I know I'm late on this, but I finally checked out that Little Brother album, The Listening. What can I say that hasn't been said already? It's a nice, cohesive piece, 9th Wonder's production is tight, Phonte and Pooh have that undeniable chemistry, and they rap about real life situations, from pseudo-righteous coffeehouse cats on "The Yo-Yo" to life moving too quickly on "Speed". It's in my regular rotation now, joining Common's "BE".

I got the listening from eMusic, my favorite music download service. For only 20 bucks a month, I get 90 tracks from a pretty large catalog of non top-40 music. These are VBR MP3s with no DRM; no restrictions, they're yours to keep. You won't find all the latest releases from the hottest artists (according to radio) on there, but I'm not looking for that anyway. If you were looking for an obscure demo or live performance by your favorite non mainstream artist though, you've come to the right place. It's also emerged as a distributor for smaller labels. If anyone wants to try it out, leave a comment on the page.