Name: Brother Ali
Genre: Rap
Day: Friday

Wikipedia sez: “Brother Ali (born Ali Newman) is an American hiphop artist. Though he initially produced his own material (his cassette tape-only Rites of Passage EP (2000) was self-produced), Brother Ali turned to Ant (Anthony Davis), Rhymesayers Entertainment’s in-house producer, to produce his first two releases on Rhymesayers, 2003’s Shadows on the Sun and 2004’s Champion EP. The albums proved immediately popular with fans who had largely been introduced to Ali when he opened for Atmosphere on their national tour for the God Loves Ugly album. Ant’s funk- and soul-inflected beats often matched the gravitas of Ali’s rhymes. Ali’s buoyant, agile flow and exuberant, expressive voice resonated on key tracks such as Star Quality, Picket Fence, Forrest Whitiker, Chain Link, and Rain Water.

Brother Ali was a name that sounded familiar to me yet when I googled up an image of him, I had no idea who he was or what music he made. Turns out that he’s apart of Minnesota based Rhymeslayers, best known for Atmosphere. That’s pretty much where the similarities end, because Ali is more of an old-school MC, bringing his house-party style skills with him. It reminds me a little bit of Jurassic 5, if Jurassic 5 was contained in one person. It also turns out that he was in Australia last year, which means I really should of heard about him earlier.

Likelyhood of Seeing at Coachella: Likely.

Read on to view Brother Ali live videos…

Brother Ali - Freestyle (Live at The Glass House, Pomona CA)

Brother Ali - ‘Self Taught (Live at Scribblejam ‘06)