Just as 2003 championed Little Brother as the last true underground Hip Hop act groomed for, and welcomed to the mainstream with the interest to support it, the last five years may have punished Rapper Big Pooh and Phonte. The media got nosy, three bandmates became two, and the group was dropped by a major label and profited upon by an independent.

Things seem better now though. 'Tay and Pooh have time, energy and product to properly launch their fledging Hall of Justus imprint with the re-release of And Justus For All, their 2007 mixtape, less the Mick Boogie tags and with a few replaced tracks. The emcees have at least three solo and outside projects in tow, and appear more confident about their future than ever before.

Like Willie Hutch sang, Brother's gonna work it out. Although the motivation and pleasures have changed, the good music hasn't, and gearing up for another busy summer, Phonte and Pooh break down a few of their favorite things.

HipHopDX: At this point, the mixtape was out quite some time ago. It was a hot mixtape; I still listen to it. But with an album out less than a year, what made you want to revisit And Justus For All?
Phonte: A lot of people don’t like mixtapes. [Chuckles] A lot of people would just rather hear just straight songs. We had an opportunity to put out the joint without any drops on there, or kind of mixtape stuff going on, and people could put it on their iPods or whatever, and make their own mixes with it.

DX: Was it difficult to pick from the existing material for those fans?
Rapper Big Pooh: Nah, it wasn’t hard at all because it was officially a mixtape first. We got away with putting a lot more stuff on there. When you turn it to a retail type of release, then obviously there’s some legal matters at hand. Those are the tracks that couldn’t get cleared – those are the ones that had to come off. That was our process.

DX: The original mixtape, did that accomplish the kind of awareness or exposure you guys were hoping for?
Phonte: For me, [And Justus For All] wasn’t about exposure; it was about getting people ready for Getback [click to read]. Around the time we put it out, that was [when] the news had leaked that us and 9th [Wonder] [click to read] weren’t working together no more [click to read], and we wasn’t with Atlantic or whatever, so a lot of people had counted us out. For me, And Justus For All was just about showing people that we could still do our thing without 9th in the group and that we wasn’t gonna stop making music. We had a lot of exposure at that time, but it might not have been the kind of exposure we wanted. [Laughs]

DX: You mean all those conversations about the status of the group?
Phonte: Yeah. Our name was out there.
Rapper Big Pooh: It wasn’t about the kind of music we was putting out at the time though.

DX: There have been some interesting releases on Hall of Justus. As a label, is that [manager] Big Dho’s thing, or sort of a collective imprint of you all? And what’s your vision for HOJ?
Rapper Big Pooh: We’re going through a little revamp stage right now. The problem with the Hall of Justus as an imprint was that we were never officially [signed]. It’s like when Run-DMC was reppin’ Def Jam, but they was on [Profile Records]. It’s like that same thing with us. When Hall of Justus started, we were still ABB/Atlantic. Now, being that we’re totally free agents, we’re basically revamping the whole thing. My next solo album [Dirty Pretty Things] will be on Hall of Justus. This’ll be the first time that an actual album from one of us has came out on [there]. We’re almost starting that imprint over from the bottom and trying to build it into the label we’d hoped it would become.

DX: You mentioned being free agents. Are you guys looking to get picked up again, whether independent or major?
Phonte: For me personally, I ain’t lookin’ to get picked up at all. I seen the label game from the indie-indie to minor-indie to major; we pretty much done did it on every level. It’s just like, “I can do all that by myself.” I’d much rather just take it into my hands and live and die by my own work and own failures. Putting myself in the hands of other people just doesn’t interest me anymore.
Rapper Big Pooh: We a lil’ different on that one. As far as Little Brother is concerned, that’s a future thought. We’re not even focused in on another Little Brother album right now; we’ve both got solo endeavors that we’re both grindin’ on right now. In the future, some time next year, when we sit down and start discussing another Little Brother album, then those talks’ll come up.
Phonte: Right.
Rapper Big Pooh: As far as me as a solo artist, I’m a person who looks for the best situation. I feel like there’s always money to be had, and I’m gonna get it. Being through all those situations, I understand now what I didn’t understand then as far as what I need to succeed now. If I can’t get what I need to succeed, then I don’t jump into that situation. Back when we was with them other deals, a lil’ younger, a lil’ dumber, so they ended up how they ended up. Now, I gotta be on the receiving end of some fabulous shit to sign a deal now. Continued on page 2 »