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New Music: Jazzanova feat. Phonte: “Look What You’re Doin’ To Me”

Jazzanova feat. Phonte - “Look What You’re Doin’ To Me”

Phonte is putting his singing skills to work…first with Zo! and his 80s joint, then with the excellent new Foreign Exchange album, and now with a new track from German beatmakers Jazzanova, which highlights his finest vocal work to date.

The track is featured on Jazzanova’s latest album Of All Things, which combines beatmaking with live recording and also features Dwele and Jose James. Of All things drops next week.

myspace.com/jazzanovask

(via SoulBounce)

Tags: Jazzanova, Little Brother, Phonte

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Hip-Hop

Hip-Hop Live tour featuring Talib Kweli, David Banner, Little Brother and B.O.B.

I touched on this a few weeks ago with their DC date, but I have some new information concerning the Hip-Hop Live tour featuring Talib, David Banner and Little Brother: The Rhythm Roots All Stars will back all of the acts on the bill for the entire tour. This has just been elevated to a must see event.

Tour Dates:

10/03/08 @ Roseland Theater (Portland, OR)

10/04/08 @ McDonald Theatre (Eugene, OR)

10/05/08 @ Showbox SoDo (Seattle, WA)

10/08/08 @ Fox Theatre (Boulder, CO)

10/10/08 @ First Avenue (Minneapolis, MN)

10/11/08 @ Washington University (St. Louis, MO)

10/13/08 @ Bluebird Nightclub (Bloomington, IN)

10/16/08 @ Revolution (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)

10/18/08 @ Georgia Theatre (Athens, GA)

10/19/08 @ The Orange Peel (Asheville, NC)

10/20/08 @ 9:30 Club (Washington, DC)

10/21/08 @ Trocadero (Philadelphia, PA)

10/22/08 @ Rec Center - Univ of Mass (Lowell, MA)

10/23/08 @ Clark University (Worcester, MA)

10/24/08 @ Showcase Live (Foxborough, MA)

10/25/08 @ Nokia Theatre (New York, NY)

Tags: B.O.B., David Banner, Little Brother, Talib Kweli

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Hip-Hop

Album Preview: Foreign Exchange - Leave It All Behind

Foreign Exchange - Leave It All Behind (Album Sampler)

I’ve been listening to this album sampler for a day now and I’m hooked. I will leave my final judgements for when the official copy slides my way, but so far, Leave It All Behind is making me excited for music again. From first listen, Leave It All Behind carries Nicolay’s already smoothed out beats further into the downtempo territory, and so far Phonte’s move from MC to vocalist is proving more than surprising.

For more information, check out the Foreign Exchange site.

Tags: Foreign Exchange, Little Brother, Phonte

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Music News

Little Brother Splits From Atlantic, Parts Ways with 9th Wonder

Jazzy Jeff feat. Little Brother - Whatever You Want

Zo! feat Phonte - Africa (Toto rework)

So it’s official, Little Brother has severed its ties with Atlantic Records. Big Pooh told Hip-Hop Game that “at this time we are in the process of negotiating our release from the label due to a difference in philosophies.” I guess they took a preemptive strike since we all know that Atlantic wasn’t happy with the sales of The Minstrel Show.

If you followed LB like I have, you must have saw this coming from a mile away. Atlantic just was not a good fit for LB and this group will never get the airplay or put up the numbers that a commercial rap artist would. Why LB never was courted by or signed with a smaller outfit like Stone’s Throw, BBE, Ubiquity, or Def Jux is beyond me. And I’ve always agreed that 9th limited their sound. They needed to hand to torch over to a new set or producers.

Even though LB is putting out a Mixtape soon, I have a serious feeling that Phonte is going to break off and do a serious solo project, with production by….let’s say will.i.am and DJ Shadow. I’m liking the dude’s non-LB collaborations that have been floating around the Internets. This Little Brother/Jazzy Jeff Collaboration (yes THAT Jazzy Jeff) is sold.

The “Africa” rework featuring Phonte (singing) with artist Zo! is um….interesting. After about 5 listens I can’t get into it. The ending is nice, but I’m trying to figure out if this is a good look for Phonte or not. Dude might be entering blipster territory!

Tags: 9th Wonder, Little Brother

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Album Preview, Hip-Hop, Music News

9th Wonder is Out of Little Brother?

Again, I might need a late pass on this. I’m workin’ my ass off here.

