Brother Ali interview

interview by McClain Johnson

Brother Ali is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based rapper, whose latest release is the album “Us.” “Us” is being released September 22nd on Rhymesayers Entertainment.


What inspires you lyrically?


I take my inspiration from life. I try to write songs that are important to me. I try my best to focus on the things that move me in some big way. Whether it be things I’m in love with, or things I hate, or things that I’m sad about, or things I’m troubled by, or things I’m inspired by. You know, the everyday stuff in life.

Your new album is “US.” Why did you choose to title it “US?”


Well, all of my other albums have been about me, especially my last one. “The Undisputed Truth” was really, extremely autobiographical. All of my work leading up to “Undisputed Truth” had been getting more and more personal. I didn’t want to feel like I was going to do that for the rest of my career. I wanted to open up a little bit and still be personal, but not necessarily my stories all the time. Not only just my life being in the focus, but people around me, people that I love, and my close friends and family. So, this album really deals with less of my personal things and more about things that I live because of the people that I care about. I’m dealing with friends being murdered, and issues that loved ones of mine are going through. Not necessarily things that I go through directly, but I go through it because I care about them. 

Did you change lyrical approaches on this album?


No, not really. The way that I write songs is still to try to capture the mood I’m in. Ant makes a lot of music, and I just listen to that until something really moves me. It’s a mood thing. The mood of the music will make me write certain things. That’s the way I did it when it was my stories, and that’s the way that I’m still doing it now. So, I didn’t really change the approach. It’s still personal, it’s just not my personal stories. 

Do you find yourself writing lyrics all the time. Do you find yourself just writing rhymes all the time?


No, I wish that I did that. I have friends that do that like an exercise, where they just write songs all the time. I’m not that guy. I write when I have something I need to say. Sometimes, people will reach out to me and say:’Hey, I really want you to be on this. It would mean a lot to me. ‘ So, I’ll do it then. I’m not the guy that just writes all the time.

You really have to be inspired by something to start writing about it, right? That’s how your process works?


Pretty much. Yeah. I have to feel ready. I have to feel that a song is inside of me, and I kind of develop them, and I know where I want them to go. Once I pretty much have the blueprint of the song kind of mapped out, then I go in and sit down and put the words in. 

Has that process pretty much stayed the same?


I used to not write my songs down. I used to not write my songs on paper. That’s not to say that I was freestyling, I wasn’t. I used to have a lot of blue collar, menial jobs that didn’t really use any brain power at all. I would load trucks or stock shelves, or something like that. I would just be making songs up in my head. Then I would go to Ant’s house, and I would have those words already in my head. I would try to find the music that worked with the words. When I started working with him, I was able to kind of settle down and do it the other way. Now, I find the music that’s the mood, and write the words based on the mood. I like it that way a lot better.

How did you first meet Ant?


I kind of just got the know the Rhymesayers guys all at the same time. I met all of them through my DJ, who had a radio show, like an underground, independent radio show at the University of Minnesota. It was like the first and really only place to play our kind of music in the Twin Cities. I heard his show, and I went down there. I hung out with him, got to know him. I was also hearing about Rhymesayers from other hip-hop friends of mine. It was that radio show where I actually met them.

What do you love about the Minnesota Hip-Hop scene?


I think that we’re so isolated from everywhere else, that we support our own. It’s more than just being involved in the music scene. It’s an overall arts scene. There’s community development, community organizing kind of piece, that a lot of people from that scene are tied into s well. It’s a community in the realest sense of the word. The majority of the hip-hop artists here who are really working and part of the network, they all perform together, they all do songs together, they all go to each other’s shows. Almost all of them teach children, work at community centers. It really is a community vibe. It’s a really special thing. I just did a video for my new single, called “Fresh Air.” I have a bunch of people in there from the local scene. It’s just really positive, and good, and strong, and supportive. It’s a great place to grow. It’s a great cave to be nurtured in. 

You feel that it’s a really positive scene?


There’s negative people, like everywhere else. There’s just negative people in the world. The negative people end up uncomfortable. People are always talking about haters, and that’s a real thing. Haters don’t feel comfortable for very long, because there’s just not room for that. They eventually end up burning all their bridges. Rhymesayers is, hands down, the leader by a huge margin. Atmosphere is really way ahead of all of us. Me, P.O.S., and a few others are out here doing stuff nationally and internationally. We haven’t caught up with Atmosphere, but we’re still kind of out front in a way. There’s people that our jealous or somehow feel like us being successful is keeping them from being successful. That we’re just supposed to give them the success that we’ve earned. I’m supposed to spend my life, and sacrifice all my personal life to build this things. I’m just supposed to hand it over to somebody because they rap too. Those people do exist, but the scene becomes a very lonely place for them. We do reach out. We have a festival that we throw every year, called Soundset Somewhere in the area of 15,00 people come to it every year. There’s a lot of Minnesota talent that’s on there. I wasn’t always a part of Rhymesayers. I was doing my own thing, and I was excelling. I was ready to go to the next level, but I didn’t have the resources. They extended their hand to me. The same thing happened with P.O.S. The same thing happened with Toki Wright. The reality is that Rhymesayers is here to be a vehicle for people that are really, honest to God, ready to take the next step. Everybody kind of knows that. Everybody is kind of extended family of Rhymesayers. 

