On Sunday night, Mahershala Ali cemented his position as a permanent fixture in major movies with an Oscar for Supporting Actor in Moonlight.

Moonlight was far from a breakout role, with Ali having given memorable performances in House of Cards, The Hunger Games series, Luke Cage and more, but before his TV and film career started popping, he dabbled in hip-hop.

Under the name Prince Ali, Mahershala released a couple of records in the mid-2000s and scored a feature on Rakaa Iriscience of Dilated Peoples’ album Curb Side Service.

You can hear him in action below from 0:55, his flow having a little Killer Mike and even Andre 3000 to it (allowing me to forgive the low budget video production).

Ali might have ended up focusing on acting, but hip-hop remains ingrained in him (he still makes a playlist for each character he portrays).

Last year her told XXL: