thaFormula.com - Is Rhymesayers a label that's still growing even through these hard times the industry is going through?

Brother Ali - I mean we are growing. Our numbers are not nearly what the major's numbers are, but we are growing and to us growth is growth because we don't look at ourselves like "how come I didn't sell 500,000?" It's like our bigger artists like Atmosphere sell you know 100,000 every CD and the thing is there is more and more people that are opening up to this underground or independent scene or whatever you wanna call it. So when they come in, they want to learn about all the artists, not just Rhymesayers. They wanna learn about MF doom, they wanna learn about Living Legends, Quannum, and Def Jux. They are checking it all out and they are buying muthafuckas back catalogs, so we are growing. I think people have learned not to buy certain artists CD's on majors, because they are not gonna be good all the way through. There is only gonna be 2 or 3 good songs and those are gonna be the singles anyway so I just download the singles I like and put them on my iPod or burn them into my computer. Whereas with us we have always been forced to give you as much for your money as possible because we don't have those other things. All we have is us and our quality and our reputation. Quality is what our whole shit is based on. If you don't like us then your not gonna like us, but if you dig me for example and you download any of my shit, its gonna be consistent with the rest of it. It's like consistency there that we can't afford to lose because if we are not consistent and we lose our reputation, then we are done.

thaFormula.com - Have you been happy with the results of your records as far as reviews go, sales, etc.?

Brother Ali - Yeah I wasn't expecting the attention I got for "Shadows of the Sun and Champions." I wasn't expecting the attention that I'm getting now. It's not like I'm just chillin' and I'm never gonna try this or that. I'm still trying to grow and expand and I think there are still opportunities I ain't tapped into yet. So yeah, I'm very happy man. I'm fortunate as hell and I could not have dreamed for a situation like the one I'm in right now and I don't see anybody's shoes I would rather be in than mine. I don't want to be on a major label. I think a lot of us say that 'cause there were times when we said that but maybe not meant it, but I don't wanna lose what I have in terms of the environment that I work in, the people who support us, the relationship that I have with them, the relationships that I have with you know promoters and you know etc. There is not a whole lot that I would change. I'm very happy with all of my shit.

thaFormula.com - Do you ever wish you could have some of the perks that come with being on a major like having easy access to work with say a Nas, Timbaland, Dr. Dre etc.?

Brother Ali - Yeah, I mean it would be fly to do, yeah of course. Obviously if we were able to do bigger things then what we are doing now but I mean that's why were working hard and that's why were trying to build our own shit. If you look at the people that are really on top of this shit, they built it themselves. So it's like if you don't build something, then you don't have claim to it if you don't create a thing, then it can be taken away from you. Anything that's given to you can be taken away from you. Where as anything that you earn is yours and nobody can take it away from you, but yourself. Only you could fuck it p at that point. So yeah it would be great and I would love to make a record with Premier or Timbaland or Dre or something like that. But I think that I have to make what I'm making. Also producer wise, I know that I am where I am now because of Ant. Like I know that Ant has always helped me bring out different sides of myself and taught me a lot about myself in terms of where I can go with my writing. Other parts of my personality that aren't tapped into yet, other stories that I have that I haven't fucked with yet in terms of like helping me create the mood to bring certain things out. I put Ant up there with any of the people I just named and I'm not just saying that to prop him up or myself or whatever. I really believe that he is truly a great blessed and inspired producer and I mean producer in a sense that you know Dre is a producer or in a sense that Premier is a producer where the people that he works with do their best work with him.

thaFormula.com - How much has touring all over the world changed your life?

Brother Ali - I think it has definitely broadened my horizons on a lot of things. I think that we put a lot of limitations on ourselves. I can't do that 'cause I'm from this neighborhood. I don't eat sushi, I eat chicken. But then you go to Japan and then you try some sushi and on the down low that shit is good. You know I don't listen to this kind of music because that's that other shit but then once you go on tour with people that all listen to that shit or something like you just get exposed to other things and I think that so many of us are in situations where we are just cut off from so much of the world and so many other peoples experiences that when your in a situation where you either have the opportunity to look at them or you have to see other peoples perspective on things it just gives you a little more context on your own stuff.

thaFormula.com - Do you wish that most people in the U.S. had the opportunity to travel around the world to see that the world doesn't evolve around only the U.S.?

