"and Greensborough is the only borough I'm from" proclaims Phonte on 'The Becoming" from The Minstrel Show, in reference to the misgiving that most have when they listen to Little Brother for the first time. The North Carolina natives are accustomed to people making the assumption that they're from New York because of their flow, and have a hard time accepting that North Carolina is where they were born, raised and still reside. "Everybody thinks that North Carolina is this country-ass place with people bouncing everywhere, but its not," explains Phonte. "When people hear we're from North Carolina, they're surprised because to them we're not what Southern rappers are supposed to sound like. We could be from Brooklyn, Kansas, or anywhere."

Little Bother consists of three members: MC's Phonte, (Born Phonte Coleman) Big Pooh (Born Thomas Jones) and heir apparent producer/DJ 9th Wonder (Born Pat Douthit). The three met in 1998 while all attending North Carolina Central University and after discovering that they shared similar tastes in music and a intense love for real Hip-Hop soon became inseparable. The trio's energy and evident determination began attracting other artists and groups and they soon found themselves at the center of Durham's Hip-Hop community. Unions began forming with LB leading the way, first forming The Organization, a now defunct collection of rappers and producers from North Carolina area. Next came the The Justus League which LB is still proud to be a part of, The Justus League essentially followed the same vision of The Organization but this time more refined and with only twelve members. Numerous side projects and aborted and failed solo attempts were produced by The League, but the trio remained closed knit and in August of 2001 they finally came together and formed an official group and Little Brother was born.

The name that they chose had significant meaning as it paid homage and respect to some of the groups influences and idols such as A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots and Blackstar to name a few. Little Brother however had a sound and a style all their own, nearly flawless clever, and entertaining delivery that appealed to a wide audience, exquisite production, and a honesty in their subject matter that is still MIA from most mainstream acts. Shortly after the official union the group put together enough songs to begin doing shows and began brining their brand of Hip-Hop to the masses. They started with college radio, and received immediate dividends for their hard work, with critical acclaim, bookings at local venues and eventually opening shows for national acts like Defari and The Liks. North Carolina began to notice, and when the group made some of their work available on the internet, the whole country began to notice.

Oakland's ABB Records came calling in 2002 and signed LB to a deal, and in March of 2003 the group released it's first album The Listening. The album received widespread critical praise and put 9th Wonder's production in the spotlight and soon appeared on two multi platinum albums, Jay-z's The Black Album and Destiny Childs' Destiny Fulfilled. Since then the group has released The Chittlin Circuit 1.5 essentially a mix tape featuring remixes of tracks from The Listening and unreleased B-side tracks, and most recently the instant classic The Minstrel Show, in explaining title Phonte says: "to me, The Minstrel Show is ultimately about responsibility. As rappers, we have to take responsibility for what we say, and for the images we portray to our people. If not, we’re doing essentially what minstrel shows did: perpetuating negative images and reinforcing those negative stereotypes." 'Nuff said, for those wondering if Hip-Hop is capable of producing any new artists of substance Little Brother is the answer.