‘May the Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story’ chronicles rise, fall, and reunion of beloved North Carolina hip-hop trio

By Jamel Smith

December 4, 2023

The documentary, May the Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story, was released on November 24 to wide acclaim. The 100-minute documentary, named after their 2019 album, chronicles the rise, fall, and reunion of the beloved North Carolina rap trio Little Brother (Phonte, Rapper Big Pooh, and producer 9th Wonder). The film was helmed by Durham native Holland Gallagher, who was personally asked by Phonte to bring Little Brother’s story to life after the premiere of his web series, Hype, in 2018. Gallagher worked with Phonte on two short documentaries commissioned by the North Carolina Arts Council– one on the making of Little Brother’s debut album, The Listening, and one on their impromptu reunion at Art of Cool festival in 2018.  

Gallagher, who is also the co-creator of Rap Portraits, a series of verite-styled short docs profiling rappers like JID, Wynne, Pell, and Charlotte’s Mavi, produced a moving documentary detailing not only the history of LB, but the enduring bond between Phonte and Big Pooh. According to Gallagher, “they had a full cut ready to go,” but re-evaluated post-pandemic. 

“We all had this moment of reflection and realized the story we wanted to tell was about Phonte and Thomas’ [Rapper Big Pooh] relationship,” said Gallagher. 

Featuring interviews with longtime Little Brother fan Questlove, writer and sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom, journalist Dart Adams, author Dan Charnas (The Big Payback and Dilla Time), DJ Drama, and more, the documentary details the career and relationship of a band of brothers who lost rap dreams, found each other, and influenced the rap game in the process.

Here are some of our takeaways from the comprehensive and revealing documentary.

Little Brother was mostly a duo. 

May The Lord Watch laid bare all of the details of the relationship between Phonte, Big Pooh, and 9th Wonder, which unfortunately soured over the years. 9th Wonder declined to participate in the documentary, but Phonte and Big Pooh did not mince their words about the frayed relationship with their former producer. According to the documentary, the trio has been working mostly as a duo since 2003, following the release of their debut, The Listening. While 9th Wonder was producing for the likes of Jay-Z and Destiny’s Child– with his group’s approval– Phonte and Big Pooh were on the touring circuit building the Little Brother name. Phonte described 9th Wonder’s disposition as “one foot in and one foot out,” mainly sending in beats during album time. Egos and resentment peaked during their international shows for their sophomore album, The Minstrel Show, when the group members decided that 9th– against Atlantic Records’ wishes– discontinued his participation on the tour and the eventual group.

Questlove helped discover Little Brother. 

One of the most significant touchpoints in Little Brother’s rise was the Telecom Act of 1996. Music journalist and historian Dart Adams appeared in the documentary to speak on the bill’s implications on music discovery. As hip-hop radio began to monopolize during the late ‘90s, acts mobilized onto alternative channels with less restrictive measures, a.k.a. the internet. The documentary cites Okayplayer as one of the sites that birthed underground rap careers, and Little Brother was one of them. Questlove first listened to Little Brother at the behest of the Okayplayer “boards,” recognizing their name from the online community. He was exchanging handshakes with fans at a Roots show when he was handed a Little Brother sampler CD from a then-unknown Phonte. Once he caught wind of the group from the “boards,” he decided to press play on the CD. He was so amazed by what he heard that he co-signed the group on the site himself. And the rest was history.

Little Brother bridges the gap between eras.

The documentary impressively outlines the legacy of Little Brother by highlighting their rise and those they influenced, like rappers Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Doja Cat, and Lute. Little Brother was caught in the ugly transitional period of 2000s hip-hop when independent radio stations turned into affiliate stations, Southern “snap music” was dominant, and the internet hadn’t yet replaced physical distribution. As a result, Little Brother didn’t fare well commercially, ultimately leading to being dropped by Atlantic Records in 2007. Nevertheless, Little Brother is responsible for influencing some of the most prominent rappers in music. In the documentary, Phonte described Little Brother’s impact with the following analogy: “It’s like having a microphone in your hand, and you are just talking into the mic, but you didn’t realize that the mic was live.” 

The Minstrel Show is still timely.

Little Brother released their 2005 sophomore album, The Minstrel Show, to mixed reviews. In May the Lord Watch, Little Brother and their A&R at the time, James Lopez, spoke on the polarizing reaction to the album and its legacy in music and culture today. Upon first listen, Lopez “totally” understood what the guys were doing: “I thought it was genius– the skits, the interludes. I knew exactly what they were referring to– the state of hip hop at the time, what was selling, what was valued and what wasn’t.”

Under a critical lens, the album was rendered a satire piece on the state of hip-hop. Unfortunately, the satire wasn’t received well due to its overtly racialized imagery and brainy content. In an interview with Charlamagne Tha God, the radio host suggested that BET didn’t play their music because “it was too intelligent.” Despite its lukewarm reviews, the album’s legacy manifests in music today. 

All great artists pivot.

One of the more intriguing pieces of the documentary included seeing Phonte and Big Pooh explore other aspects of their talents. For Phonte, he transitioned from rapper to singer with his Grammy-nominated alternative R&B group, The Foreign Exchange. For Big Pooh, he shifted into an artist manager role for fellow North Carolina rapper Lute. The music business has a way of selling dreams before it topples them. When Little Brother’s rap dreams were disappointed by “industry BS,” they dared to pivot and set new career goals– a valuable message for any aspiring music professional.

Sometimes, all you need is time and space for restoration to happen.

As with every satisfying friendship story, redemption follows conflict. Then restoration. May the Lord Watch did not disappoint this arc. The documentary chronicles the reunion of Little Brother following their public fallout and disbandment in 2010, detailing the ensuing years of conflict and miscommunication between the group members. The turning point came following the death of A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg in 2016. Pooh knew Phife personally and took his death to heart so much, that after six years of no communication, he broke the silence and reached out to Phonte to make amends. After years of conflict and isolation, the two rappers rekindled their friendship, and the 2019 reunion album, May the Lord Watch, resulted from their newfound brotherhood. 

In the film, one poignant moment was when Tressie McMillan Cottom said, “There’s a difference between getting older and maturing. You get old by not dying. Maturing is a choice.” More than anything else, this documentary tells a story about two Black men who chose to be bonded by music and brotherhood.

May the Lord Watch: The Story of Little Brother is available to watch on YouTube. You can also make a tax-deductible donation to help support the making of the film. 

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