Last night Hip Hop looked down on some of her children proudly, as Phonte and 9^th Wonder joined forces on stage at the Black Cat. They were joined by underground royalty Rapsody, The Away Team, Median and HaLo. The show was everything that I want a live hip hop performance to be. Each artist held their own without a whole bunch of fluff. The show flowed extremely well. Once they got started it really didn’t stop. When one artist finished their set, they intro’d the next and on they came. The artists collectively represent a variety of lyrical styles. Throughout the style differentials however, they all gave the audience real hip hop. Not hip-pop, and not bull$#!t.

HaLo

HaLo was the first artist to come out. As he welcomed the crowd to the “Phonte – 9^th Wonder Experience” he got the crowd involved in a tri-faceted call and response: First, he gets the crowd to do the two step. As they’re two-steppin, he gets them to engage in a good old fashioned vocal call and response, and then gets them to wave their hands, all at once. I’ve been to a lot of shows. I’ve never seen anyone else do that. And you know what, it was a genius move. Quite honestly I’ve never seen that great a concentration of the crowd so engaged at the very beginning of the show…ever. In addition to the fact that he’s got a commanding presence- I mean, like I said, I’ve never seen anyone else do that. Points in my book. Instantly.

Median

Median is up next. Of all of the artists, I think that lyrically median may’ve been the nicest. I first got hipped to Median hanging out on the Foreign Exchange’s website. To top that off, dude had on a Ron Burgundy, Anchorman, T-shirt (Ron Burgundy is my idol on the low).   Fellow Justus League-ers  The Away Team also showed up and showed out last night at Black Cat. Made up of Rapper/Producer Khrysis and Sean Boog, the Away Team solicited and acquired the response from the crowd that marked the start of that high-energy vibe that real hip hop is famous for. Rapsody (who quite honestly I’d never heard of) was up next. The petite lady is undoubtedly making a name for herself through spittin real lyrics that stay true to the fact that she is a woman, without exploiting sexuality. It was a refreshing change from the standard female imagery that Hip Pop is breeding now. Her set also marked the moment that 9^th Wonder came on stage to take over the wheels.

The first thing 9^th did, when he took command of the one and the two was take the audience on a little walk throughout some of hip hops finest audible moments. Giving the crowd just snippets of some of hip hop’s most well known track soundbites from the likes of Mobb Deep, A Tribe Called Quest, Snoop Dogg and Pete Rock & CL Smooth . 9^th Wonder interestingly, without any formal introduction or anything, got behind the turntables and without doing anything fancy or over the top made the audience focus on the DJ’s performance.

And then the moment everyone had been waiting for. Tigallo, comes out to the sound of the ‘Star Wars’ theme. “DC How the f**k y’all feel?”  he yells enthusiastically to the crowd.  Watching Phonte, I realized that one of his biggest strengths lies in his sheer ability to perform.  Lots of artists nowadays, a lot of hip hop acts in particular have no idea how to truly entertain a crowd.  No antics, no pyrotechnics, no shock factor type stunts, just pure entertainment. As he moved through cuts off his newly released LP ‘Charity Starts at Home’ like ‘Not Here Anymore’ and ‘Dance in the Reign’, Phontigallo’s stage show was sprinkled with everything from storytelling about why he doesn’t smoke weed after what happened years ago leaving the waffle house to impersonations of Martin Luther King Jr. and advice to all the young ‘dumb-muthaphukas’ (his words, not mine) in the audience.  Rocking with Median as hype man for a good part of his set, the two of them even traded freestyle rhymes over the others beat box rhythms. Such impromptu chemistry and high level comfort translates to the fans in the audience actually connecting with the artist, rather than simply enjoying the show. It makes you feel like you were truly a part of something. Not simply, in attendance.

Let’s also not ignore the historical value behind this collective touring effort of 9^th and Phonte. After the Little Brother fall out a couple of years ago, many Little Brother fans such as myself, mourned the loss of a force of purity that breathed fresh air into the stale deflated lungs of modern hip hop. Phonte says that this tour and the project (9^th did most of the production work on CSAH) happened as a step in his maturation process. “I had to grow up a little to do this project” Phonte tells the crowd during one of his narrative breaks.  For all the fans out there, you couldn’t have picked a better time to grow up, Phonte. Or a classier way to do it.

With a combination of  old-school beats that bounce with a soulful strut and lyrical prowess that paints vivid pictures of D.C.’s disillusioned youth, it is no surprise that Diamond District has emerged as one of the frontrunners for best new hip-hop group.  Rolling Stone magazine, along with a host of other publications and media outlets, have recognized them for their buzzworthy-ness.

The pulse of this three-man operation is producer/rapper Oddisee, who has been making a name for himself by producing for artists such as Freeway, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Little Brother, De La Soul, and Nikki Jean.  He steps to the forefront with his newest magnum opus, the sprawling Odd Seasons, which consists of 4 seperate EPs that highlight summer, spring, fall, and winter with a total of 31 tracks!  Some of them are full-fledged songs, while some are perfect little nuggets of sonic ideology that you wish had been fleshed out a bit more (smart move on his part….your mind gets crammed with lots of great ideas, but not bogged down by a bunch of words).

