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.
-
"It's liberating to realize you have the freedom to make mistakes. You have the time," says the Pittsburgh rapper, who lifted himself out of a dark period. "Because you're so small."
-
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.
-
Wewent to Atlanta to talk to the three-man production team behind some of the greatest songs ever: Ray Murray, Rico Wade and Sleepy Brown.
-
"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. -
"The best way to represent the places where you from is be yourself, completely," says the musician and actor. -
The rapper from Gary, Ind., moved to L.A. 10 years ago, where he met Madlib, a producer revered for his collaborations. The two of them have now made an album Gibbs thinks can't be touched. -
For a special episode of Microphone Check we invited Prince Paul, Mike Dean, Faith Newman, Stretch Armstrong and Ralph McDaniels to tell stories about a singularly productive year in the culture. -
The high-minded Atlanta quartet has reunited 18 years after its debut album and seven years after Cee-Lo Green's pop smash "Crazy."
