Little Brother\u2019s sophomore album The Minstrel Show<\/i> defied all odds and made them one of the few to record back-to-back classics; they were only two deep. Get Back <\/i>was surrounded by much controversy, considering it was the first album without a major contribution for used-to-be in-house producer 9th Wonder. <\/p>\n
Surprisingly, Get Back <\/i>is actually more controversial than the sophomore release, because instead of criticizing commercial hip-hop artists through metaphor and wordplay, Little Brothers just comes out and says it. The only problem is, they seem to contradict themselves on \u201cBreakin\u2019 My Heart,\u201d because for some odd reason they felt the need to collaborate with \u201cMr. Minstrel Show\u201d himself, Lil\u2019 Wayne. \u201cBreakin\u2019 My Heart\u201d is actually a great song over the only 9th Wonder beat on the album, but the song\u2019s strong relationship message is entirely because of Phonte and Big Pooh. Lil\u2019 Wayne offers absolutely nothing and is completely outclassed.<\/p>\n
Get Back<\/i> starts out strong with \u201cSirens\u201d, an Illmind production, who actually fills in for 9th very nicely with four out of the 11 tracks on the album. \u201cCan\u2019t Win For Losing\u201d is another great Illmind track that Phonte absolutely rips with an introspective grocery list of people who have let him down. The next three tracks are possibly the best three on the album: the aforementioned \u201cBreakin\u2019 My Heart\u201d, the rags-to-riches \u201cGood Clothes\u201d and the complex \u201cAfter The Party.\u201d <\/p>\n
Like \u201cAfter The Party,\u201d \u201cGood Clothes\u201d is about much more than it appears. Yes, it\u2019s filled with funny anecdotes reminiscent of Kanye\u2019s \u201cSpaceship,\u201d but it also serves as a metaphor for where the group is in the industry. They were not hand-picked by a high-profiled CEO or allotted a huge fund to make their album, yet they still did what they had to do to look and sound fly. Phonte even alludes to this through the skit that precedes it, but I won\u2019t divulge that message here.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter The Party\u201d is the best song on this album. The intro is from the hilarious Emmitt Smith roast, in which Jamie Foxx ridicules former football player Doug Williams. Not only do Phonte and Big Pooh both shine, but once again they create a song that has tremendous depth and different messages. Whether you take \u201cparty\u201d as an actual social event or as a hip-hop career in general, this song will be rewarding. This gem is followed by an uproarious \u201cExtrahard,\u201d courtesy of Mr. Porter, that provides a give-and-go session that deals with their new found success. <\/p>\n
\u201cStep It Up\u201d is another mature song about relationships, a theme that has had ample space on this record and is obviously a topic troubling the duo. This is followed by the only weak point on the album, \u201cTwo Step Blues.\u201d While Nottz provides decent production, Phonte and Pooh don\u2019t shine as well when referring to the club scene, although it keeps up with the mature theme on this album.<\/p>\n
\u201cDreams\u201d is another great song where Phonte actually acknowledges they were going for a different direction on Get Back<\/i>. The closer \u201cWhen Everything Is New\u201d finishes the disc off nicely and continues the reflections on fame that have been present throughout this album.<\/p>\n
Get Back<\/i> is a very mature effort that silenced critics (including myself) who said they could not have similar success without their 9th Wonder. Actually, the production on this album is very good, bordering on excellent. It is also clear that The Minstrel Show<\/i> had brought them newfound money and success. Get Back <\/i>is very much like Life After Death <\/i>was for The Notorious B.I.G., whereas both artists spent the bulk of the album reflecting on their unexpected success. Nonetheless, Phonte and Big Pooh have put together an album that they can be more than proud of, and once again Phonte proves to be one of the best MCs alive. Do I really need to say buy the album?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":29077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8087],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40595","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-little-brother","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40595"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40595"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}