Q-Tip has joined the team behind Ali, a forthcoming musical about Muhammad Ali, as music producer, co-lyricist, and cast album producer. The A Tribe Called Quest co-founder will work alongside writer and director Clint Dyer (Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical) and composer Teddy Abrams. Dyer told Deadline, “We’ll use [Q-Tip’s] hip-hop beats, and his talents will be used in other areas as well. This show’s covering a lot of areas of music and we’ll exhaust all of Q-Tip’s knowledge.” He added that Q-Tip’s next album—perhaps one of the three he promised in 2020—will be a rock’n’roll record.
Lead producer Richard Willis told Deadline the show will combine spoken word, verse, classical music, poetry, rap and hip-hop. Saxophonist Casey Benjamin, sometime member of the Robert Glasper Experiment, is on board as associate music producer. The show is set to premiere in Louisville, Kentucky, next fall before moving to Broadway, likely in 2025, according to Deadline.
