EXCLUSIVE: Little Brother Announces Curtain Call Tour Will Be Their Last

Little Brother—the celebrated duo of Grammy Award-nominated artist Phonte Coleman and Rapper Big Pooh—have announced their final tour.

Aptly titled the Curtain Call: The Final Tour, the run kicks off on May 24 in Baltimore at the Artscape Festival and wraps up with the Rock the Bells Cruise on October 31. Other stops along the way include Boston, Brooklyn, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta, the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Napa, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and Raleigh, North Carolina.

“I wante to let people know, me and Phonte, we super good,” Pooh tells AllHipHop. “We had a chance to reconcile, come back and, I believe, put Little Brother to bed the proper way. We was able to do it the right way and I believe that’s one of the things we both thought was important—not that when we knew when that day would be, but it was still important to have that moment and allow our fans to have that moment, too.”

Phonte adds, “Pooh said it beautifully. We came back after a decade and got our first No. 1 record, we did our own movie, we did our own block party and regained control of our catalog. Our work is complete. Our mission as Little Brother is complete. Pooh and I were really able to not just rebuild but also cement our brotherhood. That was the most important. That was the God of it. Our work as Little Brother is done. Our lives as Phonte and Thomas will go on forever.”

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Originating from North Carolina, Little Brother was formed in 1998 alongside producer 9th Wonder. Their debut album, The Listening (2003), garnered critical acclaim for its introspective (and often comedic) lyrics and soulful production, establishing them as pioneers of “alternative Hip-Hop.”

The group’s name reflects their intent to carry on the legacy of earlier influential acts like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. Despite their underground status, Little Brother gained national attention when 9th Wonder produced “Threat” for JAY-Z’s The Black Album the same year.

Their sophomore album, The Minstrel Show (2005), further cemented their reputation for blending sharp social commentary with humor and wit. The album offered blunt critiques on the commercialization of Hip-Hop through the lens of minstrel show imagery, earning widespread critical praise but limited commercial success.

Creative differences ultimately led to 9th Wonder’s departure in 2007, after which Phonte and Big Pooh continued as a duo. They released Getback (2007) and Leftback (2010), showcasing their adaptability and commitment to making authentic music despite industry challenges.

After a long hiatus, Little Brother reunited in 2019 to release May the Lord Watch, an album that revisited themes from their earlier work while reflecting their growth as both artists and people. The group’s legacy is highlighted in documentaries like May the Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story, which chronicles their rise, struggles with industry dynamics and enduring influence on the culture. It also sheds light on the beautiful and, at times, complicated brotherhood between Phonte and Pooh, something they talked about in a 2023 interview with SPIN.

Pooh, you talk about having a pulmonary embolism that could’ve, quite frankly, ended your life had you not gone to the emergency room. What lightbulb went off when that happened? 

That was me facing my mortality at that point. Even though you think you understand life is fragile, when you’re faced with your own situation, that’s when you truly understand how important every day is. And I think that was the beginning of me understanding that—not fully—but how important every day is. I really had to start doing my own self-searching and my own work to really understand who I was and who I wanted to be.

Up until that point, I was just trying s###. I was just out there trying to figure things out. That was the turn of me actually maturing after that incident. I was living by the seat of my pants. That was a month before my 33rd birthday. I literally got out of the hospital two weeks before my birthday.

In the doc, Phonte, you admit you didn’t reach out to Pooh when he was in the hospital. How did it feel seeing Pooh’s reaction, and do you wish you’d handled that differently? 

Phonte: It’s definitely something I would have done differently. One of the things of the film is brotherhood and how that means different things to different people. And also conflict and how that means different things to different people. For me at that time, the conflict was, “If we ain’t f###### with each other, then we ain’t f#####’ with each other.” When I got the call that Pooh was sick, it was never a thing of like, “I’m glad” or whatever. There was a moment like, “Man, I hate to hear about that. I’m gonna pray for him and keep it pushing.” But in my mind, I didn’t think he wanted to hear from me. I didn’t think me reaching out mattered to him because of where we were.

We had another version of the scene in the film where I was talking more about how I didn’t realize how severe his position was—because it wasn’t Pooh reaching out to me, it was another mutual friend of ours letting me know. We had that in the film at first, but after watching it, me and Pooh talked and decided to take it out. We didn’t need to have a whole bunch of, “Well, see, what had happened was…” No, own your s###. Your man was in the hospital, and you didn’t call him. Hindsight is always 20/20. Emotionally that’s where I was at the time, and the only thing I could do was just own that and grow past it.

With that in the rearview, Little Brother has been able to mend old wounds and move forward as a duo. While Little Brother as we know it may be coming to an end, their friendship will last a lifetime. Tickets go on sale Wednesday (April 9) here. Find the tour dates and revisit The Listening above.

(Photo Credit: Antoine Lyers)