{"id":8864,"date":"2026-10-14T02:21:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T02:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/2026\/10\/14\/mahershala-ali-recalls-rapping-for-2000-people-at-age-12\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T02:21:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T02:21:57","slug":"mahershala-ali-recalls-rapping-for-2000-people-at-age-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/2026\/10\/14\/mahershala-ali-recalls-rapping-for-2000-people-at-age-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahershala Ali Recalls Rapping For 2,000 People At Age 12"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mahershala-Ali-1200x675.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Mahershala Ali recalled his first rap performance at 12 and explained how performing his own writing helped him move into acting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/tag\/mahershala-ali\/\">Mahershala Ali<\/a> traced his first rap performance to a Toronto club, where he said he faced a crowd of about 2,000 people at age 12.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The actor shared the story in a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbaa.org\/npr-news\/2026-10-12\/mahershala-ali-is-still-hungry-as-an-actor-lets-fail-on-camera-until-we-find-it\">Fresh Air interview<\/a>. His father was performing in <em>Dreamgirls<\/em> in Toronto in 1986 when Ali and the son of another cast member began making music together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both boys loved Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J. His friend beatboxed, and Ali had a rhyme ready. They surprised their fathers with an elevator performance. A week later, they were on a club stage for the show\u2019s opening night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ali said, \u201cBut, you know, honestly, the first time I was ever rapping and on stage, I was 12 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-white-color has-body-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-3 has-dark-background has-xxl-margin-top has-xxl-margin-bottom\" data-content-name=\"middle-content-engagement-single\" data-track-content=\"\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-black-background-color has-background has-dark-background has-sm-padding-top has-sm-padding-bottom has-sm-padding-left has-sm-padding-right has--lg-margin-top has--lg-margin-bottom\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center is-style-altfont wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"h-join-us\">Join Us <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"h-allhiphop-s-daily-news-service\">AllHipHop\u2019s Daily News Service<\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-sm-max-width wp-block-paragraph\">Delivering news to inboxes since 1999. We break it. They take it. Get it first, straight from AllHipHop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The boys wore matching shirts and sat in a section without alcohol. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He had written his first poem at age 9. Ali later performed his own poetry for his father and his father\u2019s friends, and their encouragement helped him move toward acting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was about God. And it was, when I was young, I was blind, sad and lonely all the time. I felt like I was trapped in a shell, visiting Satan in his hell, until a person shared with me that God\u2019s the glory of being free. So then I turned to Jesus, my friend, and he\u2019ll stay with me till the end,\u201d Ali rhymed in his revelation.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Prince Ali - Coordinate Irah\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wnWL49xd5fY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That early interest led to a recording career as Prince Ali. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After graduate study at New York University, he founded Eye5 Recordings in 2006. The label\u2019s roster included his three-man group Pacific Sonz and the Los Angeles band Destruments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His 2007 debut, <em>Curb Side Service<\/em>, featured Pep Love, Tajai and Casual of Hieroglyphics. Hiero Imperium and Fontana released it. The Oakland collective became interested in him through\u00a0\u201cCorner Ensemble,\u201d his 2006 mixtape, and arranged wider distribution for both projects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Music also became part of his preparation for screen roles. In a 2016 GQ interview, Ali explained that he made a separate soundtrack for each character. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Cottonmouth in <em>Luke Cage<\/em>, he drew on Harlem and Bronx artists, including Big L and Diamond D. Jay-Z\u2019s confidence informed his approach to Remy Danton in <em>House of Cards<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He used that method again for <em>Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother<\/em>. As <a href=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/news\/mahershala-ali-found-his-killer-characters-inspo-in-kas-classic-album\/\">AllHipHop previously reported<\/a>, Ka\u2019s <em>Honor Killed the Samurai<\/em> helped him shape Latif, the film\u2019s father and hit man. Ali credited the rapper\u2019s deliberate delivery with helping him find the character\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/allhiphop.com\/news\/mahershala-ali-recalls-rapping-for-2000-people-at-age-12\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mahershala Ali recalled his first rap performance at 12 and explained how performing his own writing helped him move into acting. Mahershala Ali traced his first rap performance to a Toronto club, where he said he faced a crowd of about 2,000 people at age 12. The actor shared the story in a new Fresh [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}