by SCOTT C

A friend and I took a break from debating our love/hate relationship with the enigmatic Kanye West this week to make some room for North Carolina's finest hip hop export, Little Brother, and the hoopla that's surrounding their new LP, The Minstrel Show. According to Squeeze Radio 89.9FM in New York City, Black Entertainment Television has stated that the video for Little Brother's "Lovin' It," the first single from the album, will not be played on air because it is "too intelligent." This comes after a recent dust-up over at The Source, where editor-in-chief Joshua "Fahiym" Ratcliffe quit his job on Aug. 16 after chief brand executive Ray "Benzino" Scott instructed him to lower The Minstrel Show's 4.5 mic rating to 4 mics.

Little Brother just signed a production deal with Atlantic through independent label ABB, and must be enjoying all the chit-chat that stories like this are bound to generate. The video for "Lovin' It" isn't exactly a masterpiece, but it portrays Phonte, Big Pooh, 9th Wonder and Joe Scudda with little fanfare or grandstanding, exactly the opposite of most of the videos you'd see on BET on a daily basis. When BET was contacted to comment on the allegations, their program director and publicist Michael Llewellen explained that BET reserves the right to show or not show videos of any type, based on their own standards and practices. Is BET afraid of Little Brother? Is Little Brother really too intelligent for BET's audience? Hardly. They simply provide another point of view from young black America that we don't see a lot of in the mass media. The same way BET has come under fire for its lack of coverage of the New Orleans tragedy, they regularly catch feelings from people who insist they're eroding the fibre of young, black America with their video choices. At the end of the day, they play what people want. The great thing about Little Brother is that they don't even need BET at this point, and the press they're getting from being bumped is probably more attention than they'd garner from being in heavy rotation. Funny how that works. You can catch all the controversy, plus some serious beats and rhymes on Monday, Sept. 19, when Little Brother plays at Foufounes Électriques.

Get set for Friday night live over at Quartier Latin, starting this Friday, Sept.16, with Afrodizz. Gary "Troubleman" Tremblay will be on the wheels of steel for the night, and promises some hearty live bookings in the coming weeks. Admission is $6 at the door, and it starts at 10 p.m.

Black Moon's Buckshot, Smiff & Wesson (aka Cocoa Brovaz), C.L. Smooth and Jean Grae all make their way to Montreal for a Rossignol snowboard-movie screening on Sept. 23 at Metropolis. Interesting lineup, let's see if they can make it!

My apologies to DJ Sinister, whose Salvation From Sin Saturdays at Quartier Latin was mistakenly printed as Sundays last week.

O CAROLINA EU PRECISO TE FALAR... fathead@videotron.ca

>> Music Listings