Turn it Up: Love Lessons from Little Brother

The good ol' days

I'm a huge Little Brother fan. They're my favorite rap group. What sucks is that most folks haven't heard of them and they're now broken up. Nonetheless I think they're dope. What I like most about them is they make real life rap. They're not about a bunch of braggadocio and flossing. They rap about how those bills are real, how relationships go sour, how success is shaped by your outlook, and other ill stuff. Lots of folks don't like that type of rap. I never understood that. Jay-Z and Kanye are dope lyricists but I can't relate to their life and probably never will be able to. I'll never own a Hublot watch and i'm totally okay with that. I can relate to Little Brother though, for better or worse. One of my favorite things about LB is that they make great songs about relationships. With no further ado I present my top 3 LB relationship songs and what they taught me (There's links to the songs and the Album is in parenthesis) :

1. Slow it Down (The Minstrel Show)
"I don't wanna play around but I don't wanna settle down, that's a man's dilemma"
"Let's two-step in the name of like"
"I scoop you up in my Porsche. Sike, you know I got a Nissan, that I'm still paying for, still got a lease on"
This is a song I discovered my junior year of college and it really just hit home with me. Sometimes you just don't want to have a girlfriend but you want something steady. It's selfish in a way but it makes sense. A relationship is a lot simpler when you don't have the obligations that comes with the boyfriend/girlfriend title; When you're just having fun with each other and going with the flow. Eventually somebody will catch feelings and want more, then you're in that awkward situation where you're trying to explain that while you do like the young lady a relationship is a step you're just not ready for. It's nearly impossible to navigate this scenario successfully especially if you've already smanged multiple times.

2. Delusional feat. Oddissee (And Justus For All)

"She got that thang about her, the type of thang make a nigga wanna sang about her"
"I used to see her in the back of my mind all the various times, and be like 'damn mama', even my grandfather say you was the marrying kind. Not conceited, she just ask stuck up to weed out the fuck ups"

What I liked most about this song was that it was just a positive song about good women and how they want to holler at. And unlike the  GED-wielding hoodrat anthem "Five Star Chick" the things they highlighted weren't trivial such as paying bills on time.  They were more focused on how a woman carries herself with class. Every man worth a damn can appreciate a song like this.

3. Breaking My Heart feat Lil Wayne (Get Back)
"Having a partner for a man in my position, eliminates the cooks in the kitchen. Still I got a taste for the fast food, foreign cars, many women"
"Women stepping out for love, men do it to cum"
"As long he doing right by you and your kids, how you gonna expect that man not to be who he is? I ain't saying that it's right but we often pay the price cuz a woman's life is love a man's love is life"

This is probably one of my favorite LB songs up until Lil Wayne brings his nonsensical raps on the track. The song illustrates a common sentiment among people in relationships. Sometimes you just get the urge to try something different. This was something that was very hard for me to grapple with. It's like you're not unhappy in your relationship but you still get the urge to be free.  Doesn't even mean you love your woman less. I thought i was the only person that felt like this at times and it had me feeling like crap. I was relieved to find out that I wasn't the only "good"man that still had the occasional urge to be free and explore the other women of the world. But at the end of the day you have to ask yourself if you're willing to risk what you got to see if you can find more elsewhere. I call it the casino dilemma.

Well those are my 3 favorite LB songs about relationships. They have lots of songs about relationships of all types, of course that's not all they rap about but it's something i think they do well. I had great hopes for this post but it kinda fell flat. Hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.

J-Full