Asheville. Unofficially.

Photos: Brother Ali and Fashawn

I was a little worried when the show started. The Peel was empty. The opening group was a rap cliche (“Yo yo yo, where the bitches at?”) with a DJ who looked like the kids I went to Hebrew school with seems to spend more time smoking blunts than using this old Dell Latitude.

I began to wonder if I had the wrong idea of Rhymesayers, but after a break Brother Ali came out an introduced this 21-year-old phenom named Fashawn. The crowd swelled and moved to the stage and Fashawn proceeded to kill it. Lyrical, hard-working, honest, and brilliant.

Then Brother Ali took over the stage. He’s a self-described fat, bald, bearded, albino, Muslim rapper, but he transcended all those label. He was able to get the crowd moving like I’ve never seen in Asheville before, “There is not a concert. At a concert, there is a performer, an actor up here on stage. Out there is the audience and we don’t interact. But this isn’t that. This is a party and I came here to fucking party.”