The tracks that stand out to me the most are those that feature the British M.C. Tranqill.  “The Supplier” offers ample opportunity for one’s head to bob.  Tranqill spits such an easy flow, laced with that unmistakable U.K. accent, but it compliments the “Cooley High” vibe quite well.  “Ci’iy Life” and “It’s Over” offer up some pastoral melancholy that has Tranqill reminding me of a long-lost British member of The Pharcyde.  Most British M.C.’s are rapping on top of hyper-electro beats that have them skidding and scrambling to keep up, but the mix of London accent with D.C. hip-hop/soul strut is such an awesome combination that I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard more of this type of collaborative effort. It’s a fresh sound with an ear to the future of hip-hop that still maintains it’s roots in the traditional dopeness of an effortlessly poetic and thoughtful urban flow.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other highlights include “That Day,” which features D.C.’s favorite free-spirited soul fairie Musinah, “Birds and Bees” and “Black Broadway” which reconnects Oddisee with the Diamond District crew (reppin’ HARD for D.C.!!!), and “I’m From P.G.” which has Oddisee doing his rap thing solo with pin-sharp observations that sum up the experience of the young black independent-thinking male living in the DMV.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This project bursts at the seams with excellence!  All the elements that make hip-hop enjoyable are present in abundance.  There is a very clear vision that steers this collection of songs to an elevated level of artistry.  I will proclaim loudly and proudly that D.C. and the entire DMV area is being represented to the fullest by this young man and his wide-reaching talent.

5/5

If there was one quintessential rap group to drop in the past decade, it would be Little Brother. The laid back beats and Southern swagger set the Durham, North Carolina trio apart when they first dropped, and even though they were never commercially successful, they had legions of fans, including yours truly.

Unfortunately, Little Brother existed as a group in name only for a while before they “officially” broke up. We have been writing about constant arguments between Pooh, Phonte, and 9th Wonder for a while now, arguments that extended to a Twitter argument that took place this past weekend.

Essentially, it boils down to Phonte and Pooh dropping a track on the their latest project Leftback that 9th Wonder did not want to clear, which seems to have brought up longstanding issues between the two factions. Hip-Hop DX has all of the specifics here. Phonte took to Vimeo to explain his side of the story below.

I’m friendly with both camps, so I can’t really wage an opinion on this. I do have to say that even though more and more artists are taking on social media, doing your business out in the digital street tends to hurt your brand in the long run. What do y’all think?

Photos from The Foreign Exchange’s NYC show at BB Kings
by Joann Gomez, Music Looks Like This. Follow her on Twitter @MLLT.

The Foreign Exchange, the North Carolina based duo of Little Brother’s Phonte and Dutch producer Nicolay is steeped in legend. Meeting online via the hip-hop site Okayplayer, they exchanged beats and rhymes over the Internet, creating a friendship and leading to the group we now know today. Over the years, The Foreign Exchange has grown and matured, flipping its sound from its roots of hip-hop to the laid back almost Radiohead-like soul of their latest project Leave It All Behind, which received Album of the Year Honors from The Couch Sessions in 2008.

Earlier this week, The Foreign Exchange graced DC for the second time this year, spreading their magic on yet another capacity crowd at Black Cat.

Rapper Big Pooh started off the night to a somewhat lukewarm reception, running through a 30 minute set, dropping selections from his extensive (and slept on) body of work, Pooh did his best to entertain the crowd until the headliner, but people didn’t seem to feel Pooh until he dropped the classic “Whatever You Say.” The lack of crowd response is sad, because he’s one of the more underrated MC’s of of the past 10 years.

After Pooh’s set it was time for the main event. The Foreign Exchange graced the stage looking as dapper as ever. Let’s face it The Foreign Exchange dresses better than you do, complete with matching suits and fedoras, with the woman of the moment, Yazarah fronting a shimmery dress and honestly, killing the game. The first thing you notice about Foreign Exchange is that the live band is stacked with talent. Singers Darren Brockington, Carlita Durand and DC Native Yazarah are so good that they make me want to slap the creator of AutoTune for even thinking of inventing pitch correction software. Another DC native Zo! mans the keys while Nicolay lays back in the cut, quietly  enjoying his producer status.

As The Foreign Exchange dressed in their Sunday best, the show ended up being a Sunday night revival. Phonte, who is one of the best frontmen of this decade, commanded the stage with a classic and commanding (and sometimes long-winded) swagger. With a set that blended the more upbeat songs from the first album, Connected, with the more downtempo tracks from their second, Phonte kept the crowd hype and entertained, dropping wisdom and relationship knowledge at times, and leading the band into jazz renditions of “Snap Yo Fingers,” and “Stanky Leg,” and their crowd pleasing cover of “My Prerogative.”

When it was time for the band to get down to business, they did. D Brock kills it on his track “Take Off The Blues,” while Yaz shines on her song “Sincere.” Even downtempo tracks like “House of Cards” had an extra dose of energy in the live set.

For those who dismiss The Foreign Exchange as just another “backpacker neo-soul group” be warned. They put on a show that will rival any touring act you will see this year. Hands down. The excitement of the show that went down on Sunday cannot be expressed in written words. You must experience them for yourself.

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)

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)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.