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“Retirements” in Rap have a history of not lasting very long, but this one nevertheless will up the anxiety of true Hip-Hop heads. North Carolina duo Little Brother have announced that their last tour, Curtain Call, will be its last, and that “their work as Little Brother is done.”

On Monday (April 7), current members Phonte and Big Pooh revealed they would be going on a final tour later this year called Curtain Call. LB told AllHipHop that despite tour being their last, they’re still on the best of terms.

“I wante [sic] to let people know, me and Phonte, we super good,” Pooh told 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.”
Added Phonte, “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.”
When Little Brother first arrived to critical renown, they were a trio that included producer 9th Wonder. The group’s 2003 debut, The Listening, on indie label ABB Records, was not a commercial behemoth. But the critical acclaim the project received earned them a record deal with Atlantic Records, which dropped their sophomore album, The Minstrel Show, to more praise in 2005, yet it also lacked commercial success. With 9th Wonder basically departing the group as his highly sought production talents kept him busy, LB would drop Getback and Leftback in 2007 and 2010, respectively.  It would be another 9 years before their latest album, May The Lord Watch, was released, with the consensus being LB was back in vintage but progressive form.
In late 2023, the group released the documentary May The Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story which chronicled the group’s creation and path in the industry that almost saw the ruin of their friendship before Pooh and Phonte were able to reconcile (9th Wonder did not participate in the doc).

The Curtain Call tour kicks off May 24 in Baltimore and will hit cities including Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles before closing out on the Rock The Bells cruise from October 27 – October 31.
We’re hoping the historical failure of rap retirements eventually applies in this case. Peep more reactions to the news in the gallery.

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