Brother Ali: 'Hip Hop Has Been Hijacked By Corporate Interests'

11 September 2015 | 8:59 am | Andrew Mast

The US hip hop activist delivered an insightful BIGSOUND keynote

American hip hop artist and activist Brother Ali delivered a mesmerising keynote on the second day of the annual BIGSOUND conference.

Ali took his captivated audience on an insightful geo-political history of hip hop, sprinkled with many references to the importance that Islam has played in the role of his life in music.

He relayed the story of how pioneering hip hop artists such as KRS-One melded community activism with music to educate and entertain, a combination he says is now missing in today's popular hip hop.

Ali claimed, "The state of hip hop that we see in mainstream culture has really been taken over and has been hijacked by corporate interests, by government interests and others."

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

Ali went on to joke about how we  got to a place where Macklemore and Iggy Azealia are the faces of hip hop.

He pointed out that all contemporary music forms are "vanilla", "cheap", "watered down" versions of music that black cultures originated, adding: "Every single form of music that exists in this modern context is a stolen version of somebody else's music."

During the keynote, Ali performed a new piece called Dear Black Son as well as inviting an audience member to also deliver a spoken word performance.

Watch the full keynote here: