 Walter Negro and the Loose Jointz', who had some success with their 1981 release "Shoot the Pump".Born in Manhattan in 1956 to an African American father and Cherokee mother, ALI attended public school on the Upper West Side with future noted graffiti artists SAMO (Jean-Michel Basquiat), Futura 2000 (Lenny McGurr), and COCA 82 (Pablo Calogero).He began street-tagging in 1970, and with his younger brother Michael, founded the early crew The Underground (UND).