Rapper Big Pooh (born Thomas Jones) is an American rapper, who, along with fellow rap artist Phonte, was a member of the acclaimed North Carolina hip hop group Little Brother. In addition to numerous records and EP's by Little Brother, Pooh released a solo album in 2005 entitled Sleepers to positive critical review.[1] Furthermore, he has been guest featured on numerous tracks by other artists. Big Pooh also appreciates basketball and has served as a guest writer on a basketball blog.[2]
In January 2007, in response to the departure of Little Brother member, co-founder and main producer 9th Wonder, Pooh stated in an interview that "there are no hard feelings and no beef", adding that "this is just a decision that had to be made so all three of us could move forward and continue to provide the world with dope music."[3]
In 2007 Pooh appeared on the Little Brother download-only mixtape entitled And Justus for All, which was released free on the internet February 13, 2007, mixed by DJ Mick Boogie.
In 2009, he released a new interim "street" album, The Delightful Bars, with four slightly different versions of the album available, including one iTunes exclusive "Candy Apple" edition which contains 13 tracks, each featuring different artwork showing a nude model sprinkled with candy.[4][5][6] The video for the album's lead single, "The Comeback," features a kitchen scene with Pooh surrounded by women preparing ingredients, baking and packaging "Delightful Bars" candy bars.[4]
In early 2010 Pooh released The Purple Tape for free download. This mixtape features Big Pooh rhyming over Detroit producer Black Milk's instrumentals from a collection released years ago using Prince samples, hence the "Purple" reference. This is also a reference to Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx album that was released as a purple cassette tape, garnering the name The Purple Tape.
Pooh graduated from South Lakes High School in Reston, Virginia in 1998[7].