Thursday, hip-hop fans young and old headed east, at least a few miles, and packed the High Noon Saloon for a night of passion and energy lead by the one and only Brother Ali. Supporting Ali on the bill were Bambu and MaLLy, all three backed by the sounds of DJ Last Word.
Before the first rapper even took the stage, DJ Last Word kicked off the evening with some hip-hop classics of the last decade, which had people singing along from the moment the crowd filtered though the door and gathered in front of the High Noon’s small, intimate standing room.
The first opener and acting “host” of the show, MaLLy started the night off with an eclectic set that had everything from trap beats to spoken-word and a cappella verses, (which seemed to be a recurring theme) and a show stacked with such talented lyricists.
MaLLy made sure that the crowd was ready for an energetic show, utilizing timeless call-and-response battle cries including “Hell Yeah” to get everyone in the building involved as he dove into an ad-libbed verse all about Madison, Wisconsin.
The young Minneapolis native spoke to the crowd and proclaimed his love and respect for Atmosphere, Brother Ali and the rest of his Rhymesayers Entertainment family. Brother Ali later spoke high praises of MaLLy on stage, calling him the new generation of the collective and the perfect artist to carry on the Rhymesayers tradition, and I couldn’t agree more.
While his set may have been more energetic and his stage presence more rowdy than the other artists on the bill, MaLLy closed his set with a down-tempo song that commented on several personal struggles in an extremely emotional yet empowering light.
DJ Last Word didn’t leave the stage all night, keeping the music going even inbetween sets. MaLLy was followed on stage by Los Angeles, California rapper Bambu. Before he took the stage, what started as a cute intro involving a “phone call” from a little girl spiraled into a heavy social commentary and a heavy start to the set.
An L.A. native originally from Asia, Bambu noted that the issue of immigration is extremely important to him before performing a song about the prejudice and societal struggles faced by immigrants in his hometown.
The social commentary continued throughout his set, which didn’t surprise me frankly, I’d expect nothing less from any artist directly supporting Brother Ali. Bambu talked about the issue of gender imbalance and stressed the importance of making hip-hop shows a safe place for all. This was the subject of one of his most powerful songs, “The Queen is Dead.” Bambu brought his set to its highest level of energy during his last song, “Iron Bam,” which features an instrumental sample of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” and saw an insane reaction from the audience, which now packed the High Noon Saloon wall to wall.
Bambu, MaLLy, and DJ Last Word kept the show going for the next twenty minutes until Brother Ali’s set, keeping the crowd alive with classic hip-hop ranging from Snoop Dogg to Ludacris to A$AP Rocky. DJ Last Word played a symphony of record scratches while Bambu and MaLLy ran around the stage like madmen, singing along to the tracks and enticing the audience to do the same.
When Brother Ali took the stage, the entire room was wired. But things really took off with his third song, “Self Taught,” arguably one of Ali’s biggest hits. This was followed by several older songs, including “Daylight” from Ali’s 2007 album The Undisputed Truth. Taking a moment to speak some truth to his audience as I’d hoped he would, Brother Ali shared his thoughts on revolution, asserting that listening to music alone doesn’t make anybody a revolutionary and encouraging all of the aspiring revolutionaries in the audience to take action and fight for what they believe in.
his was Ali’s segue into two of his most popular and most political songs, “Uncle Sam Goddamn” and “Mourning In America.” The latter was the title track of Ali’s most recent studio album, Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color.
What happened next was a major shift in the nature of Brother Ali’s set. After a couple of upbeat songs reminiscent of the laid-back, optimistic Rhymesayers sound, Brother Ali went from a haunting a cappella verse into his song “All You Need,” a heavy emotional reflection on some of the deepest struggles in Ali’s personal life.
This brought the show to a surreal halt as the audience listened to him rap with an impressive flow and haunting solitude at the same time. The pace picked up with his next song, “Ear to Ear,” which featured another freestyle verse primarily about Ali’s love for Madison, the city where he was born.
Before closing his set, Brother Ali reminded his audience, “It’s not about how good you sing, or how loud you sing. It’s about how much you mean what you’re singing.”
After his “last” song, Ali stood on the stage and listened to the crowd go wild for all of about ten seconds before insisting that encores are corny. He told the crowd that it seemed pointless to leave the stage and wait for an inevitable encore call, only to come back to the stage, act surprised and perform an encore that had been determined since before the tour started. Therefore, Ali stayed on the stage and was immediately joined by Bambu and MaLLy for his “encore.”
After giving his regards to the venue staff and proclaiming his love for the Rhymesayers family, Ali played “Home Away From Home.” The night ended at its highest level of energy as the High Noon Saloon crowd danced and sang along to all three rappers, closing the book on a night that showed just how powerful Midwestern hip-hop can be.
