Phonte on Juan Epstein

[TheDarceKnight]

What I don't understand is how is Foreign Exchange more lucrative to him than him rapping especially when he said he doesn't like doing shows? It's not like those FE albums sell a ton of copies and I'm pretty sure CSAH at least charted and sold pretty well for an Indy album

FE does really well with touring. Phonte also writes for other people in that area, so I think those checks are decent as well. From someone that spent time around him, I think he's generally more interested in singing and songwriting. I remember a long time ago, back before Getback in 2007 he said that he didn't really ever want to even do a solo album, because he felt like he could say everything he wanted to say in a group format (Little Brother) and didn't feel like he had "enough to say" to warrant him doing a solo record. And that he didn't want to just rap for the sake of rapping for a whole album's worth of time. The guest spots he does when he drops 16 bars here and there probably keep him satisfied on the rap tip.


He lays out why he moved from less rapping to more singing really well on Tigallo for Dolo which is one of his most underrated joints. It got looked over b/c it was on that final Little Brother album.

"And honestly, I like what them young boys is doin'
But my dudes are like "Tay, they close, but no Cuban"
Like I was the chosen
One for flowin'
I'm done, the rap game's No Country For Old Men
I'll always spit whenever the spirit hits me
But fukk if I'ma be doin this shyt when I'm sixty
And that's no disrespect to KRS
I'm just trying to make my art and do what's smart
I'm saying
Rapping Tay, four-and-half-mic honoree?
Or singing Tay, first-time Grammy nominee?
you do the math
you add it up
That's on my mind when I press record
A lot of dudes probably mad at me
But I would rather be
a lonely wolf than a sheep that's bored
So fukk it"


So in the way I was sort of surprised that Charity Starts at Home was mostly a rap album. Out of 12 songs I think only 2 or 3 had no rapping on there. It's been a few years since then so hopefully he feels like he has enough to rap about to make this new solo album at least mostly a rap album.

I agree with @Motife43 perspective on this as well. A lot of artists grow and just don't want to be put in a box. Phonte is clearly still a gifted rapper, you can check his latest verse on Prhyme, Jedi Code and a lot of other shyt to see that. The fact that he does that, sings and ventures into other areas shows his depths. Plus, he's opening himself up to so many different audiences. Some people like Phonte the singer more than Phonte the rapper. Some are vice versa...some like both but still a lot of people don't even know who he is so the more exposure he gets he can now showcase SO many different vibes from "The Listening", to Foreign Exchange to his solo material.

Yeah man he has a lot of different lanes. He was also a talented blogger before blogging was a thing and has posts that were hilarious as fukk. He'd be a good standup comedian too IMO.

BTW someone should make a mixtape of guest spots he's done since 2010. It's be a big list. This is such a classic song he did with Median that I didn't even here until this year, and I follow his work pretty closely.

Nah bro. FE reaches a wider audience. I think once he saw that and FE got the grammy nomination it was a wrap. He has a line about it in a song.

Yeah man there's really 2 Foreign Exchanges. There's the first Foreign Exchange album which still had a lot of rapping and then the most recent 3 have all been what most people think of when they think of FE. That very first single from the 2nd FE album got a Grammy nomination, and I think from then on Phonte has mostly rapped only on guest verses and the CSAH solo album.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

this is my fav rap record of his

Classic joint. That and these are my favorites from that album.

 

[wizworld]

Yup. In hindsight they said they would've liked to have Slow It Down as the single, and Slow It Down or Say It Again were gonna be the follow up singles, and I believe there was a 12" released, but neither song got a video treatment or radio push from Atlantic.

I guess it didn't make sense to put "Say It Again" out as the follow-up since "Lovin It" didn't do well. I like "Say It Again" a bit more than "Lovin It", but they both sound like jingles for those McDonald's commercials that have Black people in them.
And the singing on "Slow It Down" would have held the song back. The singing is just a big inside joke, and nothing else.

And since I'm venting over the failure of "The Minstrel Show", I wish it was Median on Lovin It instead of Joe Scudda. I just don't see how they though Scudda was going to make any sort of impression. But when you first heard Median on "Shorty on the Lookout" he sounded like a somebody.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

I guess it didn't make sense to put "Say It Again" out as the follow-up since "Lovin It" didn't do well. I like "Say It Again" a bit more than "Lovin It", but they both sound like jingles for those McDonald's commercials that have Black people in them.
And the singing on "Slow It Down" would have held the song back. The singing is just a big inside joke, and nothing else.

And since I'm venting over the failure of "The Minstrel Show", I wish it was Median on Lovin It instead of Joe Scudda. I just don't see how they though Scudda was going to make any sort of impression. But when you first heard Median on "Shorty on the Lookout" he sounded like a somebody.

I can clear up some of this since that was the major time I was around. Also, when you say the singing on Slow It Down was a big inside joke, do you mean the hook, or Phone/Percy going off at the end of the song? The hook by Darien Brockington was meant to be serious.

Like, people have to understand that The Minstrel Show was recorded as an album first, and then the theme came into the process later. The skits and interludes are what is really "the minstrel show" but if you take those away, it's basically just an album of good music.

Also, the album was truly recorded with no single in mind. I believe the album was actually started before the Atlantic deal closed, and they never tried to do a single thing to try to sell, and they actually caused Atlantic a really big headache because they didn't really cooperate. They basically threw the album at them and said "This is the album. You guys choose the single." Say It Again was one of the last songs recorded for the album, and again it wasn't really meant to try to do anything. 9th just made a beat that Pooh and Phonte both liked and so they made a song.

