Photo by Cory Dewald Photography
I spoke to Brother Ali while he was at home in Minneapolis before he headed to the West Coast of the US for a few dates ahead of his arrival in Australia next month as one of the Keynote speakers at BIGSOUND – as well as a few dates along our East Coast. We speak about fellow Keynote speaker Peter Garrett, which leads into the inevitable question “would you ever get into politics?”. We reflect on his last Australian tour with the late Sean Price and we get a hint at what he’ll be talking about at BIGSOUND and performing when he’s here next month!
As we started our conversation, it occurred to me that the last time he was in Australia was most likely in 2012 with the late Sean Price, something which the acclaimed hip hop artist confirmed
A few years ago, you toured Australia with Sean Price didn’t you? Was that the last time you were here?
That’s right, the last time I was in Australia was with Sean Price so obviously he was a really great friend of mine. It was a really, really sad tragedy to lose him. This (Australia) tour, I’m going to dedicate it to him.
It was shocking for the whole community, and we’re really sorry for your loss. What an rare opportunity though to have been able to tour Australia with such a good friend.
I’ve known him throughout the years, and the tour is actually where we became closer friends. And my wife was on our tour with us, my wife sold the merchandise, the shirt sales for that tour, so we got to know each other’s family. That’s another level… When you meet somebody on tour, it’s two artists or two guys just hanging out, that’s one thing. But then once you know each other’s family, it adds another layer of closeness to the relationship and depth. So him being somebody that knew my family and he came and performed… we throw a festival every year in the twin cities called Soundset, and we invited him to come and play, so he got to meet my kids. Man, that was a real friend. He have a lot of industry friends that we see along the way along the way and they were great and we care about them. But… he was somebody that knew my family.
It’s not every day you get to bring the family along on a business trip!
It was really cool, Trent who runs Slingshot promotions, last time we toured, he flung that into the deal that we could fly over a merch person, and I think he knew I was going to have my wife come and sell the merchandise. We toured several times with that particular group, and I think that he was sensitive to the fact that I really wanted to bring my wife to Australia.
And you’re coming back as you said, it’s a couple of weeks away now, we’re looking forward to hearing some new tracks and seeing your keynote at BIGSOUND… it’s a bit of a step down from speaking at a Nobel Peace Price event but I still think it will still be pretty good…
*laughs* Yeah, it’s a major honour to be invited to speak at all, but especially doing one of the keynotes, especially the other people who are speaking alongside are people I also know from the industry and working and people that I really have a lot of admiration and respect for. So I’m really excited about it.
You’re alongside Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil
Yeah, that’s a major one. Peter’s work speaks for itself, he is somebody I really look up to and admire, because in my own career I’ve seen the way somebody will write music as the means to access the heart and to really communicate with people and connect with people based on the human experience. It’s a way of communicating what we experience. Some people do it for different reasons, but the people that are really in it for the connection with people, the music starts to really address what people are going through. And the more you care about people, the more you start to really acknowledge their pain isn’t always coincidental. That there are aspects in our society, we live in dominator societies, where people are victimised by man made catastrophes, that come along with the injustices in our society. And so you start to see and view music as a way to talk about that, and as a free space to connect with other people based on a want for justice and want for human dignity.
And when you can take that another step further than just singing about that stuff and actually start to use whatever power we have, whatever way we are able to magestinise people and bring people together, we start mobilising with whatever power that is. Peter is a guy I really look up and admire for doing that, because I tried to do some version of that in my own career. I’ve never met him though so I really hope I can share space with him and rub elbows with him and breathe his air for a minute!
I’ve seen peter speak when he was acting in a more political sense, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he has to say now that those gloves are off and he’s able to say what he wants a bit more , when you’re well enveloped in that political world its harder to say what you want, which is ironic…
Yeah, it’s a major sacrifice that a person goes through. When you’re an artist, you can say whatever you want and sometimes you get to really just pat yourself on the back because you say the things that nobody else has the ability to say, and you can really just feel like a gangster you know, you get to feel like a tough guy for spitting the truth. But for somebody in that position, it’s a major sacrifice for them, to actually step inside the system and try to change it from within, because you lose a lot of your freedom when you do that. And you lose the ability to say whatever you want and also you start carrying the load of other people. The things you say or don’t say affect other people, so it’s a major sacrifice to do that.
Then people criticise you too because your language stops being… a lot of time your able to be as direct as you use to be, a lot of times you’re not able to be as critical of the system as you use to be, because now you have to work with these people and you have to negotiate with these people, you have to try to come to agreements with these people that are inside the system to try to move your agenda forward. And so I can only imagine just what that does to a person. When you’re used to saying whatever you want and you were very good at saying what you feel need to be said, like he was. It’s a very interesting transition; a lot of people have suggested that, especially locally in the Twin Cities that I go into some form of public service and it feels kind of terrifying to me, I don’t know if I would have the patience and the particular type of voice it takes to really make that sacrifice. It’s one of the things that I hope he addresses and I would really like to ask him about.
