Ali - I define myself as the name I was given from my lovely mother, who came from South Africa and was born in New York. I am very humble on the inside but wild on the outside, which makes me unique because not as many people have the same background or lifestyle as me. With my family, the type of bond and relationship we have keeps us all together and as a strong family. When I was born I went out to Africa where my grandmother lives in Mali in 1999 and I lived with her for over 6 years, which made me learn a lot about my culture and learn how to speak more of our language which was called babada. This is what we speak in the small neighborhood I was raised in. Then when I finally turned 6 years old, I went back to where I was born in New York City and had to learn English which was really hard for me because when I started my kindergarten class, it was hard for me to learn how to make new friends on my own because I was still learning the language. Before making friends was easy for me because I would have a good vibe with anyone that would come across me, although I didn’t know English at the time. As I was in school, English was coming to me little by little and I was learning all small words like “this, you, me, and”. Learning a new language wasn’t really as hard as it seems, but what was hard for me was being different from everybody when I started to go to public schools with many other different cultures because in Mali they did not have a situation where everybody came together as one. In Mali, everything was mostly the same. When I finally learned English, everything went smooth for me. I graduated from my elementary school P.S. 63 which was sad for me because at the time I was leaving a lot of my friends and going to a bigger school and doing bigger things. Then I moved on to Tompkins Square middle school where I actually learned a lot because the teachers were incredible to me and they were on my side at all times. Although I was a badass, I still managed to get all my work done on time. After I graduated from Tompkins which was an awesome middle school, I started LOMA High School. It felt amazing to me that I actually made it this far in life and moving on to even bigger things and knowing that I also loved music now, it was that time for me to chase what I liked doing. However, I couldn’t because the teachers at my old school decided to put me in a drama major program that would allow me to learn drama until I graduate from LOMA instead of putting me in the music major knowing that I liked music. This got me mad since I didn’t know how I would work on my music skills and learn more about music. Instead I was learning skills on how to become an actor in which I have no idea of working with acting or helping somebody with their acting skills. Then my older sister told me about City-As High School and how they allow you to start with your career and have opportunities to intern to earn credit for your classes and graduate on time. I was happy when I learned about it and I made my way into City-As which felt amazing since I could finally start something related to my career that would help me out way more than my old school. As a City-As student I have learned many skills that will help me with my career which is being involved in the music industry. M.A.D. Academy is a music art development internship where students have the opportunity to work in the field of their interest. My main focus during the internship was to learn how to mix audio and engineer recording sessions. I’ve been making beats for about 4 years, and I was excited for the opportunity to learn how to mix and engineer my own productions. Every Tuesday for cycle three I head down to Butcha Sounds where I learn a lot about mixing and learn what there is to know if you want to be in the music industry. Phil is a professional producer with a professional studio where he has a lot of very expensive equipment to use. I’ve learned a lot from Phill who has taught me so many things and also made sure that I know my history about the music life and also knowing older artists, where it all started. He taught me how artists used to make music back in the old days and how they would mix. It was so much harder for them to record a single song back in the day. Today it is so simple if you want to record it is all in your computer software. Back in the day they did not have that. My experience working with Pill really helped me out a lot. Without him I would not know a lot about the music industry. I always walk out the studio knowing something I did not know which keeps me moving forward and deeper to the music industry.
After high school I would apply myself to a college that would help me with my music career and that would not affect my pursuit of having higher education because of the amount of money that is going to be. In the future I will apply myself in the music industry to become an instrumental producer and music producer. I also want to become a major DJ working with many famous artists. I have been doing it since a young age and leading the music to become better. And how I’m going to be this? By actually going out there in the music world and starting to meet music producers that are in the music industry and that are very professional and are well known for what they do. I will put myself out there with the help of many people and effort and hard work knowing that I will have to deal with many things and the expectations I have for myself to always move forward in life and chase after my dreams. And when I reach my goals in life it will be done with hard work.