Review of Little Brother’s “the Get Back”

Little Brother, the heroes of the underground carrying a highly revered torch once held by the likes of The Jungle Brothers, ATCQ, De La Soul, etc., had been signed to a major label, after making substantial noise in the underground! Many felt that with Little Brother, real hip hop music stood a strong chance to score in a commercial market saturated with plenty of questionable participants. The Minstrel Show came out, generated a lukewarm response, and it went. Who cared? You either did or you didn’t feel it. Whatever your feeling was, you were still ridin’ for your boys from the Bull City. Then as if on miserable cue the unthinkable had to be fathomed. 9th Wonder had announced his departure from the group. What were the emcees gonna do without the lush, sampled production of 9th Wonder?! Atlantic Records may have wondered the same thing and not long thereafter Little Brother was without a label. Statements have been made, issues have been addressed and people have moved on.

With countless mixtape offerings and solo projects to there respective credits, emcees Phonte and The Rapper Pooh decided to buck up and come to grips with that current state their career existed in. They decided to stack the plate high on their third commercial opus, Get Back. On one of the four Illmind-produced concoctions, Sirens, Phonte raps, “I came back from NY/n*gga lost his deal/felt sick to the stomach almost lost his meal/lost friends from way back and on top of all that/they tryin’ to blame this rap sh*t for all of our ills.” Cleverly awake in a society that has seemingly been regressing on many fronts, Little Brother addresses the notion that rap has become a scapegoat for the root causes of what plagues the Black community and society overall. With “Cant Win For Losing” the Brothers Durham get loose over the piano and hand clap-laced track where Pooh let’s you know where his head was at with, “…/Everybody’s hitched to the wagon, best kept secret/somebody leaked it/inked with a major/watch how they freak it/gotta show the people we can keep it/tight/deep down know, felt somethin’ wan’t right…” No matter the amount of acclaim they’ve garnered up to this point, the industry still presented some serious catch 22’s for these dudes.

Little Brother keeps the party going and offers insight on topics that the regular dude who is trying to take care of his family, deal with love/heartbreak, pay bills, find time to pursue his dream and look good doing so, can relate to. On the 9th Wonder produced Breakin My Heart featuring Little Wayne, the fellas spit an ode to the ladies. On Good Clothes, Illmind tosses LB some celebratory horns while they wax nostalgic about looking forward to upgrading to clothes as kids or the irony of how companies lace celebrities with clothes once they acquire a little notoriety. And if you’re the “wear my new leather-in-the-hot-ass club type”, they have instructions for your sweaty ass too. Where do most people go after they get the hook up on some new fashions? They head to the club, of course. Carlitta Durand lends her vocals on the synth-laden track, After The Party, as LB pontificate about what people do once the lights come up and the party’s over. Check the humor LB infused into the track with the “conscious” talking in the intro of the song (an obvious nod to Jamie Foxx).

The highlights of this disc are sprinkled throughout, with one misstep along the way (Extra Hard). At first listen, you might ask exactly what is the point they are trying to make. Is it possible that the reception of The Minstrel Show pushed these dudes into another realm? Change is inevitable and progression is par for the course. Cincinnati’s Hi-Tek falls through to help LB “get back” with an infectious bassline-driven track, Step It Up, where they let the ladies know that there are women out there that inspire dudes to get their act together. Take a listen to Dreams and feel the passion of two artists striving to prove to their families that this is the career for them. You will think about going even harder for what you want in life, trust. The disc has a definite array of flavor to choose from, even something for the two-stepping massive with Two Step Blues (feat. Darien Brockington). To close out, the Bull City Brothers take you on an inspirational, albeit funky ride out with When Everything Is New. Overall, what LB gives you is a refreshing taste of what their life is like after they wrestled with struggle. Getting back to what they feel they do best is what we enjoy listening to and they served up a heaping plate of that Durham, NC b-boy barbeque. Dig in and don’t forget your Wet Wipes.