In all honesty, I've been enamored with this man since I first got my grubby hands on his bootlegged mixtapes years ago. I was going to school in San Diego and one of my dearest friends, Mastermind Milton (shout out to URBAN EMPIRE in Dago!!!) and I would stand on his stoop out in front of his apartment after the clubs had closed and politic about all things hip hop for hours. Ali was always one of Milt's soft spot emcees too.
Vegas continued to stay steady on my ipod as the #6 train soundtrack during my NYC stint when I rode to work at 5:30 am and I thank him for getting me through some days in the big apple.
He was supposed to blow. He had heavyweights like AZ, OC, Jay, Nas and the entire borough of Queens behind him. The kid's been through two bunk, fall-through label deals but I continue to keep my ears peeled, waiting for the Prince of New York's next move.
When I was interning at Mass Appeal, Damien (their music editor then) and I had a chat about hip hop one of the first few days I was in the office. We played that "oh but have you heard of...?" game and I dropped Ali's name.
D. started letting me write music reviews after that.
You know how this goes. Lemme know if you're feeling it...
www.rich-soil.com
I love you guys for the comments. Makes Rae and I so happy. Seriously. No homo.
Xoxo - S.
3 comments:
peace...damn S. Dot, you bump Ali?! pheeeew, i remember back in the day when money use to battle. that young man was something vicious. had a crazy buzz then fell off the earth. feels good listening to some Ali again.
chill...
For sure. It's super sad when your talent is natural and obvious and you have folks supporting you who're in a position to help you get somewhere but all you keep seeing is bummy mixtapes and weird little cameos and collabos on other people's stuff come out. He should have blown when he was still just a teen. I'll keep my head up about it.
- S.
the second coming with more news to alert on, ali...the hook on life in the city. def nas all flowin through the tracks.
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