Ali Hardy or JustAli is a 23-year-old hip-hop artist, rapper, and author from Vanceboro, North Carolina. He has been consistently honing his art and craft for a decade and has been creating a delicate balance between the golden era of hip hop, the melodic nature of this new era of hip hop, and an unorthodox storytelling style that captures the ears of listeners from different generations of cultural and musical genres across the board. 

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He grew up in the disenfranchised areas of the community where he witnessed, partook, and scribed the civil ills plagued town and instantly began being noticed for his skillset. Through small dabbles in the streets and loyalty to friends that were heavily invested in "life", he quickly found himself on a crash course to nowhere and carved an escape through his music.

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The North Carolina wordsmith quickly began generating a name for himself as he built his VillageMindedMusic brand under the umbrella of VillageMinded LLC. With commitment and determination to pursue his craft, he graduated college in 2019 with a degree in Communications and started teaching hip hop to afterschool programs at the ZECA School of Arts and Technology. He began generating income by performing in small venues as he creates his own shows, sells his merchandise, and lives off his music. In 2015, he recorded his first unmastered album that was just a raw recording of his emotions. But with his eagerness to share his music, he took a leap of faith and had the whole city rocking to it. 

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In 2019, he released his album “Storytime” which illustrates stories of who he was and where he came from. His latest album “Somethin To Hold You Over Vol.1: The Bumblebee Effect” was launched in the first quarter of 2021. The six- tracks collection shows his versatility as an artist and resonates with his times in relationships, his perspective on respect, and his thoughts on the constant injustices in America. With the success of these earlier projects, the 2nd volume and planning to release it in the second quarter of this year.

He sells and promotes his music through EPs, virtual concerts, and live performances on various social media sites and streaming platforms. He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter to keep his fans updated on his music.