Producer Profile: 9th Wonder (Part 2, 2004-2005)

Following his commercial breakthrough by having a beat placed on Jay-Z's 'The Black Album', 9th Wonder followed with a single for Destiny's Child's final album 'Destiny Fulfilled'. 'Girl' nearly broke the top 20 in the United States and did better overseas. 9th Wonder samples the Dramatics' album track 'Ocean of Thoughts and Dreams' from their late 70s album 'Shake it Well'.

During the same year, Murs and 9th Wonder joint venture 'Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition' was released on Definitive Jux. We'll cover the album in depth in a future post, but for this post we'll cover the A and B side of the lead single 'Bad Man!'. 'Bad Man!''s reggae steez is plucked from the Mighty Diamond's 1986 track 'Illiteracy' from their album 'Reggae Street'. The B-side track '3:16' samples Black Heat's 'Street of Tears' from their self titled album from 1972.

2005 saw the release of Little Brother's ill-fated big label debut with the album 'The Minstrel Show' on Atlantic Records. An example of the excellent production on the album is the track 'Hiding Places' which samples Bobby Womack's 'Jealous Love'. Though praised on its release, it sold poorly and led to rifts within Little Brother. Their following album would contain only one track produced by 9th Wonder and by 2007 would split with Little Brother entirely.

The Lowdown:
Destiny's Child 'Girl'
from 'Destiny Fulfilled' (2004) (MP3/CD)
The Dramatics 'Ocean of Thoughts and Dreams'
from 'Shake It Well' (1977) (MP3 not available/CD not available)
Murs 'Bad Man!' and '3:16'
from 'Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition' (2004) (MP3/CD)
The Mighty Diamonds 'Illiteracy'
from 'Reggae Street' (1986) (MP3/CD)
Black Heat 'Street of Tears'
from 'Black Heat' (1972) (MP3/CD not available)
Little Brother 'Hiding Place'
from 'The Minstrel Show' (2005) (MP3/CD)
Clean Edit:'Hiding Place'
Bobby Womack 'Jealous Love'
from 'I Don't Know What the World is Coming To' (1975) (MP3/CD)

Producer Profile: 9th Wonder (Part 1, 2003)

During the late 90's, armed with Fruity Loops production software, 9th Wonder began working with friends Phonte and Big Pooh under the name Little Brother. 2003 would see the release of Little Brother's debut album, 'The Listening', though it's underground success would be overshadowed by 9th Wonder's mainstream breakthrough.

Much like Danger Mouse, 9th Wonder's big break was making an unauthorized remix album for Nas' 'God's Son' album in 2002. This led to A&R interest and landed his production for 'Threat' on 'Black Album'. 'Threat' cribs Jay's sometimes collaborator R. Kelly's 2000 track 'A Woman's Threat'. Real talk. Another high profile beat also landed on De La Soul's 2003 album 'The Grind Date'. Sampling a block party classic, Pleasure's 'Reality', 9th Wonder laced De La with 'Church'. Little Brother experiences limited success, leading to a major label deal for their next album. 'The Listening''s lead single 'Whatever You Say' landed Little Brother with underground cred and proper beats.

Check back to this blog for more of 9th Wonder's exploits. In part 2 of his Producer Profile, we'll see 9th as he produces a full album for Murs and drops a major single with Destiny's Child in 2004. on Jay-Z's hugely successful

The Lowdown:
Jay-Z 'Threat'
from 'The Black Album' (2003) (MP3/CD)
Clean Edit: 'Threat'
R. Kelly 'A Woman's Threat'
from 'TP-2.com' (2000) (MP3/CD)
Clean Edit: 'A Woman's Threat'
De La Soul 'Church'
from 'The Grind Date' (2003) (MP3/CD)
Pleasure 'Reality'
from 'Dust Yourself Off' (1975) (MP3/CD)
Little Brother 'Whatever You Say'
from 'The Listening' (2003) (MP3/CD)
BONUS CUT:
The instrumental for 'Whatever You Say'.