“Hip Hop is what led me to Islam”: Brother Ali about religion, culture and music
Last November, Brother Ali performed at ‘Nuff Said in Antwerp. Kif Kif asked me if I wanted to interview the respected underground Hip Hop artist and activist. During his career of more than 20 years, he released eight albums, spoke at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and took mentorships from Hip Hop legends Chuck D and Rakim. Part one of the two-part series: Hip Hop and Islam.
By Femke Hintjens
These two articles reflect only a small part of our two-hour long conversation. This article is about Hip Hop and Islam. Brother Ali actually converted to Islam many years ago and regularly refers to his religion in his music.
I will start with a question I ask everyone I interview. What does Hip Hop mean to you?
“To me Hip Hop is the voice of the original people that have had the worst of modern life. It is a voice from the beginning of humanity, because African people are the original people and are like the mother and father of everybody. In these modern times, we hate our mothers and fathers, and we think we are better than them. The original people have this amazing tie to what it means to be human. But they also suffered the worst of the modern world. Hip Hop, to me, is just this generation’s version of that voice. For me there is a very spiritual element there, along with Hip Hop being fun, funny and also being irreverent, even being mean or wrong sometimes. But all that is a part of being human. Hip hop is not this romanticized version that it is all positive. I had people tell me that Hip Hop is supposed to be conscious, and that is not necessarily true. Hip Hop is supposed to be human.”
I would like to dig a little deeper into the subject of religion — Islam — and its connection to Hip Hop. Recently I read the book ‘The Tao of Wu’, by artist The RZA, a member of the famous group Wu-Tang Clan. In the book he makes it clear how Islam played a big role in the creation of Wu-tang. Do you see these influences of Islam on Hip Hop as well?
“Absolutely, there is no Hip Hop without Islam. The Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) had several poets in his community whose job really was to be a poet. In his Mosque in Medina there was a minbar [a pulpit, ed.] which is the place where he gave his speeches. He had built another minbar for a poet in his community, Hassan Ibn Thabit. This man would not fight when they had to go to battle. But the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) said he was a ‘warrior of words’. And wherever Islam has gone, it elevated the poets. Because the number one art in our religion were Words. The highest art form is reciting the Quran, which we believe is the speech of the divine. And then writing it in calligraphy is the second one. So, words are very important to us.
Hip hop is not this romanticized version that it is all positive. I had people tell me that Hip Hop is supposed to be conscious, and that is not necessarily true. Hip Hop is supposed to be human
In the 1930s, the Nation of Islam was founded in the United States. Probably one of the biggest inspirations for Hip Hop, was the Five Percent Nation (also called the Five Percenters or the Nation of Gods and Earths). It was founded in the 1960s by a student of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. He attended a Mosque in Harlem, but eventually left it or was kicked out, I’m not sure. In those days, you were not allowed to drink, smoke marijuana or have a girlfriend or listen to music. In addition, you had to wear a suit when you went to the Mosque. He didn’t follow those rules, so he took the teachings of the Nation of Islam and brought them to kids in Harlem and The Bronx. They called it the Five Percent Nation, he also made these teachings rhyme and he added new elements to it. That spreaded a lot because you didn’t have to change your moral code. You didn’t have to stop drinking or smoking and you didn’t have to go to meetings in a Mosque. The Five Percent spread the influence of black Islam to most of the young men in New York starting in the 1960s. By the time it got to the late 70s they had what cyphers are now. [A cypher consists of people standing in a circle and take turns to rap or dance, ed.] A cypher comes from the number 0 in Arabic, sifr. The cypher is like a zero, and the circle is the representation. There were cyphers in every park and on every street corner in New York.
Hip Hop is what led me to Islam. I don’t see them as separate. There is religion and there is culture around that religion. But there is a tension too, and that tension is good. There is tension in everything in life that you try to do with meaning
The majority of the great lyricists like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane, especially early on, had some kind of relationship with especially the Five Percent and Nation of Islam. The fact that in Hip Hop we say ‘peace’ comes from ‘Salaam Alaikum’. Or what we call the b-boy stance, where your feet are next to each other and your arms are folded. That comes from the Nation of Islam and the Five Percenters. So, Hip Hop and Islam are absolutely linked. Hip Hop is a cultural expression of Islam.”
And how does Islam influence you as a Hip Hop artist?
“It’s everything, it has always inspired me. Hip Hop is what led me to Islam. I don’t see them as separate. There is religion and there is culture around that religion. But there is a tension too, and that tension is good. There is tension in everything in life that you try to do with meaning. We’re supposed to learn what the sharia says about everything and be constantly trying to implement and to find ways to follow it.
There are people who say that music is categorically forbidden in Islam. Either they don’t know, or they are covering up the fact that this interpretation is not unanimous. Some of the greatest teachers and scholars in the world have said that it is not forbidden, but that you have to be very careful about it. That is something that I wish more Muslims knew. Recently there was a really strict teacher that came to Istanbul [Brother Ali currently lives in Istanbul, ed.]. And I know he says music is haram in Islam. I also know that he used to be a Hip Hop head. When I was listening to Rakim and all this positively inspired Hip Hop, he was listening to gangster rap. And I asked him what he would say to me and other Muslim artists? He said that if he had his sharia hat on, he would have to say that most of our scholars say it is haram and he also thinks that. But he also said that if he takes his sharia hat off and takes on his hat of culture, history, civilization, society et cetera, he would say people need culture.
Music is going to happen anyway, that is just the reality. It’s just human nature that human beings need culture. We need music
This conversation took place in Istanbul, a Muslim civilization built and held on for 600 years around strings and flute instruments. When they talk about instruments being haram, these are the main ones. There is also something there too. We are doing something very important, but it is also really dangerous. But music is going to happen anyway, that is just the reality. It’s just human nature that human beings need culture. We need music.”