Brother Ali - Yeah hands down. I mean I have a friend man, and he comes from a military family and he was taught like everybody else was taught. Especially if you have career military people in your family that believe America is the greatest country in the world and he came on tour with us the last time we did Europe and Asia and Australia and we got to Japan and I mean this is a dude who was taught about World War II all the time as a child and that "the Japs did this" and you know what, I mean and he's like "man these people are superior to us. These people are more respectful then us, they are classier then us." Same thing in Europe, he would be like "these people have more style and there is definitely something to be learned from other people." It's really easy to think you know what somebody else's deal is until you get there and they lay it on you and you really see it for what it is.

thaFormula.com - Has there ever been a point during your career where someone or something really humbled you be it something you saw or something somebody said?

Brother Ali - Yeah. I think that being on tour with Rakim was a humbling thing. Sometimes somebody says something to you that's bigger then even how in your areas you might see yourself or something and I think your immediate reaction is to humble yourself. So just being around him and seeing how authentic he was or is and the way he carries himself and the way that people respond to him and what he means to so many people and as well as the way that he talks to people. His whole crew are all people that have known him since he was a small kid and seeing their amount of real respect that they have for him you know? Not just in a sense that he gave them jobs, but like they respect the man, to be around that was to say "o.k. this is what I aspire to be in almost every way. This is what I hope to be one day. I hope to be classy like that man is classy and just kind of command the kind of respect he naturally does from just being in a room. This is not an act that he does on Yo! MTV Raps, this is who the fuck he is and when your around him, it's like he's 8 feet tall to you. But then also to have him be like, "man the game needs you." For him to say things like, "what your doing is important to me 'cause like you are keeping a legacy alive with what your doing, and its good for me to see younger dudes like you who is still doing what you doing." So for somebody like that to say those things it's like it really humbles you. I think it's really natural that you would humble your shit to that kind of shit.

thaFormula.com - What path should a new artist just trying to break in the industry take in these times when the market is more oversaturated then ever before?

Brother Ali - Man Mos Def said it perfect on his new thing. He said I can't remember being this bored. I mean it's the same as it's always been. I think people are following each other and that's where we are going wrong. Like I said, your a kid and your listening to "Microphone Fiend" and you think that this is like the coolest comic book character ever or Melle Mel or somebody like that and then you meet them and your like "nah this is just who they are." They are just being themselves, they just happen to be amazing people and I think that that's what we have to do. A lot of the people that talk about the true school and keeping that alive, I believe in that but I think it means that we don't copy their moves, we copy their principles and their outlook and their approach and that's basically to be who the fuck you are and to be confident enough in that to not worry about what's gonna happen to my street cred? What are the streets gonna think of this? I gonna offend these white boys if I say xyz? It's just to be like, when you see these people that broke ground in anything, in Jazz in Rock and Blues and Hip-Hop, you know these are people who are like "no I don't see it the same way that everybody else sees it" and they were confident enough to just do it the way they believed it should be done and that's what makes a Public Enemy, Muddy Waters, Nina Simone, or the Beatles. Its like, be yourself and just stop looking at what other people are doing. You always see these dudes talking about "the game is this way," or "my label ain't pushing me right," muthafucka you ain't pushing yourself right, I seen your live show, I know you didn't practice. I hear your songs and I could tell you heard a beat, wrote something in 20 minutes, recorded it and that's it. Like you're not putting any thought into what you're doing. There is no feeling in what you're doing and if the game is fucked up then be ahead of the game. If the game is fucked up then don't be ahead of the game. If the game is fucked up then don't be a part of the game, do you to the utmost, even if it's fucking weird or whatever. One of my favorite underground rappers is Murs and you know Murs is a guy who is from what some people call South Central L.A., he calls it Mid-City L.A. He grew up in a gang neighborhood but he loves video games and this muthafucka wears pajama pants on stage and you know he's a skate boarder and listens to punk rock and he will still whoop your ass and whatever else. I'm talking about dudes like that who say "this is what I am and I believe in myself enough to really throw it out there like that," and until fools are ready to do that uh, you're not gonna be Mobb Deep again, you're just not. You can't be Biggie 'cause you're not him. Biggie was Biggie because of who Chris Wallace was. Rakim is Rakim because of who William Griffith is.

thaFormula.com - So how did you stay motivated to record your new album with everything being so boring and the times we are in?

