, and Wayne approached them and told them how big a fan he was, and that he wanted to do a joint.
Wayne had a lot of pull at that time, and I'm pretty sure that nobody was telling him "no" at that time. Now maybe you could say the same for Drake right now, but for some reason I've always thought Drake seemed like more of a player and less of an owner.
At the end of the day, I do think that if Drake had really wanted to be a part of Charity Starts At Home or The Wonder Years, that he could've done it.
TenChambers
All Star
Phonte was always one of my favorites....he deserves so much more credit for just how talented he is
Abstract83
Superstar
If only the Native Tongues & the Soul Quarians along with Little Brother plus similar artists would have made a Gigantic grew a la Wu-Tang. People wouldnt have no choice but to fukk with them. All that talent frequently collaborating and supporting each other.
