S. Samuel
The Roots' Questlove might need a hug after hinting at a possible Little Brother reunion going down and, coincidentally, receiving some immediate backlash courtesy of former members 9th Wonder and Phonte.
The confusion reportedly stemmed from comments Quest made on his Twitter page this weekend.
Today, Questlove shocked the world by announcing that Little Brother would be reuniting for an album called The Reenlistment. Hip-hop fans across the world started to rejoice, but dreams of a long-awaited reunion were dashed by Phonte, who responded quickly. “N*gga stop lying,” Phonte said. When Questlove explained that he was trying to will the group into reforming through positive reinforcement on Twitter, it was met with an angry rebuttal from Phonte, who then brought Solange’s name into the conversation. “You don’t see me tweetin sh*t about you and @solangeknowles do you?” At this point, Solange immediately fired back at Phonte. The result, a Twitter fiasco that now everybody has backed away from, Questlove included. Long story short, a Little Brother album is just not in the cards for the forseeable future. (Complex)
Rather than downplay or even ignore Quest’s remarks, Phonte let loose some angry tweets.
“N*gga stop lying. RT @questlove: BREAKING NEWS: The #Re-EnLISTment the new album by #LittleBrother in the works!!!!,” Phonte tweeted November 23.
“@questlove Please stay out of other people’s affairs, man. You don’t see me tweetin shit about you and @solangeknowles do you? Chill.” (Phonte’s Twitter)
After being name-dropped by Phonte, Solange Knowles added fuel to the tensions.
“@phontigallo N*gga stop lying @ YOU sir. Got me f*cked allll the way up.” (Solange Knowles’ Twitter)
Even former Little Brother member 9th Wonder acknowledged the craziness.
“Things fell ALL the way apart……#DoUSeeWhatIHadDoneThere” (9th Wonder’s Twitter)
While his initial tweet is nowhere to be found, Quest confirmed there is no truth to the Little Brother reunion announcement.
“Game Over. Thought I Could Will A Great Group Into ReForming. It Backfired. Back To Your Corners Please. There’s No Little Brother Reunion.” (Questlove’s Twitter)
A couple years ago, 9th Wonder answered questions surrounding a possible reunion.
“There’s really no need, man. And I get it, because in ’98, Pete Rock and CL Smooth broke up and A Tribe Called Quest broke up. When someone asks, “Is there going to be a Tribe reunion?” and you see Q-Tip say, “Nah,” you just go, “What the h*l, man?!” But when you’re in it, man, I mean.” (AV Club)
Phonte also said fans’ lack of understanding their personal relationship had caused confusion to why they did not plan on reuniting.
“I just think it’s something that only the people in the group understand. Going back to your divorce analogy, the only people who know what went on in that marriage are the two people in the marriage. The kids can have an opinion, the people in the church can have an opinion, the public can say, “Oh but y’all were such a cute couple.” Such a cute couple? So we’re going to stay married just ’cause we took good f*cking pictures? Are you f*cking serious? You don’t know what this b*tch tried to do to me. So it’s something that only we will understand; why we feel we’ve fulfilled our purpose and said all we had to say.” (AV Club)