So the rumors are somewhat true. Little Brother isn’t “breaking up,” per se, but their most influential member might be out of the group. From ProHipHop:

[Phonte] Coleman says the beats they’ve received from longtime Little Brother member and Justus League co-founder 9th Wonder haven’t worked on that level. So far, he has landed only one beat on the album’s first eight tracks.

“I don’t know if he has them or not, but it just didn’t grab us. We never had that feeling from the beats he gave us, and, for this album, we’re not going to settle, whether you’re 9th Wonder or Just Blaze. We have to be able to fit it into what we’re doing,” says Coleman.

9th Wonder offers a differing although still murky statement to the News & Observer saying that “I’ve always said the same thing, I’m 9th Wonder of Little Brother and Phonte is the leader of Little brother. This is the direction the MC’s have decided to take. I’ve only got one beat on the album for now and if I get more, I do and if I don’t, I don’t.”

9th Wonder is a good producer, but he’s not a great producer. 9th Wonder was holding Little Brother back because all of his beats pretty much sound the same. (I have said this on numerous occasions by the way.) LB’s next album is pretty much make or break for them, so they need to throw in as many resources as they can to make sure that they at least come out on top (relatively speaking). Much props to Phonte and Pooh for making the decision. 9th Wonder has his own thing going on, so I’m sure he’ll eat.

Tags: 9th Wonder, Little Brother

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As the Phonte Turns…

More Phonte drama. Man, the dude can’t catch a break. Now, Eternia (whom we’ve featured a couple times on this site), is all upset because Phonte called her Tit-ernia in a joking matter and sent her off the deep end.

According to her MySpace blog, after the “incident”, she ” I felt as small as…. as small as Phonte would feel if a white businessman he respected shook his hand one day, greeting with a smile and an embrace, calling him “boy” more than once repeatedly.” And now, she’s no longer a little brother fan and will most likely rish her professional and personal relationships over a cheesy come on line.

I never got the chance to meet Eternia in person. We kicked a few emails back and forth, and she seemed like a cool chick. (She’s Canadian, so that means that you’ve never heard of her.) But I gotta side with Phonte on this one. If you go off the deep end when someone calls you “Titernia,” then, as Phone responds, “this is a symptom of a much larger personal issue.”

As a dude, we’ve all been in this situation. We say something that’s slightly vulgar (but seriously, is that vulgar?), yet absolutely harmless and the female blows it out of proportion. In fact, there are girls who aren’t speaking to me to this very day because of things I might have said in jest. It’s not a big deal. Don’t ether your career just cause some dude is starin’ at your boobies.

Oh, and Little Brother haters like Tit-ra Henley are reveling in this one. Go figure.

Tags: Eternia, Little Brother, Phonte

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Little Brother Has Problems

I was gonna blog about this yesterday, but it seems noz at XXL beat me to it. If you don’t know, Little Brother played a show in Fayetteville, North Carolina, opening up for Three Six Mafia, Rick Ross, Young Dro, Young Joc, Dem Franchise Boyz and the The Musicianz. From the get go you know that something ain’t right with this picture.

In other words, they knew what they were getting into, so why in the hell are they so surprised?

Of course, Phonte tries to blame the audience for the rather cold reaction that they got in The Fay (are they still calling it The Fay anymore?). Noz thinks its the fact that since Little Brother tries to be all high and mighty, their pretentiousness does not help to win them fans. Sure, that may be true, but it misses the obvious.

WHOEVER SET THIS SHOW UP FOR LITTLE BROTHER IS ON CRACK. Whether its the management, the record company, a promoter, or the band themselves. I could see a LB/Outkast set, or a LB/Roots set. Even a LB/Outkast/Three 6 Mafia set might go over well. But music is marketing people, and LB and the aforementioned “Dirty South,” artist fall into different markets. The Roots and Common would probably get the same reaction. It just boils down to different types of music, and different people. It’s like Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five getting booed when they opened up for the Clash. Sure The Clash liked New York hip-hop, but that doesnt mean ish to their fans. LB might have slapped hands with Young Joc backstage, but again, the people who are out to see Young Joc probably don’t give a damn about Little Brother.

I don’t think that LB needs to go back into the studio and record a crunk record (although handing production duties to people outside of their camp would be nice) to appeal to a mass audience. Honestly, in the end, LB will probably get the mainstream success that they are hoping for when they signed a major label deal. The Listening was a great album. In fact, I enjoy left feild music over Dirty South. Gasp! Little Brother have carved a unique niche of hip-hop for themselves and that’s good. But unfortunately, its still a niche, and until mainstream audiences accept them for who they are, LB will be in that corner for a long time.

Tags: Little Brother

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