Little Brother on next level

Smart, playful and catching on, Little Brother is the next level

Pat Douthit, the Little Brother deejay/producer known professionally as 9th Wonder, has come a long way the past three years. Since Little Brother put out its first album, 2003's "The Listening," Douthit has been at the top of the charts with production work for Destiny's Child and Jay-Z. He even cracked the charts with his own group's latest album.

But in other ways, Douthit and his Little Brother bandmates Phonte Coleman and Thomas "Big Pooh" Jones have stayed close to home. The trio formed at N.C. Central in Durham and still resides in the Triangle. And their major-label debut album, "The Minstrel Show" (ABB/Atlantic Records), is full of cameos by Joe Scudda, Chaundon and other members of the local Justus League collective. They'll be onstage tonight at Cat's Cradle.

"We made our first album right around the corner from here, in Cesar Comanche's two-room apartment over in Mission Valley Apartments," Douthit says over a salad at Quiznos on Hillsborough Street near Meredith College. "And I used to work at the smoothie place down the street, right next to the Record Exchange. The guy who owns that place told me a few weeks back, 'I can't believe you used to work right next door, and here we're having a midnight sale for your album. Sold 80 CDs, too.' So it's going OK."

Indeed it is. "The Minstrel Show" debuted at a solid No. 56 on the Oct. 1 Billboard 200 album chart and at No. 19 on the magazine's R&B/Hip-Hop album chart.

The album has since slipped down both charts. Rebounding will take that most elusive of commodities: commercial-radio airplay. Local hip-hop/R&B station WQOK, 97.5-FM, is playing the album's first single, "Lovin' It." But it has yet to spread to regular rotation elsewhere.

Still, getting this far is a testament to Little Brother's credibility among hip-hop tastemakers, and the word-of-mouth enthusiasm of its grass-roots following. "The Listening" sold only 34,000 copies, but apparently all the right people bought it. Two weeks after "The Minstrel Show" was released, Amazon.com had more than 60 listener reviews, most of them rated five stars and with headlines such as, "Smartest Album In Years ... (And Easily One Of The Best)" and "Finally ... good hip-hop!"

"What's striking is how vocal and loyal a core fan base they have," says Oliver Wang, editor and co-author of the 2003 book "Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide." "That has helped Little Brother stay in the conversation in a marketplace that's always looking for a new next thing. Their fans seem to be split between young cats too young to have known De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest growing up -- for whom Little Brother is a portal to reach back to those older hip-hop groups -- and older fans who grew up with those acts and see Little Brother as the next in line."

Adult-contemporary hip-hop

One thing working against Little Brother is that "The Minstrel Show" is decidedly out-of-step with contemporary trends. Kanye West aside, the commercial marketplace is still ruled by 50 Cent's hard-edged, blinged-out glitz. But "The Minstrel Show" is a more accurate reflection of the life most people live, with songs about courtship rituals, child abandonment and other concerns of everyday grown-ups.

"Nobody expected hip-hop to last, much less grow up," Douthit says. "I'm 30 now, and friends I had in high school are still fans of hip-hop -- but not the hip-hop on the radio. You've got urban radio and classic soul/R&B radio. Now, I know Marvin Gaye, the Stylistics, Al Green. But that's not what I grew up with, which was Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie. It's time for adult-contemporary hip-hop radio because there's a 28-to-36-year-old demographic that is not being served by commercial radio. I don't want to be 'before our time.' I don't want to be 40 before we get adult-contemporary hip-hop radio."