Local rap legends Brother Ali and Ant co-headlined First Avenue on Sunday night. Openers were Dee-1 and MaLLy.

The Land of 10,000 Lakes finest enchanted us with a unique blend of beats and rhymes. Ant (aka Anthony Davis) the other half of the world famous and Minnesota based artist Atmosphere co-headlined the evening with a rich blend of beats, samples, on the turntables. The crowd was pumping and was moving and grooving for his whole set.

Ant’s new release is due out Jan. 24th 2005, titled Collection of Sounds Vol. 3. He dropped two of his singles from his upcoming release, “Welcome Back”, and “Perfection”. It would have been nice to have Atmosphere and Slug in the building but was a nice mix of instrumentals.

Brother Ali closed out the night with a vengeance. After a 5-year hiatus not playing First Avenue, it was nice to have the legend back. Brother Ali’s rap flow is like none other and always nice to understand and dissect all his lyrics. Old school rap like Jurassic 5 and De la Soul were some of my favorites back in the day and Ali Douglas Newman brings that same flavor.

He played a bunch of his hits including “Forest Whitiker” and “Uncle Sam Goddamn”. Producer Ant was out on set for the majority of the show as he helped produce and mix on all the tracks on Brother Ali’s upcoming February release. Brother Ali’s new release titled “Satisfied Soul” comes out 2/14/2025. My favorite track has to be “The Counts”!

If you like good Hip Hop and Beats, go catch one of Brother Ali’s tour dates!