Interview with Little Brother
By Janeé Bolden

A good friend of mine, who has known me since my backpacker days (yea, can you believe it?) has been trying to put me on to Little Brother for years now. It started with emails containing links that sent me to Okayplayer. Then he started raving to me about Justus League… Then next thing you know I’m getting CD’s in the mail; Little Brother’s The Listening, Pooh’s Sleepers and a copy of 9th Wonder’s Black Album remixes… Before long my iPod had been infiltrated. I couldn’t help nodding my head to this one mp3 in particular called “I See Now” featuring Kanye West, although I found Yeezy’s verse troubling, to say the least. While I have yet to follow suit and put them on any all time MC lists (sorry guys, my list only has room for one group- say it with me- OUTKAST) I found their latest release The Minstrel Show to be quite the head nodder, full of hilarious skits and the refreshing beats 9th is famous for. So far “Say it Again” is my favorite track off The Minstrel Show, the album that’s caused plenty of controversy for The Source and BET. Before I get into the interview I wanna give a shout out to my girl Marina for pressing me to ask the fetish question that almost made me lose my breakfast (thanks Phonte for that honest and insightful answer)… Anyway, here it goes in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1!

DM: Where did you get the idea to call this album The Minstrel Show?

Phonte: All of us sitting around and thinking of a direction for the next album. We were thinking about the state of the music.

DM: The state of music, meaning what? The materialism? Sex and violence?

Phonte: Meaning the stupid shit… that’s all that you see. I don’t have a problem with them talking about that. If that’s your story, then that’s your story.

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