Brother Ali Talks About Performing Cover Of Eyedea & Abilities’ ‘Smile’ On Tour

Written by Tyler Hakes. Published: .

Brother Ali Talks About Performing A Cover of Eyedea & Abilities' 'Smile' The street preacher stays heavy on his grind, but he’s recently added something new to his live shows — a cover of the Eyedea & Abilities track, “Smile”. Brother Ali talked with aboveGround about performing one of Eyedea’s last singles before his recent passing and what that song’s purpose is in the grand scheme of his performance.

“It’s important for me that people still hear his music,” explained a somber Ali, “and I think [“Smile” is] a really good one for people. Even people who aren’t huge fans — that didn’t really, really know his work that well. I think with that song, that even if you don’t know his whole catalog, that you can still see the greatness in that song.”

The Rhymesayers MC seemed somewhat reluctant when discussing the topic, calling it a “double-edged sword.” He explained by saying, “I do that to pay tribute to him. The focus of doing that is to focus on him, not on me at all. Like, it’s not mine, it’s not my song — not my anything.”

“It’s interesting when you bring the way you try to pay respect into entertainment,” he said, “Where the nature is for people to say like, ‘Ah, that’s dope!’ But, it’s not about people saying it’s dope. It’s about trying to focus on him.”

Ali said that he first started thinking about the idea of performing an Eyedea tribute cover on the night he found out about his death. “Me and Abilities — I was on tour, so was he, he went home when he found out — but, I was on tour and we just hung out on the phone for a couple of hours that night,” he recalled.

Eyedea, a legendary battle rapper and highly-respected MC and musician from Minneapolis, passed away unexpectedly in October of 2010. It was later revealed that his death was caused by an accidental overdose, although no details about any specific drug use were ever released.

Brother Ali is currently wrapping up a tour with The Grouch, Eligh and Los Rakas as part of the forth annual How The Grouch Stole Christmas tour. Check out remaining dates and locations for the tour below.

12/17 Santa Clara, CA: http://bit.ly/bRIPj6
12/18 Visalia, CA: http://bit.ly/aCzzJg
12/19 San Luis Obispo, CA: http://bit.ly/a2YWqk