Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Little Brotherhad to grow up quickly.
The album stalled out low on the Billboard 200, and the group left Atlantic.
Little Brother was ahead of its time, but prescience isnt necessarily a road to riches.
The busier Pooh and Phonte got, the more a reunion looked like a pipe dream.
The groups newest chapter is a perfect sequence of unlikely windfalls.
This summersMay the Lord Watchis an improbable comeback on several fronts.
On a late August afternoon in the Vulture office, I can hear the creative chemistry.
Once you make your first album, your life is never really the same.
No one even knew we were working on this.
Theres people on the album who didnt fucking know they were going on the album.
We were able to spend a lot of time together just bonding.
We recorded the whole album in a home studio.
We shot the shit.
We listened to other music.
We watched TV shows.
I must thankthe R. KellyGood Morning Americainterviewfor getting us through.
Big Pooh:That supplied so much.
P: So much comedy!
[mocks R. Kellys voice] Hey, guys, use your common sense!
They say I got five, 11, 50 girls!?
That shit deserves an Emmy.
Are you shitting me?
Talk to me about coming at the legacy with a fresh perspective.
We aint trying to take it back because, n-, I dont want to go back there.
You dont want it to be like youre asking someone to tune into season 12 of a TV show.
You mean to tell me I gotta watch 11 seasons of some shit … to get this shit?
But at the same time, we were very adamant that this wasnt a nostalgia play.
Its not a money grab for us.
We could really focus on getting it right rather than looking at the financial windfall.
The game changes too fast.
Its just how things evolve.
Were not gonna complain about what we feel is not right.
Were just going to show you what is right from our perspective.
Thats what we do.
We do the work.
We put good tape out, as the saying goes.
P:I look at records as where we are now.
I like to think of ourselves as giving young rappers a look around the corner.
I can grow older but not necessarily get old.
Hip-hop is still a relatively young art form.
Were still figuring out what it means to be an older rapper.
People always point to Jay-Z, like, He said … N-, he rich.
Rich n-s can do whatever.
If Warren Buffett wanted to drop a rap album, he could do it.
Youre gonna listen to it.
Everybody wants to hear from a rich n-.
If that aint your station in life, you have to go at it another way.
BP:Thats a staple.
Now, that throwback jersey you bought from 02?
BP:I think people mistake being successful for whats trending.
If youre not doing whats popular now, then youre not successful.
P:No industry works like that.
So yeah, trap is still the sound, but theres successful artists that dont do trap.
Trap is whats put in front of you, but this is the playlist era.
Everybody has their own radio stations that they personally curate every day.
I know people that you never heard of with millions of views, millions of plays.
Thats kind of freeing.
What are you going to do to set yourself apart to get discovered so people can listen?
P:I was doing press last year for [sophomore solo album]No News Is Good News.
The dude interviewing me was like, Tell people where we can find your album.
I was like, N-, yall got my album!
You got a phone in your pocket?
You got my album!
Im just trying to guide you to it.
You got that iPhone?
[laughs] Im not trying to hear goddamn Bono in the carpool.
These motherfuckers had spyware on my phone.
The labels couldnt figure you out.
[We were] lining up first to be second.
To be the first one through the door is a sacrifice.
We aint get the glory, but we were the lead blockers that cleared out the hole.
Now, there are resources available to us that just werent available back then.
We only had, like, two videos in our whole career.
you could shoot a goddamn movie for 65 Gs now.
But at that time, there was no Instagram even.
Me and Pooh have this conversation all the time: What is the value of a video?
But now, you see me every day.
Im on IG stories, n-.
Im on goddamn Snap.
Which one has more value than the other in 2019?
I really cant say one is more valuable.
So yeah, it was frustrating at first, but now, all this shit is a wasteland now.
All love to Beyonce, but youre talking about two different eras.Thrillersold like 30 million copies.
There was an investment.
This is not the same as your six-year-old streaming Old Town Road all day on their phone.
Theres a deeper level of engagement there.
Its like … homie, we got to talk apples to apples.
What constitutes as engagement now versus what did back then?
Times are different because youre just leasing music now.
You dont even own it.
Most people dont download songs.
They download the stream but not the album.
Ive seen the number breakdowns.
We have a joke: Is this old math or new math?
P:Yall out here juking the stats.
We got a platinum-selling record!
Old math or new math?
They aint sell but 900 copies, but theyll have 10 million streams.
P:Strippers are A&Rs now.
And bartenders.BP:They see whats popping.
They sign it because its already popping.
They have the movement.
They already have the buzz and the foundation.
Its like, Were just gonna put some money into what youre doing already.
Thats why, if youve noticed, a lot of acts dont even sign straight to the label.
Theyre signing through production companies.
So the label is doing less but taking more.
P:So, to answer the question … is it better than it was back then?
This shit is worse.
BP:We got caught right before the transition.
Its crazy because we didnt even have an A&R.
BP: [And thats when] an A&R checked in with us.
Labels … first they were fighting [the internet], and then they found a way to win.
They found where the money was.BP: They gon always do that.
Where the fuck did you get them green eyes from?
Are you the mailmans kid?
Oh no baby, my great great granddaddy had green eyes.
Its sort of like that.
What a difference a rollout makes.
Its like, I didnt even know yall were listening.
They dont want to show where their Frank Lucas connection is.
They dont wanna show where they get the dope from direct.
They dont wanna give up the plug.
I didnt know yall n-s knew we were gone.
This time I feel very different.
The outpouring of people hitting us up … that shit is wild.
When you let art go, you dont know where its gonna go.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
