KingsOfKings
𝔻𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕞 𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕥
)
Phonte Coleman and Rapper Big Pooh—collectively known as Little Brother—didn’t speak for years.
After finding initial success in 2003 with their debut album, The Listening, the North Carolina-bred duo signed a major label deal with Atlantic Records for 2005’s The Minstrel Show, but the project wound up with arguably underwhelming sales. Complicating matters was the crumbling relationship with their producer 9th Wonder (who’d been part of the group since the beginning) and the public’s failure to grasp The Minstrel Show’s satirical vision. While Little Brother delivered two more albums, 2007’s Getback and 2010’s Leftback, they formally announced their breakup shortly after the latter’s release due to internal conflicts. It would be more than five years before they’d talk again.
In 2016, following the death of A Tribe Called Quest MC Phife Dawg, Pooh reached out to Phonte and they managed to make amends. As their wounds healed, Phonte, Pooh, and 9th Wonder reunited for the first time in 11 years at the 2018 Art of Cool Festival in their hometown of Durham. Just when it looked like Little Brother would be a trio again, 9th Wonder backed out of participating in their reunion album, May The Lord Watch, the following year.
In the duo’s new documentary, May The Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story, Phonte (or Té) and Pooh detail the rise, fall, and resurgence of Little Brother from their unique perspectives. Speaking to SPIN in a recent Zoom interview, they discuss what led to the film, their current relationship with 9th Wonder, and how they were able to rebuild their bond.
Also Read
10 Songs That Influenced Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN.
Why was now the right time to tell your story?
Phonte: We started this in 2018, so this has been five years in the making. We are approaching our 20-year anniversary, and it’s also Hip-Hop 50. I think telling this story at this point in time, there’s a curiosity about yourself that doesn’t really happen until you get into your 40s. There’s a certain level of self-examination that you just don’t have the tools to do. Had we tried to do this 10 years ago, I don’t think we would have had that level of curiosity and real self-examination. So it just felt like the right time to tell the story, because we finally understood what the story was.
What was the hardest part about making the documentary?
Phonte: You have to decide—even though you’re telling the facts, there still has to be a story and you still have to decide what story you’re going to tell. You have to streamline and decide what it is you’re going to talk about. And so I think it just took us five years to really figure that out and have the emotional availability to really talk about ourselves in that way.
Somebody says in the documentary that there’s a difference between growing old and maturing. Your 20s are hard.
Phonte: [Your] 20s are trash [Laughs].
Pooh, what about you? Why was the timing right for you?
Rapper Big Pooh: All the things Té said, and also I think it was important for us to be able to tell our own story. We didn’t want to look up one day and we’re doing an Unsung or a Behind The Music and somebody else is dictating our story. We wanted to be the ones to tell the definitive Little Brother story in our voices. Then you have the fact that we’ve all lost people near and dear to us, and we’ve been losing people near and dear to us as far as music is concerned. I had my own scare, and there’s some things that make you reflect and make you understand no time is better than now. For me, this was important from the simple fact that tomorrow’s not guaranteed, so I wanted people to understand who I am, who I was, and who I am now from us and not nobody else. That was important to me.
Speaking of, you talk about having a pulmonary embolism that could’ve, quite frankly, ended your life had you not gone to the emergency room. What lightbulb went off when that happened?
Rapper Big Pooh: That was me facing my mortality at that point. Even though you think you understand life is fragile, when you’re faced with your own situation, that’s when you truly understand how important every day is. And I think that was the beginning of me understanding that—not fully—but how important every day is. I really had to start doing my own self-searching and my own work to really understand who I was and who I wanted to be. Up until that point, I was just trying shyt. I was just out there trying to figure things out. That was the turn of me actually maturing after that incident. I was living by the seat of my pants. That was a month before my 33rd birthday. I literally got out of the hospital two weeks before my birthday.
