Phonte has long been hailed as a favorite emcee among other rappers and fans alike. The second half of rap duos Little Brother and Foreign Exchange chatted with VIBE about what it's like juggling two gigs and his unparalleled ability to both rhyme and sing. Read an excerpt from the interview below.
What’s the biggest difference when you’re Phonte of Foreign Exchange versus Phonte of Little Brother?
Man, Little Brother is just straight hip hop. It’s just straight up beats and rhymes for the most part whereas Foreign Exchange is just music. So if I get a track from Nicolay, my first instinct is just 'OK, what would sound good over this? Would it be rhymes? Would it be me singing? Would it be me writing a song for someone else and producing it that way? Would it be me sharing vocals with someone? Like there tends to be a lot more thought that goes into it. And then with Foreign Exchange, Nic is a musician and he’s a music fan, just like me.
Pooh would even tell you, Pooh is more of a sports fan than he is a music fan. Like he does music, he enjoys it but he’s just like, 'Yo, whatever.' But with Foreign Exchange, me and Nic are both music fans. We both kind of put the same amount of care into it and we both really do it at 110 percent. And Pooh does as well, not to say he doesn’t because he really does. It’s just a whole different animal when you’re working with musicians.
Do you still find that people don’t know that you’re a part of both Foreign Exchange and Little Brother?
Oh yeah, that definitely happens. I think that one of the things that’s just interesting is like how a lot of people just really still don’t connect the dots. Like with Little Brother, we were a lot more in your face. We toured a whole lot and at least with our records and stuff. We were just putting out records left and right and we were kind of in your face. Whereas Foreign Exchange, it was always kind of like a science project. We came out in ’04, then we kind of disappeared and didn’t come back until ’08. Our faces were on neither one of the covers. It’s kind of been shrouded in a little more mystery. So people haven’t really connected the dots as far as Foreign Exchange and Little Brother. But as long as they appreciate the music, that’s fine. For a long time, people didn’t know that Mad House was Prince. As long as they know the music, it’s all good to me.
With Foreign Exchange and Little Brother, does it feel like two different careers or does it feel like one career, doing two different things?
It’s kind of just one career doing two different things. I just kind of view it all as just one total existence. It’s like me and my man was talking about how back in the day, you had to kind of be the total package. You look at cats like Sammy Davis Jr. Even like old variety shows like The Carol Burnett Show, how actors had to be able to sing; they had to be able to dance, act. They had to do stand-up to a degree. I’m sure Sammy Davis Jr. didn’t look at his career and be like, ’I got my acting career; I got my singing career; I got my tap-dance career.’ It’s just a career. It’s just you being an artist and just kind of exploring your inspiration and letting it take you to wherever it may lead. So, that’s really how I see it. I don’t see it as I’m juggling two careers so to speak. It’s just I have one career, and it’s just taking on two different energies.
To read the full interview, visit http://www.vibe.com/news/interviews/60rappers/2009/06/60_rappers_in_60_days_phonte/index1.html.
Also, if you haven't heard the cover album with Phonte and Detroit musician Zo! (also known as Zo! and Tigallo), "Love the ’80s," please get familiar.
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