line-up

In one way or another, Patrick Douthit holds the key to this city, that city and whichever city you can name that has anything to do with music.  After helping to spearhead a small but far-reaching hip-hop dynasty here in North Carolina as the in-house producer for The Justus League crew, which included Douthit’s former group, Little Brother, Douthit—known to hip-hop fans, artists enthusiasts and preservationists as 9th Wonder—has shared his vision and beats with the entire world.

This tale-of-the-beats begins with 9th Wonder serving as the sole producer of the classic 2003 Little Brother album, The Listening, known to many nostalgic hip-hop heads and ’70s babies as the album that reset the standard for the classic hip-hop sound previously established by groups like A Tribe Called Quest, Gangstarr and De La Soul.  After the release of LB’s second album though,  the major label debut The Minstrel Show, 9th Wonder parted ways with the group and began to build an extensive music catalog that included remixes, collaborations, full-length projects, “beat tapes,” and more recently, a foray into rapping. 9th Wonder has put together a discography that’s on course perhaps to catch his most venerated predecessors—DJ Premier, Pete Rock, the late Jay Dee—and he shares the credit with other new-school hip-hop producers for reintroducing the prized “boom-bap” sound that so many missed until beat-thinkers like 9th came along.  

Douthit's career highlight may easily have been when he was asked to make a beat on the spot, for Jay-Z, who used the tune for the song “Threats,” from his 2003 The Black Album, a record that 9th would also end up remixing and releasing as Black is Back.  This would open the door for more big-name album placements for 9th Wonder and, more importantly, an opportunity to kill the negative chatter about how he was a one-dimensional producer whose reliance on his signature snare and kick drums were beginning to distract from his music.  

While still putting out hits with hip-hop staples like Masta Ace, De La Soul, Sean Price and Memphis Bleek, 9th answered his critics by taking his talents to the R&B world, producing a few smoothed-out cuts (“Girl,” “Is She The Reason,” “Game Over”) on Destiny's Child’s 2004 Destiny Fullfilled LP. Years later, 9th’s contribution (“Good Woman Down”) to Mary J. Blige’s Grammy-Award winning The Breakthrough LP would earn 9th the title of “Grammy-Award Winning Producer," solidifying his versatility as a beatmaker. He and Erkyah Badu subsequently hooked up for the lead single, “Honey,” from her 2008 New Amerykah album. 9th Wonder had earned the respect of soul music’s elite. It formed a full circle: Both Badu and Douthit are members of the extended Okayplayer family, the musical force behind the Web site and message board where 9th Wonder’s trademark sound was first prized.  

Now 9th Wonder is a one man-enterprise whose responsibilities include father, husband, producer, DJ, instructor, label-head and entrepreneur. In addition to both of his solo The Wonder Years compilation LPs, full-length music projects with artists like Murs, Jean Grae, Buckshot and David Banner, and work with hugely commercial acts like Ludacris, 9th is also a founding member of True School Corporation, LLC—a multi-media organization that targets the cultural interests of folks raised in the ’80s and early ’90s. Douthit also served as artist-in-residence at North Carolina Central University as an instructor for the “Hip Hop In Context” course, but he’s now currently instructing the “Sampling Soul” course at Duke University along with the esteemed Mark Anthony Neal. Now operating his own dual record label, Jamla/The Academy under the It's a Wonderful World Music imprint, he heads an impressive and diverse roster of hip-hop and soul artists that include Actual Proof, Big Remo, Rapsody, Skyzoo, TP, Thee Tom Hardy and Tyler Woods.   

9th Wonder is poised to usher in another outstanding era in North Carolina.  It was never enough for him to just be making hip-hop music. He had to become hip-hop and, most importantly, spend some time defending, teaching and standing up for the music and the culture. We couldn’t ask for more, could we? —Eric Tullis