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September 24, 2009
Brother Ali - Us: Album Review
Brother Ali, Us (Rhymesayers, 2009)
Brother Ali is a huge white albino Muslim rapper from Minnesota. His music tends to deal issues faced by huge white albino Muslim rappers from Minnesota, i.e. himself and himself only, but don't let that be a turn off. He happens to be a really good rapper.
BROTHERS AND SISTERS
Sounds like Chuck D delivering a sermon backed by a gospel choir.
THE PREACHER
Fierce sped-up disco rap. Brother Ali sounds better than ever."The only thing poppy about me is what my Puerto Rican broad call me when she on me."
CROWN JEWEL
More along the lines of what you'd expect a Brother Ali song to sound like. Extra medium tempo and extra repetitive horns. Even the preachiness is cranked up a notch or two.
HOUSE KEYS
Brother Ali tries to talk his girlfriend into moving into a cheaper apartment downstairs and spending the money they save on crabmeats, at Red Lobster. I'm so not making this up.
FRESH AIR
An open love letter to Terry Gross. Just kidding. Hip-hop just discovered Riesling. We're still five years out from the point when ninjas start rapping about NPR.
TIGHT ROPE
Sounds like it might be a cautionary tale about something or other. I wasn't paying that much attention. These days, I'm trying to avoid any analysis that isn't based in socialism.
BREAKIN' DAWN
An entire song in that bluesy singsong flow Ali sometimes slips into. Suddenly I'm reminded of those Whitey Ford albums by Everlast. Obviously this is not a good thing.
THE TRAVELER
This is what I imagine non-Dr. Dre West Coast LCD rap sounds like. Obviously I wouldn't know.
BABYGIRL
A song about a woman with some demons to deal with. Like something Slug might come up with.
ROUND HERE
Not a cover of the Counting Crows classic, as far as I can tell. It's Ali in shit-talking mode, which I prefer. No mention of his family or anything.
BAD MUFUCKER PT. 2
Brother Ali rapping about how much of a badass he is. I'm sure if I get the point of this.
BEST@IT
Ali's new hypeman raps about how he discovered Islam, then Joell Ortiz starts rapping about how much pork he eats. The fuck? I think Ali's verse is about how he couldn't afford to buy Freeway a chain to replace to his Rocafella one. No, really.
GAMES
More moralizing, in the vein of "Tight Rope." Brother Ali, it turns out, doesn't approve of drug dealing.
SLIPPIN' AWAY
Brother Ali takes us back to his high school days, during the crack era. How old is he, anyway? In the second verse, he mentions how the black guys would date white chicks, leaving the black girls sad and alone. Hmm...
YOU SAY (PUPPY LOVE)
Noz would have a field day with this.
US
Brother Ali kicks a few unity raps over what might be the same gospel choir from the intro.
COMMENTS: Us is a bit of a disappointment, coming on the heels of the Undisputed Truth, which I enjoyed as if it was a milkshake. Brother Ali may have actually grown as an MC in the interim, but he hasn't always been making the best decisions. Some of the production, which isn't gonna be very good anyway, because it's Rhymesayers, is just weird, and too much of the content is grown and sexy to a fault. It's getting to the point where I know more about Brother Ali's relationship with his kids than I'd know about my relationship with my own kids, if I had any.
BEST TRACKS: "The Preacher" "Round Here" "Best@it"
BONUS VIDEO: "Us"
Posted by Bol at 04:41 PM | Permalink
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