Getback

After the finger-waggling of the divisive The Minstrel Show, Little Brother's third official full-length-- and first without 9th Wonder-- represents an attempt at figuring out just why the duo are rapping, and for whom.

Little Brother's third album, Getback, opens with a typically lush beat that combines ecstatic strings and glistening piano, before a jarring burst of static ushers in a much harder groove and an incendiary Big Pooh lyric that suggests the plus-sized MC has traded in his Pete Rock albums for classic Public Enemy. It's…

From Getback, it's clear that Little Brother didn't mind the loss of 9th Wonder and decided to rewrite the script.

Hip-hop is most certainly not dead and nowhere near dying, and, as Getback shows, neither is Little Brother.