Whatever's Good caught up with Rhymesayer's Brother Ali today for a brief chat before he heads out on another tour. Ali speaks on Kanye, Amy Winehouse, Wu-Tang, Obama & Hilary, plus shares his thoughts on downloading music. The Truth is Here tour kicks off in Madison, WI on February 29th, and heads pretty much everywhere but West--if he's in your area, Brother Ali is not to be missed.

When does the tour start?

The tour starts on the 29th. I’ve done a few things, you know, I’ve done several tours since this album’s been out, and I toured pretty much non-stop from April when the album came out until November, really December. I was pretty much on the road until December.

That’s the longest I’ve been home in years. It’s been years since I’ve had this much time off.

What have you been doing with all your time?

I finished an EP that I’m putting out right after this called Truth is Here, 10 new songs. And then me and Ant started working on a new album. We’re just basically trying to figure out the direction to go on the next one. Just making music, having fun. That’s not the title of it, but yeah, the last one was so intense in terms of being such a moving experience, that I was really ready to start having fun rapping. Still, I’m not able to stray too far from the important things to me, but I don’t think it will be as detail-driven as the last one was. The last one was really pretty detailed and thorough and every single thing on there was autobiographical, that’s why I called it the Undisputed Truth, because there’s nothing on there that’s not precise and there’s no exaggerating on that album, there’s no saying things because they’re fun to say. Even the rap songs are like that to me.

Is hip-hop dead?

I think it’s great. I think the thing is, you have to see the whole picture of it. The problem—and the reason why so many people are mad at hip-hop—is because in the last 5 or 10 years hip-hop expanded and got so diverse that these different groups of people that don’t relate on life, don’t relate and agree on music either. This new influx of kids getting involved in hip-hop with this underground thing, they don't feel and don't like what the street listens to, because they don’t relate to it and the street doesn’t relate to a lot of underground stuff. And, you know, even the more mainstream shit like, people are doing different things. The only problem is that we’re not looking at the whole thing. People look at the part of hip-hop that they don’t like. They say look at the bad shape hip-hop is in, it’s not bad, it’s so diverse now and touches so many different types of people and so many different experiences are expressed through it, that they pick the parts that they don't like.

I have people on my label like that. This underground independent thing comes with a lot of elitism, there’s people on my label that hate 50 Cent or Soulja Boy saying that’s bad for rap, but it’s not. It’s not worse for rap than Mac Lethal. It’s good for the people that like it bad for the people that don't like it. It’s all relative to your point of view. I’ve loved hip-hop and rap since I was 7 or 8-years-old and I have experience in all of that. I like it all.

I heard that you have a son. Is he on tour with you?

On my headline tour he did. This one no. This is 30 shows in a month, which for me is short. Shorter than what I usually do, two-and-a-half months. I’m not pulling him out of school for this one. Last year we did two-and-a-half months and that was too long to go without spending time with him.

What did you think about Kanye's win at the Grammy's?

I think Kanye’s the shit. I love him. I really do. I love his music, even when I don't agree with him, I feel like he’s really being himself. I know people that have known him since before he got big, I can tell that’s really who he is. Like, I think his performance was the shit, the way he did the ‘Hey Mama’ thing and the way he handled not getting album of the year and the way he handled his speech. He’s the shit to me and in terms of the music industry sense, I think he’s the most creative and artistic person doing it.

Do you download music?

I used to. I had my computer stolen, actually, when I was on my last tour, in the fall. I lost all of that music. And I haven’t been [downloading] since I got my new computer. I haven’t been doing it. I don't know if I’m going to go back to it or not, I don't think I will. I think there are ways to do it, if I come across something, if there are things that I bought and I just don't have them anymore, I’d download them. One thing I don't do, is if it’s an artist I really respect and care about, I don't test it out first and then go buy it if it suits me. Every time that um, you know Outkast or Jay-Z or somebody puts something out I’m buying it. I’m not thinking about The Roots or Mos Def; I’m buying it.

Mainly I download things that I never would have checked for anyway, because you hear people talk about it. And that’s how I’ve discovered music, you know like Joell Ortiz or somebody. I didn’t have access to his stuff so I downloaded his mixtape and loved it and bought his album and love it. I know a lot of people have discovered me like that, they download it, they like it, and they come to a show and they buy the actual CD at the show.

If something's worth buying, if its worth having it, I want to have it. If it’s just shit like, well, ‘Who is this, who is this Amy Winehouse person?’ You know what I mean? I’m glad I downloaded that. It lost all its appeal after a week for me, you know what I mean? Now I’m kind of mad at it, every time I hear it I’m like whatever she can sing and everything but it lost its luster.

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions?

Nah, I try to push forward with everything. I don't have any new thing that I’m gonna start doing this year that I’ve never done.

Who in the industry would you most like to work with?

For the most part, I don’t think that it’s about the collaboration; it’s more for the process of it that I want to work with others. It’s not really popular for people to really spend you know, some time writing and working on something together. I would like to do that, but I don't.

I’m not really I interested in me rapping on a beat and e-mailing it to you and you e-mail it to me and some producer makes it work together. Like why? What’s the purpose of that, other than selling, other than trying to sell? I’m not really in to that. And then the working relationship that I have with Ant, it’s so crucial to what I do, that you know, I have access to a lot of great beats and I know great producers and I think Jake One is the shit, he’s putting out a project. I think he’s absolutely the shit, but I have such a relationship with Ant and the way that we work together. I just I can’t see somebody else’s beat just being that great that it’s going to make me want to stray from that.

You can tell when you listen to that new Wu-Tang. You can tell that everybody worked on it separate. When you listen to the old Wu-Tang albums back when everybody lived together, you can hear it.

Who is the best rapper alive?

I think I’m the best rapper right now.

What about the biggest clown in rap music?

There’s a couple names that jumped right in my head.

Hilary or Obama?

I’m for Obama. It’s weird. I just spent a weekend with my uncle breakin’ down all kinda shit I never really thought about. I think the president is a figurehead, I don’t think that any of these people are going to make huge changes like meaningful changes in any kind of way, but I think they more so give a personality and are the face-person for the country. And so, just what he would mean to people because of the fact that you know, even if his politics aren’t drastically different, he as a person is different enough. The fact that he was raised by a single mother, lived part of his life outside the country, actually went through experiences and seems like a real person to me. And the fact that everybody thought he wasn’t electable because he is black. That’s really what Hilary is saying when she says he can’t win. What she’s really saying is ‘C’mon you know a black person can’t be president.’ That’s basically the underlying message of what she’s saying. Even at the beginning I thought it would be cool for Obama to get elected, but was like, ‘yeah, it doesn’t really go down like that.’ When the primaries came in though, I was like ‘oh shit, he’s the one that everybody’s talking about.’ Even if it just gave some people some hope after all these years of hopelessness, you know what I mean? Even if it just put a different picture in front of our eyes I think that would go a long way right now. And it’s funny that that’s Hilary’s thing right now: ‘so what he’s giving you hope, so what! What’s he gonna do?’ Yeah, well, probably not a whole lot different but neither are you. I think that she’s a bitch, too. Her particular brand of bullshit is… I can’t mess with that.

Who or what do you have beef with, in hip-hop or otherwise?

I’m not mad at too much right now.