Booking Brother Ali

Brother Ali Biography

The hip hop artist known as Brother Ali was born Ali Douglas Newman in 1977 in Madison, Wisconsin. Young Ali grew up moving throughout the Midwestern area of the United States, spending most of his formative years in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he fell in love with music and began rapping while still in elementary school.

After converting to Islam as a teenager, Ali became more and more involved with the African American community, largely due to their acceptance of him regardless of his albinism, which often resulted in taunting from his Caucasian classmates. By the late 1990’s, he’d adopted the moniker Brother Ali and began to seriously pursue a career as a rap and hip hop artists.

Brother Ali released two albums (Rites of Passage and Shadows on the Sun) in 2000 and 2003, but neither rose into the charts. However, Ali’s third endeavor, The Undisputed Truth, was his big breakthrough. On the strength of the controversial single “Uncle Sam Goddamn,” The Undisputed Truth rose into the top ten on the indie charts and into both the mainstream and R&B charts as well. Performances on such notable shows as Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Late Show further bolstered Ali’s growing fame and paved the way for a career which is still on the rise.

Since The Undisputed Truth, Brother Ali has released the albums US (2009) and Mourning in America and Dreaming In Color (2012.) He has also appeared as a guest artist on a number of singles, including: “The Truth” (with Jake One and Freeway); “So Wrong” (with Talib Kweli and Joell Ortiz); “Civil War” (with Chuck D and Killer Mike); and “Get Up Stand Up” (with Public Enemy.)