Walking through East Congress Street in Detroit, the front of St. Andrew's Hall was scattered with signs and posters promoting the Little Brother and Fort Minor show up and down the street Tuesday night. They were wrapped around poles, resting in gutters and taped to the building. Clearly, this show, a combination of conscious rap and metal-rock rap, had been a long time coming.

In a long, blue and gray tour bus outside the venue were the members of Fort Minor. Led by Mike Shinoda, the MC who once represented Linkin Park, the group relaxed before their headlining performance. Inside a shorter black and gray bus was Little Brother, two young men from Durham, North Carolina on their first visit to Detroit.

Headliners Fort Minor put on a kinetic show for the palpably excited audience. Their fans jumped out of their Linkin Park t-shirts as Fort Minor hit the stage and Shinoda jumped onto a platform and began performing "Remember the Name" from the first and only Fort Minor album, The Rising Ties.

But more than an hour before Shinoda's crew mounted the stage, Little Brother tore through a terse, affecting set performing "Still Lives Through" from their last album The Minstrel Show. They were joined on stage by singer Darien Brockington, who sang the hook on "Slow It Down" and two other songs from their debut album. Brockington's sweater and collared shirt were a preppy contrast to the white tees and fitted caps, but together they provided an even more dynamic experience.

To end their performance, they brought rapper Joe Scudda and Elzhi from Slum Village for "Hiding Place." Each song in the set's waning moments was performed with an intensity and stage presence that amazed even while considering the straight-ahead political burn of their studio album.

After they finished their set, and before Fort Minor took the stage, Little Brother turned the inside of their tour bus into a center of post-performance relaxation. As two of the group's friends began discussing the meaning of groupies and "spoony time," Little Brother's MC Phonte' and Rapper Pooh both attempted to lie down and rest. But after a little provocation, they both started talking about how incredible it was that they only met seven years ago at North Carolina Central University and now they were rocking crowds across the country.

"It's truly a blessing," Phonte' said as partner Pooh added, "We could still be in North Carolina rocking to ourselves."

Being from the South, they both easily see how Southern hip hop has taken over popular music.

"Right now, it's all about the South," Pooh said. "They're the 'in' thing as far as hip hop is concerned."

"Things go in cycles," Phonte' added. "In the early history of hip hop, it was New York out there running everything; now it's our turn."

Though they are Southern, they didn't consider their music, at its core, to be "Southern" music.

"It's really only two different kinds of music," Pooh said. "And that's good and bad."

"I don't really consider us Southern hip hop, we just make dope music," Phonte' said as he adjusted his position on the couch. "I'm from North Carolina and I make dope music."