The Bar

Get it at the TMB Store!

1. Sirens feat. Carlitta Durand
2. Can’t Win For Losing
3. Breakin My Heart feat. Lil Wayne
4. Good Clothes
5. After The Party feat. Carlitta Durand
6. ExtraHard
7. Step It Up feat. Dion
8. Two Step Blues feat. Darien Brockington
9. That Ain’t Love feat. Jozeemo
10. Dreams
11. When Everything Is New

Official Bar Score:

Little Brother’s third official LP marks their return to ABB records after a disastrous foray into major label bullshit that ended up seeing the editor in chief of The Source quit, BET (more specifically it’s parent company Viacom) exposed big time when they refused to air one of LB’s video due to it being “too intelligent”, one critically acclaimed album in “The Minstrel Show” being produced that received little marketing support and subsequently bombed, and their producer leaving the group. Most groups don’t go through that much drama in an entire career.

That hasn’t stopped LB from doing their thing. Emcees Phonte and Big Pooh aspire to be a modern day Q-tip and Phife, and are talented enough to pull it off. “GetBack” comes off as their way of venting about their frustrations. A good deal of the songs deal with a theme of frustration in one way or another, be it label politics and fans (”Can’t Win For Losing”), love and relationships (”Breakin’ My Heart” with a surprise appearance from Lil’ Wayne, who is quickly becoming the go to guy for a guest verse), fashion (the single “Good Clothes”), etc. It’s definitely a bit of a harder edged album than “The Listening” or “The Minstrel Show”. The humor and light hearted nature that has always been prevalent throughout LB/Justus League projects is still there, it’s just a bit more mean spirited and sarcastic than usual. They also scrapped the theme format that turned “The Listening” into a radio station and “The Minstrel Show” into a television station, instead creating a more straightforward album.

I’m thinking this is probably due to the absence of 9th Wonder, who only contributes one lukewarm track that nonetheless is ripped (the aforementioned “Breakin’ My Heart”):

The cohesiveness that is inherent to one producer handling an album allows for themes like that to be successful. On “GetBack” they were forced to go to outside producers. New Jersey’s Illmind shows up behind the boards the most with 4 beats. Other producers include Nottz, Hi-Tek, Khrysis, Rashid Hadee, and Zo, but the crown jewel of the album is handled by Denaun Porter (of D12) with the track “ExtraHard”. The up tempo violin and vocal samples along with the hard hitting baseline create the perfect back drop for Phonte and Pooh to aggressively rip fake emcees and make their statement that they are here to stay and will always be better than most. It’s the best song on the album by far on an album that doesn’t really have any “skip this track” songs. It’s not “The Listening” by any means, but it is evident that LB is much more comfortable being independent.

The take on the EPMD logo for the album cover…

…to me it seems like a bold statement. They are not gonna water themselves down and they are not gonna give into industry politricks. I like it. “GetBack” is not a hip hop classic, but it is a very enjoyable album. Pick this up, and get some (or all) of the mixtapes they and their Justus League collective have been releasing for the past couple of years. LB makes good music, and they deserve to be heard.

Recent Posts by Winston

• Movie of the Week: "Dude, Where's My Car?" (2000) - November 6th, 2008
• Family Guy Season 7 Ep. 4 “Baby Not On Board” - November 6th, 2008
• Theater Releases for 11/7/08 - November 3rd, 2008
• Box Office Report (11/2/08) - November 3rd, 2008
• Theater Releases for 10/31/08 - October 26th, 2008