Ghostface Killah, Rakim and Brother Ali are headed out on the road together for the first annual Hip Hop Live! Tour of the U.S. The three artists will perform their entire set backed by 10-piece Los Angeles band The Rhythm Roots Allstars.
The trek gets rolling today at House of Blues in Los Angeles and runs through the middle of November, with stops including The Vault in Long Beach, Calif. (October 31), Mezzanine in San Francisco (November 2), Harry O's in Park City, Utah (November 7), First Avenue in Minneapolis (November 11), Toad's Place in New Haven, Conn. (November 15), Sonar in Baltimore (November 17) and The Trocadero & The Balcony in Philadelphia (November 21).
Tickets for the tour, which is produced by The Agency Group and sponsored by Flow TV, are available at www.ticketmaster.com.
Brother Ali, who's touring behind his latest release The Undisputed Truth, said the idea for tour came together after Ghostface Killah and Rakim performed with The Rhythm Roots Allstars at South By Southwest in Austin earlier this year.
"The idea was to have Rakim, who's obviously one of the biggest hip-hop legends of all time, and Ghostface, who's really in the prime of his career, and me, the up-and-coming underground guy, who also brings a different kind of audience, as well," Ali told Pollstar.
As for playing with a live band, Ali explained that although he's worked that way before with Twin Cities R&B group Mint Condition, with whom he appeared recently on Conan O'Brien, he's always had his DJ around and realizes it's going to be a learning experience.
"I've done it a little bit, but not really a full set and never in lieu of a DJ. I've always had my DJ there.
"Me and my DJ have been working together for a good six or seven years, so we kind of have that language together and we have the same approach. We know where each of us is coming from.
"But - we're confined to working with music that's already recorded. We'll make these mixes that are really good … but we have to sample all of those thing or find things that already exist and mix them in. I'm hoping what I lose in familiarity, I'll gain in new opportunities."
Working with a band on this tour is going to give Ali the chance to do something he's never been able to do before that he's really looking forward to.
"The bandleader for The Rhythm Roots Allstars told me we're going to start the tour just doing the songs [as they are on my album]. Then every day at soundcheck - or I might ride on the bus with them overnight - we'll make changes.
"I think that's an approach that's kind of a generational thing that our generation is doing in terms of switching up everything. We almost never do a song all the way through and then talk. That's the old rap way of doing things - do a song, talk, do a song, talk - whereas we try to really use the DJ as a band or try to make the DJ into a band as much as possible."
Ali has been out on the road almost non-stop since his album was released last April, hitting the U.S. three times counting this trek, as well as Canada and Australia.
He's already earmarked the month off between the end of this tour and the start of his European dates for some time to start writing for his next release. While Ali said he writes a little on the road, touring can be very distracting.
"Your focus on the road is so different than the headspace that you're in when you're at home. I feel like when you're on the road, you're just the rapper version of you. It's like twenty-four/seven being an entertainer.
"It's really easy to get carried away in a lot of different trips when you're on the road. It's so different from being at home. When you're at home it feels a lot more natural and real."
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