Little Brother - The minstrel show (four and a half stars)

For those who don't know who little brother is the trio consists of mc's phonte and big pooh and producer extraordinaire 9 th wonder. I first heard about these guys because of all the publicity 9 th was getting because Jay-Z decided to get a beat off the kid for his final album which was the cut labeled “Threat”. And also everyone talked about how he only uses fruity loops (which by the way is a very capable program in the right hands) for all his productions. So when I heard about the release of this album I decided to peep it and im glad I did! These guys brought back some memories of some old early nineties hip hop which is surprising since they are based down south in North Carolina . First off lets talk about the title and the overall theme of the album. A “minstrel” show back in the day was a show primarily performed in “black face” by popular performers at the time for a mostly white audience for their amusement. So they appropriately named their album accordingly to parody today's hip hop and how rappers today are pretty much degrading themselves performing in black face like the minstrel days of old. Even with all the strong satire and messages they try to get across on the album it still makes a really good listening unlike most underground “intelligent” hip hop. I think that's mainly because of 9ths production is very mellow and laidback and head nodding compared to abstract and very dark and heavy beats you usually hear from underground cats.