As I made my way past the line forming outside of the Barrymore Theatre and into the lobby, there I saw him. There was another line formed inside of the theatre all queued up for the opportunity to meet Brother Ali.

The rapper and Madison native had a formidable presence as he stood there with a fresh pair of kicks on, his red eyes standing out against his white goatee. He stood calmly with fans for pictures, signing CDs and answering fan questions.

As Ali and I made our way backstage, Immortal Technique walked into the room and took a seat on the couch. He casually joined in the conversation with Ali and I about women and told a few anecdotal stories of times of their previous times in Madison. Eventually Technique left the room, and I sat down with Brother Ali and asked him about his music, his tour and his religion.

Born in Madison, Brother Ali moved around the Midwest throughout his childhood until establishing roots in Minneapolis as a teenager. After a trip to Malaysia as a teen and a recent trip to Mecca, Brother Ali brings a fresh perspective to the hip-hop game. He vents his anger about topics ranging from corporate America to the American government failing to help its own people.

When I asked Ali what motivates him to rap about such powerful topics, he looked at me and spoke in a gentle tone. “Just care,” he said. “A deep love and care and concern for the community that produced me. I basically am the person that I am because of communities of color. They’ve taken care of me my whole life. And so, were it not for that I would have been nobody, I might have killed myself. I’m only as healthy and happy and productive and strong as the community that produced me.”

“I can’t divorce myself from the community that made me,” he said. “So, if the community that made me is still being marginalized and kept out, then I’m in bad shape. It’s not an obligation and it’s not necessarily a moral thing. I can’t enjoy my success unless the community is strong and healthy.”

Ali is currently on his War and Peace Tour with Immortal Technique, a Peruvian-born immigrant raised on the streets of Harlem, N.Y. Immortal Technique is also known for his emotionally-charged lyrics touching on topics such as poverty, racism and issues with government.

The two artists have toured together previously and are good friends outside of hip-hop. Ali says the two of them collaborating is about much more than making money. “The tour makes sense because we’re two of the underground guys that have a message in the music, and we’re kind of keeping the torch for independent music with a message,” he said.

“You have to either say what you really believe in and be broke, or you have to be successful but you can’t say what you want,” he said. “The two of us are proof, especially together, that’s not the case.”

Brother Ali is of the Muslim faith. Recently he took a trip to Mecca that showed him “the unifying reality of humanity.” He said it’s the presence of the millions of people visiting Mecca searching for the meaning of life that unifies them, regardless of where they may originally be from. We talked about religion in more detail, and Ali said that being Muslim “makes me want be really intentional of who I want to be and what kind of person I want to be.”

Following the interview, I managed to snag a seat in the upper balcony so I could get an aerial view of the show. The opening acts managed to get the crowd pumped up, and the second Brother Ali ran up on stage you could hear the energy increase tenfold. Ali got the crowd pumped up by having them throw their hands in the air to his feel-good hits like “Fresh Air” and asked the crowd to rap along to some of his more controversial songs, such as “Uncle Sam Goddamn.”

The seats shook from the heavy bass reverberating throughout the Barrymore, and the energy of the audience fueled the animated Ali onstage.

Throughout his set, I wondered what happened to the calm and collected Brother Ali I was speaking to not too long before as he was bouncing around onstage, delivering his fast, aggressive and hard-hitting flow. Seeing this transformation occur opened my eyes to the various aspects of Ali’s unique personality. At the end of the night, I appreciated him more as a person, an artist and a performer after his electrifying performance.