Little Brother

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Little Brother is a rap group from North Carolina. The three original members – Phonte, Big Pooh and 9th Wonder – were living in their college dorms when they decided to make music together. They hit open mics and played local shows, but they never expected a rags-to-riches story. After uploading a few songs to a hip-hop message board called Okayplayer, they released their debut LP, The Listening. By indie-label standards, it was a hit. They signed to a major label, but their second album didn't perform as well as they would've liked. After being dropped by their label, 9th Wonder left the group and Little Brother disbanded shortly after. In 2019, Phonte and Big Pooh reunited as Little Brother and dropped their album May the Lord Watch. Now, they're on tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album. They also have a documentary in the works. This week on Bullseye, Phonte and Big Pooh join us to reflect on their long and eventful career as Little Brother.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:10.5	It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:22.0	Next up, Little Brother.
0:23.0	They're a rap group from North Carolina.
0:25.4	With three original members, Fonte, Big Poo, and Ninth Wonder, for those of you keeping
0:30.3	score at home, met in college.
0:32.4	They were living in the dorms at North Carolina Central University.
0:36.6	They got into making music.
0:38.5	Ninth Wonder was making beats on his computer.
0:41.6	Fonte and Big Poo were laying down verses on an old church microphone.
0:46.8	The three of them weren't imagining a ragged, to-riches story.
0:50.5	They were basically three music gigs in a dorm room.
0:54.5	They did do open mics and local shows.
0:57.4	It wasn't going anywhere in particular.
0:59.9	North Carolina wasn't exactly New York or Atlanta.
1:03.3	The clubs weren't exactly thick with talent scouts.
1:06.5	Then Little Brother shared some songs on a hip-hop message board called Okay Player.
1:12.0	It was 2001.
1:14.2	Sharing music on the web was kind of a new thing.
1:17.2	The three of them just wanted some feedback.
1:19.5	But they ended up getting a career.
1:41.2	Some DJs got their hands on the MP3s.
	...

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