The highest-charting Southern rappers between 20-artists like Nelly and Ludacris-favored booming bass and synth-based rhythms over samples and drum breaks. The Justus League were geeked about their sound, which honored the East Coast-bred boom-bap of hip-hop’s past, but mainstream rap, particularly in the South, had begun to move on. In an effort to bring the Triangle of North Carolina to the world, Little Brother was officially born. Pooh counters with bars that bluntly lay out where his mind is at during trips through the arteries of North Carolina highways: “I let my life shine in between these paper’s lines/I write rhymes to incite minds/Spending time on this pipeline, 85 North.” They offer two different perspectives on this pink-slip paranoia or, as Phonte puts it, “I was the chisel, Pooh was the sledgehammer.” “Speed” highlights the relatable yin and yang of Phonte and Pooh-direct descendants of Tribe’s Q-Tip and Phife Dawg or EPMD’s Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith-over 9th’s expert manipulation of Bobby Womack and Mobb Deep samples. Phonte’s writing is vivid and impressionistic, conjuring his position as a slave to a dead-end job (“I’m sharecropping in this paper chase”) that keeps him from seeing his infant son for days at a time. 9th’s beat is steady and soulful, perfect for uneasy morning commutes across the Raleigh Beltline.

Pooh was there, though, so he and Phonte joined forces instead to create what would become the first Little Brother song. Phonte and Median were scheduled to rap over a 9th beat called “Speed” but, at the last minute, Median didn’t show up. Their arrangement was casual, little more than friends having fun recording music, until a fateful night in 2001. Bonds formed as Joe Drama’s room became the Dagobah to over a dozen Jedi-in-training. They would crack jokes and kick rhymes and indulge in each other’s wide-ranging musical tastes, from the Roots to Led Zeppelin.

That room would become an incubator for the collective known as the Justus League: eight rappers (Phonte, Pooh, Chaundon, Cesar Comanche, Median, L.E.G.A.C.Y., Edgar Allen Floe, and Sean Boog), five producers (9th, Big Dho, Khrysis, Eccentric, and Son of Yorel), a DJ (DJ Flash), and a “Minister of Opinion” (Mike Burvick). Pooh came into the fold when he and Phonte met during freestyle sessions in the room of their RA, Joe Drama. “At that time, if you saw somebody with a Source mag, it was like a Jedi meeting another Jedi,” Phonte explained in 2019.

Phonte and 9th first met while moving into their dorm rooms: 9th was carrying a copy of The Source. Phonte and 9th Wonder were both born and raised in small North Carolina towns Pooh grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, and was drawn to North Carolina by a deacon at his church who suggested he attend NC-Central because it was an HBCU.

Jay z albums with bonus tracks