Little Brother would have had more successful if they weren't so unlikeable

Yayo Toure

Mighty Man City
Supporter
Joined
May 23, 2012
Messages
12,055
Reputation
1,098
Daps
25,545
I swear if she was a man she'd get a lot less hate on here. She got a Grammy nomination and she's doing an album with Madlib, and just made a really dope album last year with zero 9th Wonder production or involvement.

She's not a super A-lister but calling her a nobody is wild. She has like a million monthly streams on Spotify. That's more than people like Styles P and the same as people like Raekwon and no one would ever call either of those 2 guys nobodies.

She's signed to Roc Nation....

Hard pressed to find a Rapsody fan outside.
 

2 Up 2 Down

Veteran
Joined
May 4, 2012
Messages
31,809
Reputation
3,927
Daps
79,132
Reppin
NULL
They were out during the Lil Wayne era and they were the opposite of the sound that was dominating rap at that moment. I fukked with them but many of my boys and acquaintances didn't
 

2 Up 2 Down

Veteran
Joined
May 4, 2012
Messages
31,809
Reputation
3,927
Daps
79,132
Reppin
NULL
Their music is dope and I love their choice of topic. They just made music and didn't try and act a certain way in order to sell themselves. They were less successful commercially because they came across as boring personality wise but in the end if you continued to listen to them you grow with their music. Drake for example is near 40 still rapping about the same things he was in his 20's. Sometimes it becomes disconnecting specially when some of your fans are your age and cant relate to the shyt you're talking about.
I liked their everyday man raps but the game (at least during that time) was about trap life
 

Piff Perkins

Veteran
Joined
May 29, 2012
Messages
55,209
Reputation
21,244
Daps
302,401
That's an insane and frankly bad comparison. Group Home legit were bad rappers. Phonte is one of the most gifted and talented rappers of the past 20 years. He's got fukking bars for days, and he's a good singer. Phonte had Source Verse of the Month and Grammy nominations and the SOurce wanted to give them 5 mics.

Preem put Group Home on literally to keep them out of trouble, and admitted they could barely write raps. Especially Melachi. Melachi was actually mentally challenged bro.

Comparing LB to Group Home is insulting to LB.

listen to this Phonte verse from a year or two ago. Group Home could be 5x as dope and never write a verse like this.



This. To me, Group Home always reminded me of a Prince side group. Back when he'd just create some amazing piece of work but didn't want to put his name on it, so he'd bring in some musician friends from Minnesota to re-record it and create a fake band. That Group Home album has some of the greatest rap beats ever on it, and the way it's sequenced and transitions from track to track is very interesting. But was not a real rap group, it was just some of Premo's friends he did a favor for. Little Brother was a legit group, including an elite rapper and a great producer.

This thread is bordering on slandering the entire group for the audacity of not being popular. We also got a thread on the front page about Joey Badass not selling well, full of posters who didn't even listen to the album. What are we doing man...
 

Big Boss

Veteran
Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Messages
185,794
Reputation
14,805
Daps
365,296
Reppin
NULL
Less to do with likability and more to do with the fact they didn't appease to mainstream standards. They came up during the worst time too. Nothing they were doing would've tracked well because of the state the rap game was in during the early-to-mid 00s. They were 10-15 years too late (or too early, depending on how you look at it).


U back??? :ohhh:
 

YakSpiller

Veteran
Joined
Sep 29, 2012
Messages
17,833
Reputation
4,417
Daps
68,880
02-07 9th was on a crazy run

I'm also heavily biased bc he got me into producing with FL Studio back when...
I already had been using Cool Edit a bit but knowing that LB music was fully made with software was crazy at the time. It was so accessible, and a lot of folks were giving tutorials on how to copy him lol it's shameless but was a great way to learn some beat fundamentals

He still drops heat from time to time, but not like then

That era is funny to look back on. How they treated software/ITB producers was crazy.

I remember reading online you could never make a hit record with (at the time) Fruity Loops, Reason, Ableton etc…Like dudes online would laugh you off the board if you talked about using software. You had to have hardware period. MPC 1000, Triton all that big shyt.

When I discovered how 9th, and for me local Bay producers was cooking I knew eventually there would be a shift.

nikkas was spending 5 figures to build a studio while computer producers were pushing them cracked programs to the limit and basically starting a revolution.
 

EBK String

Better Ring String
Supporter
Joined
Nov 8, 2017
Messages
32,038
Reputation
6,651
Daps
311,483
They were in the game too early and also too late. It's that simple. They were too late for Rawkus, and too early for the blog era.

They had a very solid internet following of real love and support, but there was no social media and no metrics to measure that kind of stuff back then. Their A&R at Atlantic was like "I know you guys have a lot of fans, but unfortunately there's no way for me to tell any of the higher ups how many there are, etc." Phonte talked about this before.

It's a real shame. One of the most talented groups of all time in any genre, and definitely will never get as many flowers as they should have. That was one of the most special times ever if you were on to their music when it was happening in real time.

Man watch out

:comeon:
 

JYoung24

Young J
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
8,056
Reputation
-801
Daps
6,591
Reppin
NULL
Their music is dope and I love their choice of topic. They just made music and didn't try and act a certain way in order to sell themselves. They were less successful commercially because they came across as boring personality wise but in the end if you continued to listen to them you grow with their music. Drake for example is near 40 still rapping about the same things he was in his 20's. Sometimes it becomes disconnecting specially when some of your fans are your age and cant relate to the shyt you're talking about.

I disagree they were actually hilarious with there sense of humor on there albums
 

Michael's Black Son

Blanket Jackson
Supporter
Joined
Sep 30, 2013
Messages
54,644
Reputation
16,492
Daps
238,897
Reppin
New York City & Neverland Ranch
LMAO @ the thread title

I rocked with Little Brother but there are Philly’s Most Wanted joints that have more replay value.

And ultimately what was the Little Brother endgame. It’s not like they had this overwhelming amount of support and they weren’t mainstream.

Mid 2000s weren’t exactly conducive to their sound and style when you had 50, Nelly and Em (and Jay) doing the damn thing
 

TheDarceKnight

Veteran
Joined
May 18, 2012
Messages
30,558
Reputation
13,786
Daps
95,989
Reppin
Jiu Jitsu
LMAO @ the thread title

I rocked with Little Brother but there are Philly’s Most Wanted joints that have more replay value.

And ultimately what was the Little Brother endgame. It’s not like they had this overwhelming amount of support and they weren’t mainstream.

Mid 2000s weren’t exactly conducive to their sound and style when you had 50, Nelly and Em (and Jay) doing the damn thing
The endgame? I didn't know they needed some master grand plan?

I feel like the plan was to just make a living off music and keep putting out albums. Isn't that what most artists are trying to do? Hate to break it, but most artists don't have some huge grand vision to change the game forever.

For 99% of the artists in the music business, it's a fukking job. Not that different than anyone else with a job. shyt, Andre 3k was rapping about exactly that on ATLiens.

LB just wanted to make relatable music and express themselves. What else did they need to do?

BTW LB has albums that are widely considered classics, and Philly's Most Wanted definitely does not (even though they have some bangers)
 
Joined
May 13, 2012
Messages
19,636
Reputation
1,744
Daps
41,516
I disagree they were actually hilarious with there sense of humor on there albums

I love them. Phonte is up there for me but the era they came out in was all about street and flash shyt, and that was deemed 'cool' compared to what they were offering. I personally think they're real funny and their skits always deliver even on their last album it had me laughing.
 
Top