For sure, that’s what I was going to ask you next, does it make you reluctant to kind of to the same thing, that definitely would make me much the same.
Yeah, I’m not a chess player. I’m not as much of a strategy person, that’s just not the particular gift that I was given and so it makes me kind of think that the political arena might not be my best calling. Although I don’t know, I’m interested to see how other people carry it and to see if they felt like it was worth all of that sacrifice that they put in, to see if they felt like they did make a difference. If it could help and I could move things forward and further the cause of human dignity especially, in this States, we really deal with land and legacy of white supremacy, that keeps shape-shifting and taking on new forms, that keeps happening in Australia as well. Basically anywhere where Europeans decided to live, whatever the ethnic identity was, they kind of lost that. So people stopped being Irish and they stopped being English, they stopped being Italian and they just became white.
And then you say, “So we traded this very real thing for something called white… what does white mean?” and what it ultimatley means is that we’re at the top of totem pole in a racialised society. So the identity that we end up taking on is a lie. And what we taught for all of these hundreds of years that we’ve been in these other people’s land is that that’s what we are, and that’s how we should identify ourselves, as white.
So to change white supremacy, means that a lot of people would need to have new identity, a new way to identifying, to reconnect with being human in a more meaningful way. If working inside the system and being in politics would help with things like that, then I would like to think I would make that sacrifice. But I just don’t know if it really works or not, I’m kind of skeptical, honestly.
I don’t blame you, especially living in the US. Do the day to day racially charged events in America inspire you to write music?
It’s interesting though, because I have to keep a balance within myself as an artist, and the service that I play and the service that I offer people, because I know it to be a fact that the reason people connected with me is because they hear a person genuinely working, trying to work things out in their life. And so they relate to that, they relate to hearing me attempt a living a more fulfilling life, and that’s what led me to talk about more social issues. I think people accept it to a degree, that I didn’t come into rap being a political artist, and so a lot of the time if feels like if I do too much of that people would turn their ears off.
I’ve been trying to comment less on every specific thing. We do have artists in the States who are better at running commenting on current events, people like Immortal Technique and Jasiri X. Jasiri X is an artist that people don’t know a whole lot about. He’s been really great at putting the finger exactly on the issues as they happen, at being a news service in hip hop form. So I try to not necessarily speak on every subject and every case as it happens, I try to talk about themes rather than specific cases. It’s an interesting balance to say ultimately I’m here to serve people. People are employing me – not just like you pay me to rap like I’m a rapping monkey or something – people are coming to me because I give them some sort of joy, or it’s soothing or maybe it justifies their anger… something of that nature. It’s really interesting to try and be a service, and figure out the best way for me to genuinely contribute and not just stroke my own ego.
What can we expect from your tour?
The keynote will be related to dominator culture and music, particularly from my own experiences, which is dealing with a white supremacist and patriarchal system in America. Which I think has a lot of overlap with Australia, and dealing with hip hop and black music and the way it’s been treated and appropriated. I think that will be the focus of the keynote.
The shows will definitely have some new music, I’ve been making music again with my original partner Ant, who also makes music for Atmosphere. He produced my first 5 or 6 projects. Then my more political stuff I did with Jake One. But I’m back working with Ant again, so yeah there’ll be some of that new music. I also like to try and play music from all my records, so if someone is a fan of a particular record, or if they like all my stuff, then everyone gets to hear something that drew them to me, and I try to put on a good show!
That’s why they keep coming back! How have you found your crowds to have been in Australia over the years?
I’ve always had such a great time in Australia just because people are so energetic. I think because of that long flight, people e feel really appreciative, maybe not as much music comes that way. Literally every way people have treated me like a family member. They invite me to their houses, and want to show me around and be ambassadors. Give me tours of Australia. I have a strong connection with the people in Australia.
Are you getting to bring your family this time?
This time it will just be me. Because when this was first organised I was only coming down to do the keynote, I’m not even going to have a DJ with me. So I’m going to play the music myself. It’s literally going to be me by myself on the stage. I’m looking forward to it. We booked smaller, more intimate clubs for that reason. It’s going to be a personal, intimate experience. I’m really looking forward to it.
—————–
Brother Ali will appear as one of the Keynote speakers at BIGSOUND 2015 in Brisbane. For more details head to http://www.bigsound.org.au/. Brother Ali will also be playing solo shows at the following dates and venues, with tickets on sale now.
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney – 11th September
Laundry Bar, Melbourne – 13th September
Transit Bar, Canberra – 14th September
Transcription assistance by Christina Nguyen and Isabella Pappalettera
