 Nicki Minaj | Trina  |
Sometimes rap can be limiting. Sometimes the medium can stifle your message.
It’s a cliché to say, but in the case of Phonte, the North Carolina MC may just be your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. In a recent interview, Drake, the current “it” boy of hip hop, mentioned Phonte, as one of his favorite MCs. Period.
For those who’ve followed Phonte Coleman since he burst onto the scene in 2003 with his partner-in-rhyme Big Pooh, and producer 9th Wonder, collectively forming Little Brother, Drizzy’s pick came as no surprise. MC and critics alike have given props to Phonte’s witty wordplay and Southern-tinged flow since Little Brother’s debut, The Listening (ABB). But in 2004, Phonte switched things up and began to amass a new set of fans with The Foreign Exchange, a collaboration with producer Nicolay. Together the two released Connected (BBE, 2004) to critical acclaim. In 2008, they released their sophomore effort, Leave It All Behind (Hall of Justus/ Nicolay), which Phonte is currently promoting on a nationwide tour.
Phonte phoned in to VIBE to talk about how he juggles being a part of two groups, what it means to hear Drake’s praises, and why everybody calls him to rap about relationships.
How much time would you say you spend in the studio a week?
It’s hard to say. It could be well over 40 hours. I try to treat it like a job. It’s something I do everyday, if not everyday than at least 3 or 4 days out of the week. But, it’s just something that I try to do as much as I can because the way I look at it, it’s like a muscle. The more you use your writing muscles, the better they get, the more trained they become. The process just becomes easier. It’s very hard, once you fall out of the rhythm of it, to try and get back on the horse. So I just try to stay as busy as I can and just work on stuff, whenever I feel it.
You get on a lot of other people’s projects. How do you select who you’re going to work with, who you’re going lend your voice to on a project?
The selection process for me has always been based on whether I like the song or not. The music industry, or should I say the traditional record industry, being in the shape it’s in now, it ain’t like nobody’s budget is just through the roof like that. So maybe like 10 years ago, it used to be Well, I’m going to just do this shit for a check or whatever. Like, that really ain’t done no more so you might as well just take the stuff that you really like to do.
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 thing’s 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.
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