Little Brother: The Sleghehammer and the Chisel
Little Brother's Phonte Coleman and Rapper Big Pooh dive into their new documentary and newfound brotherhood.
www.spin.com
Phonte Coleman and Rapper Big Pooh—collectively known as Little Brother—didn’t speak for years.
After finding initial success in 2003 with their debut album, The Listening, the North Carolina-bred duo signed a major label deal with Atlantic Records for 2005’s The Minstrel Show, but the project wound up with arguably underwhelming sales. Complicating matters was the crumbling relationship with their producer 9th Wonder (who’d been part of the group since the beginning) and the public’s failure to grasp The Minstrel Show’s satirical vision. While Little Brother delivered two more albums, 2007’s Getback and 2010’s Leftback, they formally announced their breakup shortly after the latter’s release due to internal conflicts. It would be more than five years before they’d talk again.
In 2016, following the death of A Tribe Called Quest MC Phife Dawg, Pooh reached out to Phonte and they managed to make amends. As their wounds healed, Phonte, Pooh, and 9th Wonder reunited for the first time in 11 years at the 2018 Art of Cool Festival in their hometown of Durham. Just when it looked like Little Brother would be a trio again, 9th Wonder backed out of participating in their reunion album, May The Lord Watch, the following year.
In the duo’s new documentary, May The Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story, Phonte (or Té) and Pooh detail the rise, fall, and resurgence of Little Brother from their unique perspectives. Speaking to SPIN in a recent Zoom interview, they discuss what led to the film, their current relationship with 9th Wonder, and how they were able to rebuild their bond.
Also Read
10 Songs That Influenced Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN.
Why was now the right time to tell your story?
Phonte: We started this in 2018, so this has been five years in the making. We are approaching our 20-year anniversary, and it’s also Hip-Hop 50. I think telling this story at this point in time, there’s a curiosity about yourself that doesn’t really happen until you get into your 40s. There’s a certain level of self-examination that you just don’t have the tools to do. Had we tried to do this 10 years ago, I don’t think we would have had that level of curiosity and real self-examination. So it just felt like the right time to tell the story, because we finally understood what the story was.
What was the hardest part about making the documentary?
Phonte: You have to decide—even though you’re telling the facts, there still has to be a story and you still have to decide what story you’re going to tell. You have to streamline and decide what it is you’re going to talk about. And so I think it just took us five years to really figure that out and have the emotional availability to really talk about ourselves in that way.
Somebody says in the documentary that there’s a difference between growing old and maturing. Your 20s are hard.
Phonte: [Your] 20s are trash [Laughs].
Pooh, what about you? Why was the timing right for you?
Rapper Big Pooh: All the things Té said, and also I think it was important for us to be able to tell our own story. We didn’t want to look up one day and we’re doing an Unsung or a Behind The Music and somebody else is dictating our story. We wanted to be the ones to tell the definitive Little Brother story in our voices. Then you have the fact that we’ve all lost people near and dear to us, and we’ve been losing people near and dear to us as far as music is concerned. I had my own scare, and there’s some things that make you reflect and make you understand no time is better than now. For me, this was important from the simple fact that tomorrow’s not guaranteed, so I wanted people to understand who I am, who I was, and who I am now from us and not nobody else. That was important to me.
Speaking of, you talk about having a pulmonary embolism that could’ve, quite frankly, ended your life had you not gone to the emergency room. What lightbulb went off when that happened?
Rapper Big Pooh: That was me facing my mortality at that point. Even though you think you understand life is fragile, when you’re faced with your own situation, that’s when you truly understand how important every day is. And I think that was the beginning of me understanding that—not fully—but how important every day is. I really had to start doing my own self-searching and my own work to really understand who I was and who I wanted to be. Up until that point, I was just trying shyt. I was just out there trying to figure things out. That was the turn of me actually maturing after that incident. I was living by the seat of my pants. That was a month before my 33rd birthday. I literally got out of the hospital two weeks before my birthday.