By TJ Love
Here it is. In observance of DA GAWD 9th Wonder’s born day I took it upon myself to dedicate a whole show to somebody I consider one of my top 5 producers of all time. All of the great producers have a signature sound, an identifier to listeners that lets them know “hey, so and so produced this”, and for Patrick Douthit it’s always been his drums. If you’ve had the opportunity to peep his documentary “The Wonder Year” he addresses the topic at length, basically saying “People complained about the drums and when I changed ’em up, people complained that they wanted the “old soulful 9th back”. Welp, 9th hasn’t used “those drums” in almost 4 years now, but somehow the haters manage to keep on bringing that shit up like Ray Lewis’ murder charge. What.the.fuck.ever b. Even WITH “those drums” that were the driving force behind not one, but TWO classic Little Brother albums, that are somehow more redundant than the things that enable you to immediately identify a Pete Rock, Premier, or Dilla beat,9th still belongs in the pantheon of producers.
I was 13 years old when I first saw the video for ATCQ’s Electric Relaxation and it changed my life. The sounds hitting my ear drums blew my mind, and opened up a world of music to me that to this day, as a grown as man in my thirties, I define myself as a Hip-Hop Head. Around the time Little Brother’s first album, The Listening, was released in 2002, the type of sound that made me fall in love with Hip-Hop in the first place had grown stagnant. Native Tongues as a whole was dormant, Jay Dee was undergoing his transformation to J.Dilla, and that organic, melodic, boom bap was altogether absent (at least it was to me). Like everybody else I peeped The Listening off of Questlove’s persistent cosigns and almost twenty years to the day I first heard Electric Relaxation I found myself listening to an album that made me feel the same way.
9th left Little Brother after their second album and predictably their sound suffered, until eventually they disbanded as a group completely. 9th went on to produce gems for a who’s who of black music including Jay-Z, Beyonce, Erykah Badu, and De La Soul, to name a few. Anywho, enough of my Stannery. The following episode is a selection of what I consider to be *some* of 9th Wonder’s best work. And while I could have easily stayed in the booth playing 9th’s joints for four hours, there’s people that have shows after me. So please forgive any omissions, I did the best I could.
Happy Birthday 9th Wonder
Phonte-Band Practice Pt.1
9th Wonder-Band Practice Pt. 2 feat. Phonte & Median
Little Brother-I See Now Feat. Kanye West & Consequence
Jay-Z-Dirt off Your Shoulder (Remix)
Jay-Z-Threat (Remix)
Murs & 9th Wonder-Trevor An’ Them
Median-Comfortable
Wale-Tito Santana Feat. Joe Budden
Binky Fingers-Where’s Calvin
Rapsody-Jedi Code Feat. Phonte & Jay Electronica
Jean Grae-The Time is Now Feat. Phonte
Murs & 9th Wonder-The Animal feat Phonte
The Thyrday-Fuck
Masta Ace-Good Ol Love
Rapsody-Non Fiction Feat. Raheem Devaughn & Ab-Soul
Slum Village-Look of Love (9th Wonder Remix)
Planet Ill Rip Shop Radio: HAPPY BDAY 9TH WONDER!!! by Tee Love on Mixcloud
