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Brother Ali is a diamond in the rough. His socially conscious hip-hop is a breath of fresh air amongst the tunes heard on the radio today. He speaks frankly about class and racial privilege, while confronting injustices found in society. GroundSounds recently chopped it up with this one of a kind lyricist, check out our exclusive interview with Brother Ali below.
How has the war and peace tour been?
It has been great man, sold out shows everywhere we have been, a lot of great energy, friends and fans have been coming out.
Can you tell us a little bit about your latest project ‘Left In The Deck’?
It is a collection of songs that I made demos for, I always make demo versions for the first write up and record them, and then if I liked the song I use to take it in the studio and make a more professional version. These are songs that I just liked the energy of them so much that I didn’t want to redo them, so the sound quality isn’t what you would normally have in the studio, but the real important stuff is there in terms of the mood and feel. It is something that you can teach or learn or really replicate when you redo them in the studio, so I just left them there.
While putting these songs together was there any one in particular that really stood out, and made you think YES this is really going in the right direction?
All of them, because all of them I would have liked to put on an album, but they just didn’t fit or I didn’t want to change the sound quality.
Tell us a little bit about your track ‘Digital Age’ and the inspiration behind it.
For that one I just put a beat on and started going. There was something about the sound of that music that just really reminded me of this time we’re in, of being detached from nature, being detached from each other. You know everyone has something to say on the internet, a lot of time of very little substance or value, but no one is speaking up when it matters. We love to have a Youtube comment, or reply to someone on Twitter or Facebook or something, but when it really matters, when it comes to sticking up for human beings there’s not a lot of voice for that. People kind of disappear. That’s kind of what that song is about.
Are there any issues in this day in age that you wish you were more vocal about?
Human beings are precious, human beings matter, very general, I don’t know, I feel like my work speaks for itself.
When it comes to ‘real’ issues it seems like you are one of the more vocal hip-hop artists, do you think you could have the same type of creative expressions if you were signed to a bigger label that wasn’t independent? Or do you think if you were signed to a bigger label that you could only speak on certain things?
I think Noam Chomsky had a point when he was talking about the media, it’s not that those big media outlets, TV, movies, or the recording industry for this example, it’s not that they have to tell people what to say or what not to say.
You see the thing is you will not get into those kind of places by saying you know, whatever, in the first place. As a journalist you don’t get to CNN by asking the real questions, they will weed you out earlier than that. Looking back if I wanted to, I could probably take meetings with labels, ya know I had a friend MURS who did that, he decided he wanted to try it and he did. They let him say what he wanted to say, and make really positive music. He ended up returning to independent music. They are very smart, they don’t have to tell you what to say and what not to say, you simply won’t get into those situations if you don’t already know.
When you are on stage what do you feel while you’re performing?
I just try to connect with people. I don’t like performing for people, I like performing with people, I want the people to be involved. I do a lot of songs that come from real places that are really important. I try to create a situation where I can really connect with people.
What’s next for Brother Ali?
I’m always working on new music; I also have a European tour coming up with Dilated Peoples’.