You’re going on a massive tour. You’re playing everywhere in the states, you’re doing some international gigs too. How do you feel that the international audience responds to your sound?


I’ve headlined a tour in Australia, and that was really cool. I’m doing just a really quick week in Europe leading up to this tour. This will be my first time headlining shows over there. I’ve opened for Atmosphere a bunch of times, but I’ve never done my own thing over there. It will be interesting to see Somebody that goes to a show to see somebody else, but they enjoy you too. They went there to see Atmosphere, they went there to see Rakim, or whoever I’m opening for. I feel like I’m good at what I do, so they’re going to enjoy what I’m doing, but will they actually come and see me? That’s how you know if they really support you or not. I’m about to find out. I’m guessing that it’ll be like it was in the states a couple of years ago. It’s not the hugest follow, but the following that is there is enthusiastic. They get excited, and that means the world to me. They don’t have to care about me, they got their own rappers. Any love they give me is extra to me in my mind. I’m happy to get any response at all. 

The thing that really sets you apart is that you’re so different lyrically. You don’t shy away from talking about political topics. What would you like to see changed in this country?


We can talk about a million things that need to change. The way that our society is structured, that the elite have all the power. The people on different, varying degrees are servants. They kind of feed the elite power structure. In a broad sense, that’s what needs to change. For that to happen, everyone has got to come together. America is supremely racist. I believe that. I really believe that this race problem is still at the forefront of what’s holding us back. We need all the help we can get right now. We need everybody’s ideas. We need everybody’s input. We need everybody to be on board. You could say, ‘Well, we have Barack Obama. That’s true, that’s an example. of what would happen if we opened it up and allowed everybody to truly participate. His Cabinet, the people he’s brought in, and his ideas, it’s a huge thing. It’s such an improvement over what we had before. That still across the board is not the reality. What we have now are institutions that have their own culture. Institutions still systematically keep anyone out who is not white. Until that gets dealt with, until this notion of white supremacy gets dealt with, until the healing of that really starts to happen, it’s impossible for us to come together. The concept of race in America is the biggest separating, divide and conquer trick that’s ever happened in America. It’s working.

I’m sure you’ve had experience with racism in your own life.


Oh yeah, every day. I deal with it every day. It’s always on my mind. There are people who tell me I focus on it too much. It’s always there. 

You focus on it because it’s important to you.


Yeah. It seems like it’s one of the main issues in order for people to be healed. In order for our society to move forward, that’s what’s going to need to happen. When something like Barack Obama happens people say, ‘Oh, it’s over.’ No, it’s not. It’s almost the exception that proves the rule. We have one individual who is, obviously, the brightest mind that we’ve had in leadership in a long time. He made it, but what about all these other people out there that never have a chance. The fact that, that was such a big shock to everybody, why was that such a shock? it kind of proves where we are at. Some people didn’t see a black president as a reality until last year. There’s still a lot that needs to be dealt with. 

You’re willing to take on these topics. There aren’t enough rappers doing that.

I think there’s a lot, actually. I think there’s a lot doing it and a lot of them are ignored. In terms of revolution stuff, or political stuff or racial stuff. What I’m saying is nothing compared to what guys like Boots Riley, of the Coup, are saying. What I’m saying is child’s play. compared to what they’ve said. Because of what I look like, it feels different coming from me. The truth is the truth. The truth doesn’t belong to anybody. The truth is there for anybody to pledge allegiance to You don’t have to be black, or a person of color, to know that we live in a supremely racist society. But for me to say that, I think it gets a different type of attention. That’s evidence of the problem too. It’s a problem, but it’s also evidence of the problem. Why is that such a revolutionary thing? It’s not the norm. All these things I’ve talked about have been discussed before, it’s just that they weren’t heard by the people who listen to me. These people are connecting with me, and they feel like I speak to them. Never mind the fact that they’ve never heard it before. I can say it now.

Brother Ali’s new album “Us” is available in iTunes now. Learn more at BrotherAli.com