Brother Ali - I mean I don't consider myself a part of the music industry.

thaFormula.com - But are you as inspired now as when you first started?

Brother Ali - Yeah because I didn't get involved in Hip-Hop until '84 and I was 7 years old so I didn't really understand what was going on so there is at least a decade of Hip-Hop that I missed out on so I treat that shit like its new. I treat a Busy B tape like it's the new Ghostface album and if I can't find any of that then I'll look at other types of music. In terms of being motivated I'm just kind of like I'm just gonna do the best that I can do and what I'm trying to do man is make music that captures the most important moments or like the life changing moments of my life. On this album I went through a lot of personal shit in the last few years. I went from basically being like a poor working person just trying to support a family to being a musician for a living. I went from being kind of like trapped in Minneapolis to going to Australia and Korea you know what I mean? Also my mother died, I left my wife and me and my son were just kind of alone and out there just kind of struggling and I had to rebuild my whole life. So you know you hit that second where you're just like "oh shit, my life just changed forever." So I'm like in every song I'm just gonna try and capture one of those moments and then everything about that music should make you feel how I felt at that moment. So with my divorce, I didn't just wanna remake "Looking at the front Door" or Eminem killing his wife. I'm like "how do I really feel about this" and then the music should sound like that, the way I write it, the language I use, the way I record it, everything I want you to feel. When you hear this song you will know exactly how Ali felt at that second and life is enough of a motivation as it is.

thaFormula.com - Did you decide to put this album together with as little guest MC's as possible?

Brother Ali - Yeah, I'm not big on the guest thing. I think the way that people do it now is kind of gross to me 'cause a lot of times with the technology, they are not making the song together. Like a guy in New York makes the beat, he emails it to somebody in Chicago, he rhymes on it then emails it to somebody in New York and then they rhyme on it and then they email it back to the other dude in New York and he mixes it and I mean that's not music man, that's on-line dating. Like that's bullshit, so I'm good. I have seen it done right and Ill just stick to that. So you know if I do make music with people it's because they ask me to in such a way that I can't say no to them. Like I have had people call me up and say to me like "your shit changed my life and I want nothing more then to make a song with you" and I'm like "yeah okay ill do that." I mean how am I not gonna do that? But in terms of my own things, like I work with people that I'm really close too, who if I wanted to be a group with them, it would make sense to be in a group. Like the only guests on this one is Whipper Whip from Fantastic 5 and like me and Ant had kind of made this song kind of based around their routine from Wild Style so I've been trying to find him 'cause he is the shit to me. That dude did some amazing stuff in his life. I feel like he is criminally underrated and he deserves to get every bit of the credit that grandmaster Caz got and continues to get and his crew Fantastic 5 isn't as known as much as the Cold Crush Brothers but I think they should be and I think they deserve it. Whenever I would be out in New York and I would be around these older school dudes or these golden era dudes I would be like, does anybody know what's up with Whipper Whip? And nobody did and I was like "man I wonder if he's locked up or something happened to him? Then one day he showed up on Z-Trips record and so I got his number and found out he had just moved to Michigan, he just didn't live in New York or L.A., he moved to Michigan with his family. So we flew him to Minneapolis and we recorded the song together. We went to the radio station and we freestyled for about an hour together and then it was a trio because our engineer at our studio was turning 30 that night and he had a party at the studio and had a band. It was kind of on some house party shit and me and Whipper Whip ended up getting on the mic with the band and doing probably 45 minutes of house party style shit together and I knew all the Fantastic 5 routines so we were doing their old routines and going back and forth and it was the shit. It was one of them things where we didn't just fly in vocals for him, we really did it.

thaFormula.com - So to finish it off, when will people be able to cop the "Undisputed Champ" LP?

Brother Ali - It will be in stores April 10th.

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