Chi Ali, youngest member of the Native Tongues, has been released from prison. He served 12 of the 14 years he’d been sentenced, and even though he got out earlier his release probably makes a lotta heads feel old.
Despite being too young to legally drink one, Chi Ali first popped up on Black Sheep’s posse cut ‘Pass The 40,’ which also featured a rare verse by the recently deceased Native tongues associate Chris Lighty (Chi Ali was actually the first artist on Lighty’s Violator). His only album was released when Chi Ali was 14 years old but he certainly left his mark on hip-hop. Skyzoo recently paid tribute to him in his ‘Jansport Strings’ video, ending with a clip from Video Music Box, the legendary NYC video show run by DJ Ralph McDaniels. He stated the “episode in particular was the debut of Chi-Ali’s ‘Age Ain’t Nothin But A Number’. Seeing that video that day on this episode of VMB made me start rhyming. This clip was literally the moment that changed my life.”
Let’s hope Chi Ali manages to get his life back on track and we’ll soon be seeing him in music videos instead of on America’s Most Wanted. Below are the videos to his tunes from the album The Fabulous Chi Ali, straight outta the 9-2, before his life took a darker turn. Welcome home, Chi Ali.
