REVIEW | BROTHER ALI LIVE AT THE JAZZ CAFE LONDON JUNE 2025

By Faizah Cyanide • On Reviews

Broth­er Ali’s show last night was more than a performance—it was a soul­ful com­mu­nion. From the moment he stepped onto the Jazz Café stage, love pulsed through the crowd as he opened with a heart­felt chant that set the tone for the evening.

DJing for him­self, he didn’t miss a beat. He told us he felt so at home with the Lon­don crowd that he was con­fid­ent enough to take on songs he rarely per­forms live. That intim­acy was palpable.

He had us singing along to “Own Light,” guid­ing the audi­ence through the mov­ing chorus:
“You’re not using your heart for what hearts are for.” Moments like that weren’t just music­al; they were emo­tion­al remind­ers of why Broth­er Ali’s work res­on­ates so deeply.

Through­out the set, he blen­ded per­son­al storytelling with power­ful lyr­i­cism, cre­at­ing a show that felt more like a heart-to-heart con­ver­sa­tion. He spoke openly of his place in the hip-hop world, humbly remind­ing us that he’s an under­ground artist ment­ored by the greats, shaped by leg­acy rather than hype.

His rendi­tion of “In the Name of the One” flowed smoothly with jazzy beats, while “Baby Girl” was a standout, pre­ceded by a vul­ner­able and mov­ing reflec­tion on trauma and the per­son­al story behind the song. In the intim­ate set­ting of the Jazz Café, his words hit even harder. 

“Baby Girl” was writ­ten about his wife’s trauma of sexu­al abuse in past rela­tion­ships, but it was a song writ­ten with love and heal­ing that took a month to cur­ate and was inspired by Tupac’s “Dear Mama”, and only released with her permission.

Then he men­tioned a song which always gets him into trouble and asked he crowd, “Do you want to get in trouble with me?” before launch­ing into “Uncle Sam God­damn,” the crowd erup­ted. His polit­ic­al sharp­ness was as sharp as ever, bring­ing fire to the stage and ground­ing it in today’s geo­pol­it­ic­al climate.

Reflect­ing on how his act­iv­ism once impacted his abil­ity to get booked for shows and left him ques­tion­ing wheth­er or not he should con­tin­ue rap­ping, Broth­er Ali shared a power­ful moment of spir­itu­al guid­ance. He turned to his Sheikh, his spir­itu­al teach­er, for clar­ity. The advice he received was trans­form­at­ive: “Change your inten­tion for what you’re doing.”

His Sheikh reminded him that when a great MC takes the stage, people truly listen. And per­haps, he said, Ali no longer desired the spot­light for his ego, which was a sign of growth. But that didn’t mean his role was over. Instead, he encour­aged him to take the stage as a mes­sen­ger, not a per­former, as a post­man deliv­er­ing three essen­tial things from the heart. The spir­it of pro­tec­tion for the people and their fam­il­ies, the spir­it of peace, and to remain unbroken and the spir­it of truth and call­ing. The Sheikh told him; THIS was his purpose.

A mes­sage we all needed to hear.

There was even a play­ful beat­box inter­lude, and moments of humour—including a self-aware apo­logy for turn­ing the gig into a TED Talk (no one minded; we were with him all the way). He joked about the diversity in the crowd, but still nev­er met anoth­er albino Muslim like him­self at a show, which earned him warm laughter.

Broth­er Ali reminded us that act­iv­ism can be joyful—that gath­er­ing in a room full of strangers from dif­fer­ent back­grounds, united by rhythm, love, and truth, is a revolu­tion­ary act in itself.

The night ended on a note of deep grat­it­ude, as he thanked the crowd for show­ing up, not just to a gig, but to life. His act­iv­ism and artistry blend seam­lessly. I left want­ing to dive deep­er into his discography—because if last night is any­thing to go by, it’s a cata­logue that can soothe the soul and stir the conscience.

Broth­er Ali delivered a per­form­ance that was rich in intens­ity, humil­ity, com­pas­sion, and truth. Wheth­er you’re a long­time fan or dis­cov­er­ing him for the first time, this show reminded us why he remains one of hip-hop’s most import­ant and respec­ted voices.

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Faizah Cyanide

Faizah works in clin­ic­al research by pro­fes­sion and has been an avid Hip Hop lov­er since the early 90’s, hav­ing cre­ated her own Hip Hop event, ‘Breakin’ Bound­ar­ies’ in the early 2000’s which was pre­dom­in­antly based around the concept of bboy battles, she has worked with sev­er­al inter­na­tion­al events pro­moters and dan­cers to inspire oth­ers through this artform.

About Faizah Cyanide

Faizah works in clinical research by profession and has been an avid Hip Hop lover since the early 90's, having created her own Hip Hop event, 'Breakin' Boundaries' in the early 2000's which was predominantly based around the concept of bboy battles, she has worked with several international events promoters and dancers to inspire others through this artform.