Super Bowl Live Day 2: Brother Ali at Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis (27 Jan 2018)

Night Two of Super Bowl Live, the free concert series on Nicollet Mall in anticipation of Sunday’s Super Bowl LII game, brought a hip-hop centric evening of local entertainment, and we managed to catch one of the night’s headliners, Brother Ali.

As mentioned previously, crowds have been plentiful as have security, so make sure to arrive early and safely as on this night, the mostly younger crowd filled the area closest to the stage to capacity, leaving only very limited elbow room and latecomers watching from farther away. 

The day had started mid-afternoon with a spin sets DJ Mad Mardigan /MC Tonez followed by Beats and Rhymes and sets by Lexii Alijai, iLLism , and deM atlaS before Brother Ali took to the stage just after 8pm. The Rhymesayers/Warner Brothers rapper released his latest, All the Beauty in This Whole Life last May and remains a vital element of the local hip-hop scene. 

As with most sets, Ali was limited to an abbreviated performance, his just over thirty-five minutes, but made the most of things, playing the marquee track ‘Own Light’ from the latest record early then bringing deM atlaS back up to the stage for the new ‘Special Effects’, before working next into a freestyle rap that professed his love for the hometown Minnesota Vikings.   

The cold crowd got moving for 2007’s ‘Truth Is’ with hands in the air shouting “more!” on cue and on ‘Uncle Sam Goddamn’, an already heated political commentary, Ali got things very contemporary freestyling a verse about the current president and his purported comments on s#!%hole countries. 

After a funky ‘Never Learn’, the set ended too quickly but fittingly with the song ‘Us’ and its lyric, “cause can’t nobody be free unless we’re all free, there’s no me and no you, it’s just us”.  Fellow rapper Prof would close this second of ten days of entertainment at Super Bowl Live. 

	Sunday, January 28, 2018 2:00 pm DJ Kimuel Hailey and MC Tonez 3:15 pm Bailey Bryan 4:00 pm Sara Renner 5:00 pm The Steeles 6:00 pm Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir 7:00 pm Sounds of Blackness with Big Jim Wright & Ann Nesby		Monday, January 29, 2018 SALUTE TO PRINCE 4:00 pm DJ Dudley D 8:00 pm Sheila E. 8:30 p.m. Morris Day and the Time 9:15 p.m. The Revolution
	Tuesday, January 30, 2018 4:00 pm Minnesota Special Olympics Polar Plunge 4:00 pm DJ Matty Matt and MC Tonez 5:00 pm Drum Down the Sun 7:15 pm Socaholix 7:45 pm International Reggae All Stars 8:30 pm Ipso Facto		Wednesday, January 31, 2018 4:00 pm DJ Brother Jules and MC Tonez 4:30 pm Legacy Fund presents Kids Dance Party & Appetite for Change 6:00 pm Stokley Williams 6:45 pm Dessa 7:30 pm Mint Condition 8:30 pm New Power Generation, guest vocalists Andre Cymone, Kip Blackshire and Mackenzie Green
	Thursday, February 1, 2018 4:00 pm DJ Kimuel Hailey and MC Tonez 4:00 pm Les Stroud 4:45 pm Jakubi 5:45 pm fDeluxe 6:45 pm New Power Soul 7:45 pm Andre Cymone: 1969 Live Music Experience 8:45 pm Rae Sremmurd		Friday, February 2, 2018 2:00 pm DJ Howard “HK” Kessler 4:00 pm Zuluzuluu 4:45 pm Cobi 5:45 pm The Jets 6:45 pm KING 9:00 pm Skylar Grey
	Saturday, February 3, 2018 11:30 am DJ Dudley D, MC Tonez & Katie Andres 12:00 pm Fan Rally #1 2:30 pm Fan Rally #2 4:00 pm Kris Wu 4:45 pm Bob Mould 5:45 pm The Suburbs 6:45 pm The Jayhawks 7:45 pm Soul Asylum 9:00 pm X Ambassadors		Sunday, February 4, 2018 BOLD NORTH GAMEDAY 12:00 pm DJ Dudley D, Katie Andres & Jon Berry 1:00 pm 13 Crowns

Photo Gallery for Saturday, January 27, 2018

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