Brother Ali quotes:

I'm albino, my family is white, but I was really raised, and taught my important life lessons, by the black community.

Strategies are great, business models are great, but the reality is your music has to mean something to people.

Blind in the eye, so I see you with my heart

If you don't feel the blues, then you're not listening. Then you're just a professor or something.

Nowadays I embrace it all/Beautiful ideals and amazing flaws.

If you don't believe inside yourself that you can learn a lot, nobody's ever going to do that for you. Nobody's ever gonna give you self drive. Nobody's ever gonna give you self esteem. Nobody's ever gonna give you your self worth. You have to set it for yourself.

All the pressure I have is from myself. I have a lot of pressure inside me. I wanna be great. I don't wanna be average.

My genes tie me to those that despised me.

I've always loved independent music stores because the staff is usually there because of a genuine love and appreciation for music. They're more in-tune with the customers and I'm willing to pay the extra dollar or two for the service they provide. Some of my greatest music discoveries have come from picking up an album at an indy store and the cat behind the register saying "You like this man? Have you heard of so-and-so?" I prefer to shop where people understand me and the music- the music i like.

I try to make music that's really real. I've always liked music that makes me feel something. I'm not a brain first, music second person.

The greatest threat of harm doesn't come from any bomb

The kids now are more productive than we ever were; they're a lot more prolific and productive in the sense that they have to have music out all the time.

Feeling is always first for me in anything. I think the only way for sure that I know how do that is to write songs about things I feel strongly about.

The key is always the actual art itself, the actual music. There are all these myths out here that like, if you do this little trick, if you use this little strategy, it'll do it for you.

I would just like to see hip-hop journalism in general take a step up and match the artistry. There have been great writers in music who are the caliber of artist as a writer as the people that they're covering.