Ali Shaheed Muhammad
Ali Shaheed Muhammad is a world-renowned producer, songwriter and musician, and a founding member of A Tribe Called Quest, Lucy Pearl and production group The Ummah. He cowrote D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" and has worked with John Legend, Maxwell, Mint Condition, Angie Stone, Mos Def and Gil Scott-Heron among many others.
He's the co-host of the Microphone Check podcast with Frannie Kelley.
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The producer and manager, who's worked with The Weeknd, Drake, Young Buck, Esthero and thestand4rd, is fighting the good fight. -
The West Coast legend, one of the main instigators of G-funk, has seen the underside of the industry. It's not pretty, but he stays smooth. -
The Compton rapper, who beat back the sophomore jinx with his new album Still Brazy, is questioning a world that barely ever makes sense. -
Our producer, David Luke, father of David Luke III, put together this podcast, in which past guests like Danny Brown, Solange Knowles and T.I spoke about fatherhood and father figures. It's OK to cry. -
"I'm a manager. I am in the service industry. The service industry. I'm Midas f****** Muffler." -
She's the one behind the curtain of the biggest and best-loved rap and R&B songs in recent memory. -
"I want to get whatever's on my chest off my chest when it feels right," says the rapper, who makes songs that turn the personal into the political. -
"The best way to represent the places where you from is be yourself, completely," says the musician and actor. -
The rapper from Gary, Ind., moved to L.A. 10 years ago, where he met Madlib, a producer revered for his collaborations. The two of them have now made an album Gibbs thinks can't be touched. -
For a special episode of Microphone Check we invited Prince Paul, Mike Dean, Faith Newman, Stretch Armstrong and Ralph McDaniels to tell stories about a singularly productive year in the culture.
