Last year, Little Brother fans were first teased with a trailer for the group’s new documentary May The Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story. Over the past two weeks, LB co-founders Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh hosted intimate screenings of the film for fans in Washington, DC, Atlanta, Georgia, Los Angeles, California, and New York, New York. Today, November 20, 2023, the duo announced that they will release the film to fans worldwide via their YouTube channel at 8PM ET on Black Friday November 24, 2023.
“Little Brother entered this business independently and based on the current landscape, we see no need to change course. This film is a love letter to our fans, a celebration of the people who made us, and a testament to our core values of authenticity, ownership, and craftsmanship. It took us five years to complete this, and it finally feels right.” – Phonte
“One of the things I’ve been hearing people talk about is how our music was either shared with them or they shared our music with someone else, sometimes even forming life long bonds. YouTube is the perfect intersection where all demographics meet. Having the ability to release our documentary via YouTube felt like the perfect way to share our story with Little Brother fans while leaving open the possibility of introducing ourselves to an entirely new group of potential fans.” – Rapper Big Pooh
Subscribe to the Little Brother YouTube channel and get notified of the world premiere here. Fans can make a donation to the film via the Southern Documentary Fund here.
MORE ABOUT THE FILM:
May The Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story follows the rise, breakup, and reunion of Little Brother, the critically acclaimed and widely influential Hip-Hop group from Durham, North Carolina. A music documentary in the tradition of films like Beats Rhymes & Life, Zappa, or 20 Feet From Stardom, May the Lord Watch details the vast impact of the preeminent 2000s group, composed of rappers Phonte, Big Pooh and (formerly) producer 9th Wonder.
The heart of the documentary lies in the unraveling and reconciliation between members Phonte and Big Pooh. Their relationship begins in the wake of their challenging upbringings in the South, strains while coming of age together in the music industry, and resolves with an enduring friendship, as the two men reunite and record their 2019 album May the Lord Watch. Told through never before seen archival footage, contemporary vérité scenes, and interviews from the group’s members, peers, and family, the film’s story unfolds in intimate detail under the framework of a ‘UBN Made-for-TV Documentary’, riffing on the fictional UBN Network created through comedy sketches on Little Brother albums.
Directed by filmmaker Holland ‘vacay’ Gallagher and written by ‘Yoh’ Phillips (of Rap documentary studio ‘Rap Portraits’), the film includes a notable list of Hip-Hop’s most influential people – from Questlove and DJ Drama, to cultural critics, industry execs, and more.
“When you meet someone at the Uber line at LAX rarely does it coalesce into a years-long, soul-searching and feature-length-documentary-creating endeavor, but so it happened with Phonte and I in 2018. Four years, two scrapped cuts, and a pandemic later, we’re rounding the corner on completing the project that will tell the Little Brother story once and for all. I don’t take that responsibility lightly and I hope our film reflects that.” – Holland Randolph Gallagher
