If you enjoyed Phonte Coleman’s 2011 solo rap effort, Charity Starts at Home, and were anticipating the followup, you might have a wait coming. A long wait.
Whether you know him from his days as part of celebrated (and now defunct) rap trio Little Brother or from his work with Grammy-nominated electro/hip-hop/soul group the Foreign Exchange, Phonte, as he's known, has been keeping busy touring and building his record label, also known as Foreign Exchange, which he founded with producer Nicolay.
In Toronto on tour later this week, Phonte notes people should expect a mix of everything — some Little Brother material along with Foreign Exchange and solo material. Truth be told, the well received Charity was a cathartic album of sorts, one that the Greensboro, North Carolina-based artist notes reflected the personal and emotional stress of then marital woes and a subsequent divorce.
“It was a crazy year, just kind of a transition year for me," says Phonte over the phone. "I went through a divorce and with the album coming out when it did, it just really it gave me an outlet. I was working and travelling so much, I kind of had a way to keep from going crazy.”
“Charity was me closing the final chapter of my life," he continues. "It felt like me just saying goodbye to a lot of baggage, saying goodbye to a lot of things that have been hanging over my head for a while. Now I’m just able to move forward and kind of start fresh. It was very much like a bookend of sorts. Looking back it, it kind of did what I needed it to do.”
These days, Phonte notes, things are really good.
“Right now I’m in a really good space," he says. "Things are evening out. A lot of things in my life make a lot more sense now. I feel that I’m in a better place and just where I feel I need to be. I just think that right now I’m really happy, the happiest I’ve been in a really long, long time. I guess it helps to create music where I can come from a healthy place more so than from an unhealthy place I guess.”
Phonte says he's more focused on touring and building up the Foreign Exchange brand right now. Expect a new Foreign Exchange album in 2013, he notes, along with new stuff from roster artists such as Zo! and Jeanne Jolly.
“People ask me about doing guest spots or collaborations but that’s not really where I’m at right now,” he says. “Something that I was talking to Nicolay about was just how much I have two separate fanbases now. I have a Phonte fanbase and a Foreign Exchange fanbase and they are both very different. Of course they overlap.”
But hip-hop is Phonte’s first love, even if it means that we might not get that followup solo album for a while.
“Aww, man. Honestly on that I have no idea," Phonte replies. "Charity just felt like a chapter closed and the unquote-quote rap solo project just kind of hung over my head for a while. And once I got it out it was like OK, I don’t ever have to do this again. I got it over with. Who knows man. I kind of said everything I needed to say on the solo tip for a while."
See Phonte live at the El Mocambo in Toronto on Saturday, Nov. 17.
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