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.
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The artist and thinker, who just released a new album, takes us from the drummers of Burundi to Adam Ant, Octavia Butler to David Bowie, Rakim to Young Thug.
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Crown Heights came to North Hollywood so we could talk about crossed signals on the highways between artist and industry.
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The new father spoke about his inspirations, including the memoirs of Rick James and George Clinton, his business acumen, what the war in the streets is really about and, of course, Gucci.
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The Virginia Beach denizen spoke about the reverse troll he laid on Def Jam, what it's like to go back and forth with Puffy, the fallacies of textbooks and the perils of ignoring the youth.
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"I'm telling the fans what I'm trying to tell myself because nobody was telling me at the time," says the rapper, who hails from Maryland.
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"The best way to represent the places where you from is be yourself, completely," says the musician and actor.
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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.
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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.
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The high-minded Atlanta quartet has reunited 18 years after its debut album and seven years after Cee-Lo Green's pop smash "Crazy."