Big Pooh, part of the critically acclaimed North Carolina collective known as Little Brother, is currently promoting his solo album, Delightful Bars
Hiptics.com: What have been the challenges of transitioning from being part of a group to holding it down solo?
Big Pooh: I think the major difference is probably just having that other person [Phonte of Little Brother] to really draw inspiration from. There’s always other people around that I can lean on for ideas or whatever, but basically inspiration has to come from me. I think in the beginning that was the most challenging part of being a solo artist, but I’ve been around this block before. You get more and more comfortable with it the more you do it.
Hiptics.com: What’s your writing process like?
Big Pooh: I kind of just listen to the beat for a little while and see where it takes me and then I just start writing. [...] I write about 2 bars, and I continuously just spit those same bars to myself until I come up with the next line. I’m not nesscarily doing it in the booth, but I’m still doing it. I do that for two reasons. It helps me to know the rap faster so when I go in [the booth] to actually spit it, it doesn’t sound like I’m reading it off anything. And two, it’s like free flowing. I walk around the house, spit a couple lines, see if it makes sense, and kept repeating it to myself just to see if I like it; to let it see with me for a little while to see if I like it. That’s pretty much my process.
Hiptics.com: Coming from North Carolina, do you feel any extra pressure to hold it down North Carolina’s hip hop scene?
Big Pooh: I don’t feel any [extra] pressure to hold it down for North Carolina – I mean that’s not for me to decide at the end of the day. The only pressure I feel is pressure I put on myself to continuously get better, you know, to consistently put out dope music. North Carolina definitely has a lot of talent within it.
Hiptics.com: Do you feel like your music has been influenced at all by the election of Barack Obama?
Big Pooh: I think at the time it was. [Rappers] were making songs to reflect the change that was going on at that time, but that moment has passed for most people. It’s gone. It was the hot thing for the moment, now they’ve moved on to whatever else they’re moved on to.
Hiptics.com: How about the economic times? Do you feel that’s been reflected through the music?
Big Pooh: That’s definitely been reflected through the music. Everybody is being affected by what’s going on with the economy. It’s not just the middle class, it’s not just the poor, but the wealthy is being affected as well. I think that some of the music is definitely a reflection of those times cause right now it’s getting hard to brag about how much money you supposedly getting, or have, or whatever, [especially] when people know we’re in a recession. So it’s like c’mon now, c’mon. [Laughs] It’s like c’mon, we all know it’s tough times out here, so I think you can definitely hear that in the music now.
Check out Rapper Big Pooh on MySpace, Amazon
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