9th Wonder has been listed amongst the Top 25 Greatest Hip Hop Producers of All Time, and he couldn’t be more pleased with the accolade.
The ex-Little Brother member took to Instagram on Wednesday (December 27) to reveal the good news. Billboard placed 9th Wonder — responsible for such songs as “Threat” by JAY-Z, “Duckworth” by Kendrick Lamar, and “Girl” by Destiny’s Child — at no. 24 on their list.
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“Wow. Never expected to make top 25 on @billboard’s list,” he wrote in the caption. “There’s been a lot of dope producers in the last 50 years of our culture. Salute to you all! Thanks to the staff! Grateful.”
Check out the post below.
In a follow-up comment, 9th Wonder addressed the fans who thought he should have been placed much higher on the list.
“For those who think I should be higher..I appreciate the love,” he wrote, “but as a scholar of this culture, in 50 years…it’s gotta be at least 5,000 or more of us that have made a beat for a rapper or rappers..For me to be named in the 25 from number is an extreme honor….I’m grateful…”
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9th Wonder was equally humble over the summer when he was honored with a gray-scale mural bearing his likeness — which is currently under construction in Winston-Salem’s arts district courtesy of a muralist by the name of Scott Nurkin.
“Coming soon….. Downtown Winston-Salem, N.C. My home… Thank you…I owe you everything… (red heart emoji),” 9th Wonder said in an Instagram post commemorating the tribute.
In 2020, Nurkin — a North Carolina native himself — created the Musician Murals Project in which he set out to honor North Carolina musicians by plastering their faces across blank walls in cities and towns they are closely tied to.
His previous work has included jazz saxophonist John Coltrane in his birthplace of Hamlet, jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk in Rocky Mount, as well as singers Nina Simone in Tryon, and Roberta Flack in Black Mountain.
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“When I found out how many wonderful, brilliant, pioneering musicians were from North Carolina it was like, why did I not learn about this in North Carolina history? Why did it take me well into my adulthood to figure out John Coltrane or Nina Simone were from these small towns,” said Nurkin of the project in an interview with local news syndicate, Spectrum News 1, earlier this year. “So I felt like it was really important to teach that to people that otherwise didn’t know it.”
