Happy Birthday, 9th Wonder

In celebration of 9th Wonder’s birthday, here’s a quick listing of my favorite 9th Wonder productions.

9th Wonder broke into the business with the underground Hip-Hop group Little Brother (best MCs out of the Carolinas). His trademark was taking obscure soul samples and using them as the foundation for LB’s tracks. 9th’s beat were perfect for the musings of Rapper Big Pooh and Phonte. Their first two albums¹ were classics, and many of the cuts from those LPs stay in heavy rotation on my iPhone: “Lovin’ It” (their breakout track), “Say It Again” (shows how witty LB’s lyrics can be), “The Becoming” (“I LOVE this Rufus sample).

My favorite cut is “Whatever You Say”. Great sample (Cleo Laine’s “I Believe You”) and a great story (the classic boy-meets-girl, girl-disses-boy).

California rapper Murs and 9th Wonder have released six² albums together. “Love and Appreciate”, off Murray’s Revenge, feels more grounded than most of their tracks, because Murs is rapping about every day problems of every day people. 9th digs up a old Ben King track (“Let Me Live in Your Life”) from god-knows-where to serve as the main sample.

Jean Grae (super-duper underrated MC) and 9th recorded the aptly-named Jeanius in 2004. It didn’t get an official release for a few years (I think due to not getting permissions for some samples), but most of us found cuts through filesharing programs (RIP – Limewire and Napster). “My Story” is a shorter version of Jean’s “Love Song“. Again, great production from 9th that perfectly complements Jean’s raw lyrics.³⁴.

9th left Little Brother in 2007 due to a beef with Phonte (and maybe Big Pooh, too). The MC and the producer finally patched things up in 2011⁵. They showed their renewed friendship by appearing on each others 2011 releases – Phonte’s Charity Starts at Home and 9th Wonder’s The Wonder Years.

“Band Practice, Pt 2”⁶ is short and to the point. Its laugh-out-loud funny⁷ and backed by a great “dusty crates” find (Marlena Shaw’s You Been Away Too Long).

1. 2003’s The Listening and 2005’s The Minstrel Show.
2. The Brighter Daze LP dropped on Dec 31, 2015.
3. “Love Song” and “My Story” might be 1A and 1B of the saddest love songs in Hip-Hop history…. because it’s all true.
4. Also, be sure to check out a great video that was created for “My Story”.
5. You can read all about it here
6. 9th, if there is a Band Practice Part I, then I need you to drop it immediately.
7. I’m sure Joe Namath never thought he’s be punned in a hip-hop song