The first time I heard of 9th Wonder was when Jay-Z shouted him out on a mixtape a couple of months before The Black Album was released.
When I heard about his group Little Brother (which received 5 mics in the source and other notable recognitions) I had to see what all the fuss was about. After hearing "The Listening" I fell in love with Little Brother and the Justus League. not only were they from Durahm, NC but they were the first southern act since Outkast to come out with an original sound. I HAD to get my hands on every single 9th Wonder production. (But I only was able to find Sleepers and The Listening) Though I did get to hear alot of hs tracks on the net. After about a year and a half of following 9th Wonder's production, I'm starting to wonder if he isn't wearing himself a lil to thin before his group's BIG debut album.
I mean, don't get me wrong, he is talented... But in my opinion, 9th's been everywhere and his beats arn't the most complex beats in the world... after hearing a good bit of his tracks from several albums his style tends to get a tad bit monotnous. After a while I started to notice that he uses the SAME snare for the majority of his beats...Not only that, I don't know if it's because Fruity Loops only takes samples in Wav. format or what but most of his tracks have this really airy, reverb happy feel to them. (the samples have this grocery store music type feel to it) The samples sound very distant from the rest of the beat. 9th hasn't really ventured very far from the traditional boom bap and one looped samples. I really hope that "The Minstral Show" is as uniqe of an album as L.B. claims it is, because they have sooo much potential. This new album could be a breakthrough for them and for the South sound in general, and I would hate to see them not get the praise they deserve.
When I heard about his group Little Brother (which received 5 mics in the source and other notable recognitions) I had to see what all the fuss was about. After hearing "The Listening" I fell in love with Little Brother and the Justus League. not only were they from Durahm, NC but they were the first southern act since Outkast to come out with an original sound. I HAD to get my hands on every single 9th Wonder production. (But I only was able to find Sleepers and The Listening) Though I did get to hear alot of hs tracks on the net. After about a year and a half of following 9th Wonder's production, I'm starting to wonder if he isn't wearing himself a lil to thin before his group's BIG debut album.
I mean, don't get me wrong, he is talented... But in my opinion, 9th's been everywhere and his beats arn't the most complex beats in the world... after hearing a good bit of his tracks from several albums his style tends to get a tad bit monotnous. After a while I started to notice that he uses the SAME snare for the majority of his beats...Not only that, I don't know if it's because Fruity Loops only takes samples in Wav. format or what but most of his tracks have this really airy, reverb happy feel to them. (the samples have this grocery store music type feel to it) The samples sound very distant from the rest of the beat. 9th hasn't really ventured very far from the traditional boom bap and one looped samples. I really hope that "The Minstral Show" is as uniqe of an album as L.B. claims it is, because they have sooo much potential. This new album could be a breakthrough for them and for the South sound in general, and I would hate to see them not get the praise they deserve.