Brother Ali

Minneapolis emcee Brother Ali is at it again. The follow-up to 2007’s The Undisputed Truth, Us was just released a few weeks ago and critics are once again swooning. The album, his fifth for Rhymesayers, is Ali’s most refreshing to date, and features swinging hooks and beats from Ali’s main man and one-half of hip-hop duo Atmosphere, Ant. Ali recently took time off his busy schedule—he’s currently touring the States in promotion of Us—to talk to BRM about his new record, his new life and the music that keeps him sane.

BRM: Us was originally called Street Preacher. Why did you decide to change the title?

Brother Ali: My albums are really autobiographical. I’ve developed this really personal way of writing about my life—who I am. I worked on it for about four CDs, two full lengths, two EPs, really worked on developing it. Then we did The Undisputed Truth, and I felt like I really hit my stride on that album, so I wanted to do something new. I really wanted to branch out and start talking about that same truth, that personal truth, but apply it to other stories.

A musical evolution in a sense…

Yeah, exactly. I have a fan that’s been coming to my shows for five, seven, eight years now—she actually gave me that name “Street Preacher.” She was like, “You know, that’s what you’re doing. That’s what your mission needs to be. You need to go from city to city and talk about curing, uniting people on the concept of love for each other and love for yourself.” So I took that and I used it as a motivational tool for me to write this album. I saw it as an opportunity for me to spread a message.

So I kept working and working and working, and I made the album with that as the working title. Then when I got to the end, I realized that Street Preacher was a good idea for what she was saying, but I didn’t like the connotation that came with the word “street” and I didn’t like the connotation that came with the word “preacher” either. You know, technically when someone is preaching they’re telling you what you’re supposed to do, they’re telling you how you should think, how you should feel, or how you should change, and I’m not doing that. What I’m doing is talking about myself and the way I feel, and telling the true stories of the way people around me feel, what their life has been, and my relationship with them. I realized that I’m not preaching and it’s not a particularly street record. I also realized that this is the first album that I’ve made that’s not about me, it’s about us. It’s about the people that I love. Inclusion, you know. It’s about inclusion.

Do you think this new perspective has anything to do with your new lifestyle, new family and all?

Yeah, in a way. You know, I think when you are struggling to survive you focus on self ’cause you’re just trying to make it. You know, like they say when you get on an airplane, “If we lose oxygen and masks fall from the ceiling, secure your own mask before you help the people around you.” That’s kind of where I was at in my life up until the past two years. I was just struggling to survive and trying to build my life in a way that was going to complement me. I was trying to make it and I was really concentrating on myself. But now that I don’t have to struggle as much just to live, I actually have some peace and some happiness in my life, and it’s made me focus that much more on the people around me that I love who don’t have that yet and don’t necessarily have access to it. Instead they have roadblocks, obstacles, challenges in their way. It made me focus on them a lot.

Yeah, I noticed that on the album, while you had songs that referenced your newfound peace, you also had songs like the “The Travelers,” which definitely put forth a heavier tone. Did you feel like you needed to include something like that?

Well, I didn’t make that as a decision. I don’t sit down and say “Ok, what are the topics I want to talk about on this album?” I had a general idea that I wanted to expand my focus, not change my focus per se, but just step back and deal with its context a little bit more. These are the stories of all the people that created me, the things that I’ve been dealing with, that have been around me, in my heart, in my mind since I was a little kid.

Could you expand on this a bit?

Well, I come out of what I think is a kind of unique view of race. I come from a white background but I’m albino. I don’t have a big family and we’re not very close, so I kind of felt isolated as an individual while I was growing up; I never felt a part of white America in any way. But I was embraced by a group of individuals and family, mostly African American people, who taught me a lot of the things that I needed to believe and understand, a lot of the wisdom that I needed to still value myself and still believe that I was worth something. And I grew very, very fond of and very close to African American people. You know, I would have such beautiful living experiences with them and with their families and their peers and then I would go back around my family, back around white people, and it was pretty obvious that they didn’t appreciate black folks the way I did.

You know, everything from flat-out racism and bigotry and prejudice, all the way down to the most benign and the least threatening version of it, which is just ignoring black folks, comes from the underlying, sub-conscious belief that a white person is a more valuable, legitimate human being and that really troubled me when I was a little kid. It just really made me ask, “What is the cause of this?” And as a result, it’s made me want to analyze and study that all my life.

So I studied the legacy of slavery, studied Jim Crowe, studied civil rights, studied our country’s history with race, studied spirituality and what spirituality has to say about it—you know, different types of Christianity—to try to have some kind of peace, and what I arrived at was that there were certain elite people in the power structure that created this new idea of race that came about as America was born, and when the new modern American slavery trade was born and we were all brainwashed into it, all the common people were really divided and conquered based on a lot of things and told to pick sides.

I think there’s a lot of insecurity in our society about honestly looking at what created this situation that we have in America, and what it’s really going to take for us to be the complete picture of America. I think we have to take a long, hard look at ourselves and be willing to say, “Well hey, maybe the way that I look at these things is completely unnatural. Maybe there’s a lot that I don’t understand about race. Maybe I’ve got some dormant, sub-conscious thoughts that aren’t benefiting me, aren’t benefiting anyone. Maybe I do have an opinion of people who are black that isn’t healthy. Maybe I do have some thoughts that are biased, prejudiced, or racist. Maybe I need at look at myself and maybe I could be better.”

