Brother Ali Credits A Musab Lyric For Inspiring The "Forrest Whitiker" Chorus

One of Minneapolis, Minnesota emcee Brother Ali’s biggest hits is “Forrest Whitiker.” The appeared on Ali’s studio debut, Shadows On The Sun. The 2003 LP—which received a perfect rating on HipHopDX—was Ali’s first effort on Rhymesayers Entertainment, where he remains an artist today. However, in a 10-year retrospective interview with City Pageson the Ant-produced album, Ali says that one of its singles stemmed from an RSE founder.

“There’s a line Musab has on ‘Falling Apart’ [from his 201 album] Respect The Life where he says, ‘I try not to do these things, but that’s me / And don’t give a fuck about it actually,’ which is really similar to the punchline on ‘Forest Whitiker.’ Working with him so closely and loving that song, I didn’t do it consciously, but I looked up to Musab and when fans responded more, it made it worse. You have to show where you get your inspiration from. So, I regret one of those as a human being and one of those as an emcee.”

Musab, who now records under Sab The Artist, was a founding member of the Rhymesayers collective. Now living in Las Vegas, Nevada, Musab toured with Atmosphere and the rest of the label in 2011. Both artists will be performing at May 26’s sixth annual Soundset in Minneapolis, Minnesota.