Brother Ali wants to hear what’s on your mind. His new album, Us, looks into social themes, such as racism, homophobia and immigration. Brother Ali is on the Fresh Air Tour with Evidence, Toki-Wright and BK-ONE and will perform in Albuquerque at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Sunshine Theater. Ali said his latest album was made in an “organic” way and isn’t being mass-promoted.
Ali worked with beat-maker Anthony Davis, aka Ant, on this and previous albums beginning in 2000.
Daily Lobo: Your new album, Us, dropped a little while ago. How has that been going?
Brother Ali: So far it’s been really phenomenal. We didn’t do a huge marketing campaign, and we haven’t had videos yet. We’ve been doing a lot of face-to-face stuff on the Internet. It’s kind of a different approach to release an album for us. So it’s a little scary, you know, to say, “Is it going to catch on the way we want it to?”
DL: It seems like each album you come out with gets more and more fan support. You avoided the sophomore/junior slump; how is that for your work?
BA: Yeah, definitely. Probably every other musician you ever talk to thinks their new stuff is better, and I’m not a gassed-up-ego kind of person, but I really feel good about the way me and my partner Anthony are creating. The way that we’re making music and the way that we’re writing it is in new areas where we can kind of open up into ourselves. I feel really good about it, and it seems like that’s been the initial response, and it hasn’t even been out a week yet.
DL: Have you always worked with Ant as your producer?
BA: Yeah, for all of my professional career. Prior to that, I did all my own production. Since I’ve been releasing albums, I’ve been with Ant. He’s my best friend, so the kind of really personal, powerful friendship that we have really transfers and translates really well to the music that we create. The conversations we have as friends really show up in the music that we make. The way that we create and the way that we express ourselves is because of the friendship that we have.
DL: Who do you have as guest appearances on the album, and how did you choose them?
BA: Well, I’m branching out on this album and starting to talk a lot more about common social things. I asked Chuck D if he would do the intro, and he did it and really gave me a really strong endorsement on that intro, and he did it without hearing the album. I was like, “Don’t you want to hear what I’m saying first, because I’m talking slavery, racism, homophobia and immigration. Don’t you want to hear what I’m saying before you endorse me?” And he said, “No, I know you’re a loving, talented person, so I’ll just give you my full endorsement.” I had one song on the album that just really celebrated the art of MCing. It’s called “Fast at it,” and it’s just a five-minute-long rap song with no break, no chords, no nothing. And I got my two favorite rappers, that when I just hear them do the act of rapping, they inspire me. When I hear them, I’m like, “Oh, I have to go write a song, or I have to go write a freestyle and write a song.”
On those tracks were Joell Ortiz and Freeway, my two most inspirational people, so I reached out to the both of them and they both said, “Yeah.” It was all really natural. I didn’t have any kind of agenda or strategy, like, “Who should I put on this album to sell more copies?” I used people that mean something to me.
DL: How did you come up with the title for this album?
BA: The albums I made prior to this are really more biographical and are more about me. This was the first one where I really opened up the lens, kind of, and started to talk about people that I’ve known from different walks of life. They’ve kind of built me as a person, and (I was) just wanting those voices and the stories to be heard. It’s about the collective, and it’s about everybody.
DL: What are you enjoying most about touring?
BA: The way people are responding and the kind of conversations I have with people afterwards have been great. The way that I approached making my music for albums, I do the same thing live. I bring people with me that inspire me, and we present it as a collective package. There’s never a break in between sets. It’s not like you hear one of us play for an hour and then you listen to the CD for a half hour. We present it all together, and it’s really powerful — that builds momentum, and there’s a lot of energy. We have a theme song that we all did together: Because it’s called “The Fresh Air Tour,” the song is called “The
Freshest Kids.” It really feels like being in a group.
*Brother Ali
Saturday 8 p.m.
Sunshine Theater
120 Central Ave. S.W.
$15 at SunshineTheaterLive.com*
