To hear a professional bass player extolling the virtues of a Jay Dee bass line was startling. Phonte’s drummer friends in class broke the rhythms down to him: The kick is late. The snare is early. As simple as the stuff sounds, it’s complex. It was the first time Phonte saw a beatmaker being held in esteem by traditional musicians. In the wake of the one-two punch of Like Water for Chocolate and Fantastic, Vol. 2., Phonte bumped the latter album repeatedly. He told his partners in Little Brother: This is who we’ve got to beat. This is the fucking bar. To leap over it, 9th Wonder used his
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