And so “The Travelers” is basically asking us to look at one of the worst crimes against humanity that ever took place in our world, and realize that’s what created our country. That’s one of the reasons why we’re the most wealthy and one of the most powerful countries in the world—because our country was built for free by people who lost their connection to their world. That can’t be done to somebody without accepting the heart of everyone involved, whether you’re involved hands-on or just by proxy, by allowing it to happen, by benefiting from it, even if indirectly. I think it’s damaged everyone involved. We need to heal this thing, and not just out of charity for black folk, like, “Oh yeah, we’re going to do things just so we’re good.” No, it’s healing that needs to happen. You know, humanity is all one thing. It’s all connected.

So, once again, heading back to that theme of “us”…

Absolutely. We need to look at race as not something that just happens, because half of America has been a victim in this situation. We need to hear it for the sake of everyone. You know, we look at some of the leaders that we’ve had in our country for the last 20 years and the fact that people have been saying that America can’t produce a good leader anymore, but that’s because we weren’t allowing everyone to participate. And now you look at Barack Obama who is probably the most capable, intelligent, wise leader that America has had since JFK, and say, well, look at what we have been missing out on. If you think about every area where we have historically allowed people of color to contribute—you know, “Well you can play basketball all you want,” or, “You can contribute to music; you can entertain us if you want”—that’s historically kind of been the opening that we’ve allowed African Americans, and they have given us art and jazz and basically the origins of all modern music, but that wasn’t enough. The idea in Us is that everyone’s story needs to be included. Like I say at the end of “The Travelers,” “No one is free until everyone is free.”

Definitely. This is your fifth work with Ant from Atmosphere. How has your relationship developed since you guys started working closely?

He’s my best friend in the world. We hit it off really quickly back in early 2000, started working together in 2001, 2002. We have a lot in common and we also have a lot of things that are opposite, but our core beliefs and values and what’s important to us about music and life is the same. We’ve really taught each other a lot about the other’s way of seeing things, and that conversation transfers right over to the music.

You know there is a reason why it can be so intimate and personal on these songs because when I make them it’s just me and my closest, closest friend in a room together, with no one around, and there’s no time to say anything superficial when you’re making music with your best friend. Unless you’re trying to make him laugh, on something like “Bad Mf Pt. 2,” you know, I’m just trying to make him laugh. Or just trying to impress him. We have this thing where Ant thinks I’m one of the greatest so he wants to give me music that’s complementary. And vice-versa, I think he’s one of the greatest, so when he gives me this amazing music I want to write something on it and perform in such a way that it’s going to be worthy of me having the opportunity to have it be mine.

It certainly shows on songs like “Crown Jewel” and “The Travelers” that you guys have this sort of symbiotic relationship…

Yeah. For example, we made “The Travelers” on Christmas. I’ve never been big on Christmas—it brings bad memories of my childhood. Anthony loves Christmas. So we all hung out this past Christmas‬, cause we’re really like a family, so we hang out with our parents and family on the holidays during the day, and then at night we all come over to somebody’s house from the crew, at Slug’s house, and you know everybody got together, ate, had fun, our kids played together, and then afterwards I went to Ant’s house and made that song from about midnight until six in the morning. He played the music, I wrote it and we made it. It was just kind of one of those days. Something about what was going on that day made him make that music and something about that day made me finally write that song.

Do you normally write your songs after he writes his music?

Yeah.

So what are you listening to? What would you recommend to BRM?

In terms of music, I have my standards that I listen to once a week. I gotta hear Stevie Wonder once a week. I gotta hear Nina Simone once a
week. I gotta hear Donnie Hathaway once a week. Marvin Gaye, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Bloodhound, Bob Marley once a week, you know, Michael Jackson once a week—all stuff that contributed to me waking up and being happy about the world I’m in and hopeful about it. If I get my Stevie, it makes me feel like it can be okay, it can get better.

In terms of new stuff, I really like Jay-Z’s album a lot, The Blueprint 3. I think he’s such a leader for rap and hip-hop not only because he’s one of the top selling artists, but because he’s so lyrical, message-wise, style-wise, topic-wise, and he made an entire album that’s really about looking forward, and not just what people wanted him to do, what people wanted him to be, about the street life, because that was a long, long time ago. His life is different now, and he probably felt like he needed to reflect where his mind is now. I don’t necessarily think that’s the album people wanted from him. Realistically, it wasn’t the album I initially wanted from him either. You know, I thought he was going to make a really hard hip-hop album and I was so excited for that. So when I put it in and listened to it, it wasn’t what I wanted at all. My first listen through, I was like “Okay, wow, I’m a little disappointed.”

I felt like that was the general first reaction to Blueprint 3...

Yeah, initially it wasn’t what I wanted. But he’s given us so much that I felt like I owed it to myself and to him and to listen to it like three or four times all the way through. The third time through, it hit me, this isn’t another street record, this is where this man is now, this is him. It’s kind of like in The Undisputed Truth was me saying, “I’m going to present this in the most raw and honest way, I’m not going to try to impress you, try to look cool or tough or strong or righteous, nothing, I’m just going to give it to you as real as possible.” I feel like The Blueprint 3 is his album like that where he is saying, “I don’t care if you expect me to still be a hustler. I’m making music that I believe and you’re just going to deal with that.” And I’m really inspired by it.

On the other hand, the new Raekwon album, the one that just came out a week earlier. It’s weird because I never would have guessed that he would have been the one to bring Wu-Tang back, but he really did it. He went and made a Wu-Tang album that’s really fresh.

 

Words by Nadia Collado

http://www.myspace.com/brotherali

< Prev		Next >