Brother Ali

So, I grew up on Motown. That's right, Miss Margy loved Motown. The Drifters, the Platters, the Temptations, the Pips, the whole blim-blamming mess of 'm. Damn good music for sitting around and talking or driving around in the South with your windows down when the Farenheit reads 70+.

Okay, now imagine you're me. You're on your way to work, pulling the commute at 7AM, yawning big and thinking small, when you decide to flip on NPR. Morning Edition is discussing the SXSW Music Festival (that's South by Southwest for us laymen) in Austin, Tejas. That's when I hear a snatch of a song called "Forest Whitiker," (availble on the NPR site) about, yes, Forest Whitaker. But only as a metaphor. You'll understand when you hear it.

If Earth, Wind, and Fire somehow had, through the miracle of science, a child with, say, Tupac (i.e. Makavelli) or Snoop and a bottle of smooth water-of-life, bam. That's Brother Ali.

You're still not with me on this? Alright. Brother Ali is an albino Muslim from Minnesota. Yeah. Now you're reading. You needy bastards.

Here. Look for yourself. First, there is what seems to be his official site, which frankly, ain't much. Worth a glance, though. But, and here we go again, his myspace.com site, yeah, that's pretty all right. You're gonna' wanta' hear "Forest Whitaker," "Rain Water," and "Look at Me Sideways" - but then, you'll probably want to hear all he has to give and more.