I don't disagree on Lovin it and Joe Scudda. But that song was recorded so early on...there's was definitely no thought of it being a single when they made it. I 1st heard the song in 2003 and the album dropped in the fall of 2005, so there wasn't much fore thought. That's one of my least favorite Scudda verses ever to be honest, but it is what it is.

Also, Atlantic wasn't going to really support no matter what. They had Little Brother and Saigon and just had no idea what to do with them. I'm amazed looking back that LB was even able to release the album at all. The first single could've been anything and they wouldn't have gotten a 2nd single/video/etc.


Phonte said about Lovin It, "By the time it came for a second single we let them talk us into the jig and they said they were gonna re-service “Lovin It” to the djs. That wasn’t even supposed to be a single. That was supposed to be a B-side street record. So that was a crew, posse cut for the die-hards who knew Joe Scudda, etc. But the record I thought was the reach out record was “Slow It Down.” That’s the one where we can really cross a couple of bridges."

 

[wizworld]

I can clear up some of this since that was the major time I was around. Also, when you say the singing on Slow It Down was a big inside joke, do you mean the hook, or Phone/Percy going off at the end of the song? The hook by Darien Brockington was meant to be serious.

Like, people have to understand that The Minstrel Show was recorded as an album first, and then the theme came into the process later. The skits and interludes are what is really "the minstrel show" but if you take those away, it's basically just an album of good music.

Also, the album was truly recorded with no single in mind. I believe the album was actually started before the Atlantic deal closed, and they never tried to do a single thing to try to sell, and they actually caused Atlantic a really big headache because they didn't really cooperate. They basically threw the album at them and said "This is the album. You guys choose the single." Say It Again was one of the last songs recorded for the album, and again it wasn't really meant to try to do anything. 9th just made a beat that Pooh and Phonte both liked and so they made a song.

I don't disagree on Lovin it and Joe Scudda. But that song was recorded so early on...there's was definitely no thought of it being a single when they made it. I 1st heard the song in 2003 and the album dropped in the fall of 2005, so there wasn't much fore thought. That's one of my least favorite Scudda verses ever to be honest, but it is what it is.

Also, Atlantic wasn't going to really support no matter what. They had Little Brother and Saigon and just had no idea what to do with them. I'm amazed looking back that LB was even able to release the album at all. The first single could've been anything and they wouldn't have gotten a 2nd single/video/etc.


Phonte said about Lovin It, "By the time it came for a second single we let them talk us into the jig and they said they were gonna re-service “Lovin It” to the djs. That wasn’t even supposed to be a single. That was supposed to be a B-side street record. So that was a crew, posse cut for the die-hards who knew Joe Scudda, etc. But the record I thought was the reach out record was “Slow It Down.” That’s the one where we can really cross a couple of bridges."

Great info. I think a lot of fans thought the album would completely revolve around the "Ministrel Show" concept. So much confusion involved... this was a major breakthrough as far as rap in the internet age, but it didn't seem like any of the parties involved treated it as such. As far as the "Slow It Down" hook goes, I just didn't feel like it made the song more enjoyable. Maybe it's just the lyrics to the hook, because he came off on "Fan Mail" & "My Mind" off of Sleepers. Matter of a fact, if Little Brother had "My Mind" for the Ministrel Show album maybe....

but nah like you said Atlantic was going to screw it up regardless.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Great info. I think a lot of fans thought the album would completely revolve around the "Ministrel Show" concept. So much confusion involved... this was a major breakthrough as far as rap in the internet age, but it didn't seem like any of the parties involved treated it as such. As far as the "Slow It Down" hook goes, I just didn't feel like it made the song more enjoyable. Maybe it's just the lyrics to the hook, because he came off on "Fan Mail" & "My Mind" off of Sleepers. Matter of a fact, if Little Brother had "My Mind" for the Ministrel Show album maybe....

but nah like you said Atlantic was going to screw it up regardless.

I'm trying to think if there's anything that didn't make TMS. The Japanese version had the original end song called The Olio that got replaced by We Got Now, and a song called Hold On that IMO is the most underrated LB song ever. Besides that, there's an OG version of Watch Me with a 9th beat instead of a Khrysis beat and if I can get it off my old hard drive I'll post it. I also think Nobody Like Me could've been really good but they put it on Chitlin Circuit 1.5 instead.

The Olio (original ending song to The Minstrel Show)


Hold On


Original Watch Me beat


Carolina Agents came out around the same time on that NBA2k6 soundtrack and that's another sleeper LB joint that I don't see mentioned a lot.

 

[Brandwin]

Just saw this - Hold On is one of my favorite LB songs ever.

I would love for another phonte solo with more rapping, but who knows. It's obvious on the features he does, he can still bring it. Phonte makes it seem so easy. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Just saw this - Hold On is one of my favorite LB songs ever.

I would love for another phonte solo with more rapping, but who knows. It's obvious on the features he does, he can still bring it. Phonte makes it seem so easy. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I listened to CSAH last week. I was wrong. I thought there were 3-4 songs with no rapping at all but it was only 1. A couple songs were singing heavy but still had st least a verse or two.

 

[CashmereThoughts]

phonte is a diva ma. Late AF and gonna blame traffic. corny excuse. he just assumed it would be smooth sailing from BK to the studio in Manhattan

plus he dont feed us with bars no more

 

[CashmereThoughts]

this bum ass nikka couldn't even be on time?

i was TIGHT! i was ready to listen to a good interview on my china bus trip outta town

 

[Brandwin]

I am kind of glad the interview was short, it was a bit annoying. I know you don’t have to know the whole history and every single detail of an persons career you are interviewing, but at least know something…