While we still haven’t seen a reuniting of the holy Little Brother trinity, each of the group’s members will release album’s by the end of 2011. Starting in July, Rapper Big Pooh will team with Stones Throw alum, Roc C, to form the Young Americans, and will release an as-of-yet untitled EP. Following that will be the September 27th release of Phonte Coleman’s long-overdue solo LP, Charity Starts At Home, as well as 9th Wonder’s The Wonder Years LP, via his IWWMG imprint. 9th will produce most of the tracks on Phonte’s LP, as the two have put aside past differences, while 9th’s LP will include collaborations with each Mac Miller, Warren G, Murs, Talib Kweli, Big K.R.I.T., Kendrick Lamar and others.

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Drake and producer 40 speak to Nardwuar about Little Brother, Big L, the bra stand, and much more.

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Drake made two interesting reveals in the last 24 hours, first that he has a shrine dedicated to Andre 3000 in his home. He told Paper Magazine, “I have a shrine in my apartment dedicated to Andre. I took a door off a barn and had an artist take the lyrics from his verses [and put them] on this barn door. As soon as you walk into my apartment that’s the first thing you see.” In other news, speaking to Peter Rosenberg on UStream today, he revealed that Phonte of Little Brother will collaborate with him on his second LP. Longtime fans know this is not their first collaboration, as Little Brother was featured on Drake’s underground “Comeback Season” mixtape release in 2007. “Miss Me” video is coming soon. Props to RR on these news bits.

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Fresh interview courtesy of Out Da Box TV with LB as the duo continues to give us a few last moments on the group tip.The in depth interview also includes Joe Scudda and Torae among others.Dope shit for all LB fans.

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Nodfactor asked Phonte to explain the “I’m the Quincy Jones producer of Little Brother” comment and what it is like working with Nicolay verses 9th Wonder.

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Phonte recently opened up to The Onion AV Club’s longtime hip-hop contributor Nathan Rabin about his forthcoming solo LP.

AVC: What can you say about your solo album?

PC: I started it last year, and I kind of got into it, but once we got nominated for the Grammy, I was like, “Okay, fuck a solo album, this shit can wait. The focus is on Foreign Exchange right now. Fuck it, let’s hit them with another record.” Me and Nic had already started working on the new record anyway, but then once the Grammy shit happened, it was like, “Okay. It’s mostly hip-hop; I’m going to get back to my MCing more.” I’m still going to have some singing on it, as well, but mainly it will be hip-hop this go-around, with some singing mixed in. Ideally, I would like to make a record that shows all of my influences, from the hip-hop to the R&B stuff. I want my solo record to be a one-stop shop. If you’ve heard a lot about Little Brother and you’ve heard a lot about Foreign Exchange, but you’re not really knowing about me, you can pick up my solo record and that can bring you up to speed about who Phonte is and what he does.

Check out the rest of the interview here.

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Fans of Little Brother will probably agree that the group’s history is like a microcosm of most of the last two decades in the rap game. After all, they’ve already had label trouble, video controversy, people trying to pigeonhole their sound and internal strife – and all of it has happened since 2003.

Now it seems like Phonte and Big Pooh have moved on to the final act in this career arc with Leftback, their fourth full length group effort. Any new LB album is cause for anticipation, but this time it feels slightly bittersweet because it sure doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting any more after this.

That’s apparent from the very first song (and lead single ) “Curtain Call.” Though it features both lyricists in top form over a breezy Khrysis beat that calls to mind the good old days alongside 9th Wonder, the chorus pretty much says it all: “Don’t stop, you know it don’t quit, but when it’s curtain call then that’s all you gonna get.”

Other choice cuts showcase the versatility that makes Little Brother stand out from the crowd while remaining so difficult to categorize. The guys from North Carolina can comfortably drop smoothed out rhymes about a night on the town with their best lady friends on “Table For Two,” then come back two songs later and smack the listener in the head with more aggressive lyrics with guest stars Truck North and Median on “Revenge.”

The excitement level dips a little bit in the middle of the album with several tracks where the production lets the rappers down a bit, plus two remixes of songs we’ve heard before (“After The Party” and “Two Step Blues”). But things return to form on the last two cuts, the almost hypnotic “Before The Night Is Over” and the hard-hitting “24,” which once again show off the group’s two sides perfectly.

As a whole, Leftback isn’t going to unseat The Minstrel Show as LB’s finest work, but it’s clear the duo can still make dope music. So is it simply the lack of commercial success that’s forcing the group to call it quits?

Phonte gives an unabashedly earnest answer to that question on “Tigallo For Dolo”: “I always spit whenever the spirit hits me, but fuck if I’ma be doing this shit when I’m 60. / And that’s no disrespect to KRS, I’m just trying to make my art and do what’s smart. / I’m saying, rapping ‘Te four-and-a-half mic honoree, or singing ‘Te first time Grammy nominee? / Nigga you do the math, nigga you add it up. That’s on my mind when I press record. / A lot of niggas probably mad at me, but I would rather be a lonely wolf than a sheep that’s bored.” That’s real talk.

So this really does look like the final bow for Little Brother, unless the guys really want to follow the career template to the fullest and do a comeback album someday. And even if there’s never another chapter in the LB saga, as Big Pooh says, “You can always press rewind and relive it again.”

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This just in, Little Brother’s official webstore, 5th & Fashion, is offering Left Back with a limited edition Left Back t-shirt in a package deal for $30. Maybe we were late on this, maybe it was just announced. Either way, support your favorite artists, or don’t be mad when they disappear.

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