What proceeds is an interview that took place on the Live and Direct Radio Show with DS , Big Drew, and DJ Phenomejohn (www.whrwfm.org Friday Nights 10pm-1am EST.)  on March 21, 2003 with Phonte of Little Brother.

 

ds:  we got a caller on the line

bd:  yes we do, yall are in for a treat

ds:  yes , you are ALL in for a big treat.

bd:  you lucky devils.

ds:  caller , are you there?

phonte:  oh, i'm here man, whats good?

ds: hey, how's it goin, please tell the people who you be

phonte:yo WHRW , whats goin on ?peace and love . its none other than phonte, one third of little brother ,one twelfth of the justice league. puttin it down for north carolina , how yall feel?

ds:good good, everything is goin lovely up here

bd: gravy.

ds: we'd like to thank you for callin

phonte:ah no problem, i've been meaning to do this forever man, i apologize.ID at abb gave me these interviews like a while back. I had just found a sheet with them on there as i was cleanin my house today so...

ds: its a pleasure to have you

bd: you can call anytime as a matter of fact.

phonte: oh sure man.

ds: for those just tuning in, we have phonte of little brother on the line from abb records. Phonte, if you could maybe tell us a little bit about yourself, the crew, and this incredible buzz thats been goin on with the album.

bd: (makes buzzing sound) bzzzzzzzzzz

phonte: basically, we're just a group of friends who all met at North Carolina Central.

This was around '98 ,99. and we just  hooked up , thats basically it.  we didnt really form the group Little Brother until 2001.But we recorded a song and felt the chemistry so we decided to keep recording as a group.So we started recording, finished our album around march 2002 and by that summer or fall 2002 we were signed. Yup, and thats how it all went down.

ds: aight no doubt, i heard there was a big buzz on the internet about yall  too

phonte: oh yeah, it all got started when we put some songs on okayplayer, ya know , just to get some feedback. we wasnt really tryin to blow up or whatever, we just wanted some feedback and they just caught on real big  man so thats pretty much how the buzz got started so....

ds: ok, so you've got some big producers saying good things about yall. we've had  Quest love of the roots saying good things. and we've heard pete rock saying good things, and you've also worked with pete , what was it, one and a half  maybe two months ago?

Phonte: Yeah we had did  a couple joints with pete for the album. We only recorded one so far,  he gave us a couple of beats. Like to pick from, and we did one , we did the beat and the beat he gave us for it was dope but he was like, "yo i want to do another beat under it."

So we havent even heard a finished version of the joint we did yet. So working with him, and we'll probably do some work with Dj Spinna. I'm supposed to hook up with him once he gets back from Miami.

ds: oh aight, spinna used to dj here at this very station.

phonte: oh really? wow. spinna's ridiculous man.

bd: we're big spinna fans.

ds: tell him we said wassup

phonte: oh i definately will

ds: so you got this joint we're playin in the background. (Little Brother's whatever you say instrumental)

phonte: oh yeah (laughter)

ds: you know this one right?

phonte: yeah a little too well (laughter)

ds: well, now ninth wonder produced this right? he also has the gods step son project out currently, where he remixed the accapellas to nas' god son album

bd: oh yeah, thats right.

ds:how's things going with him, whats he up to ?

phonte: oh he's real good man, he's doing tracks, stayin real busy. he's actually doing his radio show  tonight , every friday from 10 -2 on duke university's station.  so he's actually there now. so yeah, everybody's just stayin busy man. kinda takin time out to rest till the end of this month because we're pretty much chillin. but our tour dates are gonna pick up in april. so we're just taking this time out to chill with our families and just kinda regroup  and get ready for the road again.

bd: thats love right there,let me ask you this : you guys got something coming out soon. are there gonna be any special guests on it?

phonte: uh man, i can't really say right now.

bd:  i aint mad at you bro. ( laughter )  is it too secret?

phonte: i mean, theres a couple things brewin. and if they come through i'll be really really extremely happy.(laughter) but i dont wanna spoil it right now

ds: now the album you got out now "the listening" on abb records, thats doing really well on college stations now.

phonte: yeah, real good. yeah that buzz we were able to build up in such a short period of time has really helped to carry the record and we wanted to make sure the record builds up to the buzz. so we've just been real blessed. a lot of opportunities and doors have been opening up. so its a pretty good time man, we want to just keep makin dope music and keep the people talking. you know in the industry its not about your first album, because no one expects anything from you on your first album.  its your second , third, fourth and fifth albums thats what separates the men from the boys right there.

bd: thats good advice

phonte: so thats our focus making sure all the projects we work on are dope. all our side projects , thats it man, just continuing to make dope music thats the bottom line.

ds: I wanted to also ask you...

(big drew starts dancing to the instrumental of "whatever you say "and laughter ensues)

ds: big drew's over here dancing man

bd: i like this track man, this is nice.

ds: i had a couple girls like this too, they like what your sayin too.

phonte: we some more females in hiphop too.

bd: aint that the truth

phonte: i get tired of doing shows and seeing ( it sounds like he says "Swordfights") we need some more females , its aiight.  and single females , not just ones there because their man drag them to the party.

ds: amen (applause from the studio)

bd: single women to mingle , no doubt.

