Little Brother, a hip-hop group from North Carolina, will perform at Dillo Day’s Lakefill concert this Saturday, Mayfest representatives announced Thursday.

The group – whose most recent album, “The Minstrel Show,” was released in 2005 – will perform at 6:20 p.m. Mayfest representatives said they wanted a rap and hip-hop act in that time slot to add to the diversity of music genres at the concert.

Mayfest’s original choice for the slot was rap duo The Clipse, Mayfest representatives said. Talks with The Clipse had progressed to the point where Mayfest organizers had a verbal agreement, and Dillo Day T-shirts listing the group along with other acts were printed. Those T-shirts still will be distributed this weekend.

But Mayfest had to find a replacement act this week because representatives of The Clipse were moving too slowly to finalize concert planning and contracts, co-chairman Ben Wolfert said.

“If they weren’t willing to play by our rules, we had to draw a line,” said Wolfert, a Weinberg senior. “It was serious enough that we were discussing what to do with that time if we had no artist performing.”

Dillo Day organizers began searching for a replacement act Tuesday afternoon and finalized contracts with Little Brother on Thursday afternoon, said Mayfest co-chairwoman Rachel Cort.

“This has to be some sort of record for Mayfest,” said Cort, a Weinberg junior.

She added that she is happier with the replacement act than she was with Mayfest’s original choice.

“They’re supposed to be amazing live, and we’re very happy to have them,” she said.

Little Brother is made up of rappers Phonte and Big Pooh and disc jockey 9th Wonder. The group’s debut album, “The Listening,” was released in 2003.

The group joins Ben Folds, Robert Randolph & The Family Band and Mae as the nationally touring acts performing on Dillo Day this year.

– Nitesh Srivastava