Ali Shaheed Muhammad
Ali Shaheed Muhammad is a world-renowned producer, songwriter and musician, and a founding member of A Tribe Called Quest, Lucy Pearl and production group The Ummah. He cowrote D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" and has worked with John Legend, Maxwell, Mint Condition, Angie Stone, Mos Def and Gil Scott-Heron among many others.
He's the co-host of the Microphone Check podcast with Frannie Kelley.
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The producer and manager, who's worked with The Weeknd, Drake, Young Buck, Esthero and thestand4rd, is fighting the good fight. -
"My job is only to be a servant of the community, and just to inspire. That's it. That's my whole job, and I know that." -
Masta Ace had his first drink at a Cold Chillin' Christmas party. He began his career surrounded by the greats, and he continues to push himself to operate on a higher level. -
The Long Beach, Calif., rapper made his debut album, Summertime '06, so that people who hear it will know how he felt then. "That's when we understood the power we had in fear," he says.
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"I want to get whatever's on my chest off my chest when it feels right," says the rapper, who makes songs that turn the personal into the political.
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He who signed De La Soul, Queen Latifah and Digital Underground sat down with his old friend Ali Shaheed Muhammad to tell stories about Tribe, ODB, Cypress Hill and everybody in between.
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The Atlanta rapper, actor and businessman spoke about being mentored by Andrew Young and using songwriting to talk to himself, as well as everybody else.
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"The best way to represent the places where you from is be yourself, completely," says the musician and actor. -
On Sunday, Sept. 14, 20 years and one day after Biggie Smalls' debut album Ready to Die was released, we gathered four of the musician's friends in Brooklyn to recall the man they knew. -
The Brooklyn rapper spoke to Microphone Check about the music business, the old neighborhood, the kids and a theoretical campaign to be Mayor of New York City.