Phonte : (laughter)

ds: now, i've seen you guys perform back  at fatbeats NY, and i think the next night you performed at the Knitting Factory.

Phonte: Yeah, that was back in like November.

ds: how are the crowds responding to your live shows?

phonte:we just try to make it a point in every show just to make the crowd a part of the show, versus us  just on stage.

ds: oh yeah, i had a good time man.

phonte: thanks alot man, i really appreciate that. yeah thats our whole focus, whenever we do a show its like whether its 3 people or 300 or 3000 we make sure everyone has a good time. so thats our whole focus man, just making people feel a part of the show ,havin fun, and takin the music seriously , but not really takin ourselves as seriously ya know what im sayin? so we aint fraid  to act  the fool and just do our thing man.  but the crowds been real good, real positive.

ds:  ok,  now i saw yall in the source magazine also. you guys had a little blurb. and something i really wanted to ask you, although i don't have it written down here is one of yall said the big tymers "hood rich" was your favorite album of 2002, i mean, come on. are you serious?

all : laughter

phonte: dead dead serious man.

all : wow

phonte:dead serious man. just lookin back at the year it was like stuff that came out...you know the people that you normally would look to to bring the heat wasnt bringin no heat. i mean straight up and down, i  don't have to say no names here.   but the cats that you normally look for to bring the goods, wasnt bringin it.  so like an album like that  that came out , we got turned on to it one night ......

ds: i don't know man.

phonte: ...one night on the internet man. we were like just fooling around on the internet. we were on amazon.com

ds: really man? hood rich ?

phonte: yeah man. we were like "whats something bad?" like "lets look for some bad music just to laugh at." so we typed in Big Tymers and said "yeah yeah lets listen to that ."

and we listened to it and were like "well, damn, this this is pretty good." So then Pooh went out and he bought the whole record. and yeah we played it man . it was like our summer album. we did everything to that album, whenever we had to ride out we'd get on the road or whatever we'd just run it. if we was like gettin ready for a show or something. its just a fun record.

ds: if you could just see the looks we're giving each other here in the studio right now man..

all : (laughter)

phonte: laughter .. aye brah. its just a fun record.

ds: hey , listen, if your not having fun with music.  whether it be playing the music, recording the music,performing ... then why do it?

phonte:hell yeah man,i had a  lot more fun listening to that then half of this underground stuff coming out now. thing is, the think i like about them is they don't take themselves seriously, they arent good rappers, they KNOW  their not good rappers. but their not trying to sell you on the fact that their good rappers, they're tryin to sell you a lifestyle. its a lifestyle i'm not really trying to live, but i can listen to their music and appreciate it. its a good party record man, it was a lot more fun . hiphop aint no fun no more.

ds: hey, just a word of advice though man.

phonte: whats up?

ds: i don't want to hear any bird calls from you on your next joint.

phonte: (laughter then proceeds to do the bird call ala birdman aka baby) "brrrrrr, what happened to boy " (more laughter)  nah, i dont need no bird calls, we won't take it that far. but i do recognize game, and they had some good stuff on that record.

ds: ok ok, i'm gonna have to listen to it. i have it at home somewhere.  i didnt buy it.

bd: no hate in the blood .

phonte: i don't know, maybe you gotta be in the mind state like if your about to have a girl come over or something, get a drink or somethin, throw on the hood rich, it'll loosen you up.

ds: nah , i throw on the marvin gaye or john coltrane

bd:  (starts singing from marvin gaye's  "lets get it on")

phonte: ahh, aight man, i know what youre goin for  ( laughter)

ds: so Phonte, we're gonna wrap this up. is there anyone you'd like to shout out

phonte:  sure . ninth, big pooh, big up the justice league. check us out on the web. littlebrothermusic.com and also papergods.com  big up cesar comanche. everyone supporting coming to shows. hey, without yall there would be no us. and we mean that from the bottom of the hearts, and the way we've been accepted into the hiphop community. its been unbelievable. thanks for everyone  supportin.

ds: i've got some shout outs. beni b. id , and bumrush.

phonte: i dont know, just a word of advice, if you ever gotta ride with id , man ian davis, pray man just pray.

all:  (laughter)

Phonte: Id. man, that stands for Instant Death. behind the wheel, he was our tour manager while we were in california for two weeks. and in the day time he was alright. but in the nighttime...

bd: forgettabout it.

phonte: get your kids off the streets.

all: (laughter)

(at this point we proceed to turn the instrumentals down, and get some radio drops live on the air)

ds: aight we want to thank you for takin time out to do this.

phonte: yeah, i been meaning to do it for a while.but things were hectic, i apologize. but thanks alot for having me.

ds: you have a good night. take care man.

bd: keep making that hot music too.

phonte: no doubt , yall boys be safe. peace.