Brother Ali - "Faheem"

I love this song. It’s beautiful, touching, and speaks to me on multiple levels. But I can’t listen to it anymore. I have a hard time listening to this song because, even three years later, it still brings up too many bad memories of my parent’s divorce. 

It’s a testament to the power of music. Music can evoke memories of days long past. Memories of people you have shared a bond with. Memories of first kisses or family holidays or simply being around cherished friends. We innately connect our memories to the music that provided the backdrop for the events as they took place. Hearing the same song again can place one back in those memories and trigger the emotions (good and bad) felt at the time.

Brother Ali - "Room A View" (Prod. Ant)

I'll be the first to admit that when I think of Minnesota, crime, drug use, and poverty isn't the first thing that comes to mind (I blame Fargo).  Brother Ali paints an entirely different, disparate picture of southside Minneapolis in the first hard hitting track off his underground classic, Shadows On The Sun.  There's not much more I can say about the Brother that I didn't say in my previous post, but I wanted to give some shine to one of my favorite songs (and albums) of the past decade.  There's no argueing with the fact that Ali is a legend of the genre and there are few that are on his level in the game today.

I see all this from the desk that I write my rhymes from,

Pen starts to scribble on its own, my mind's numb,

But you can call me modern, urban Norman Rockwell,

I paint a picture of the spot well.

Peace, Love, & Hip Hop,

WordIsBorn

Toki Wright - "Devil's Advocate" [Music Video]

I'd like to introduce those of you who are still sleeping to up and coming Rhymesayers artist Toki Wright.  Coming out of Minneapolis, Wright is heavily influenced by his fellow lablemates Brother Ali and Slug, while still forming rhyming with his own unique style and perspective.  This track comes off of his debut album A Different Mirror (in stores now).  I've also included a couple tracks he's released relatively recently.  "The Feeling" features Brother Ali and is off of A Different Mirror.  Enjoy.

Peace, Love, & Hip Hop,
WordIsBorn


"The Feeling" (feat. Brother Ali)

Zion I - “Bird’s Eye View” X “Caged Bird Part 1” feat. Brother Ali

Coming out of the Bay Area, you would expect the duo of Zumbi and AmpLive to represent the Hyphy movement more than the Golden Age of Hip Hop.  Although you can certainly hear the hyphy influence in some of their songs, Zion I (pronounced “Zion Eye”) blends deep soulful production with socially relevant rhetoric and sounds more like Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest than Mac Dre.

I was first introduced to Zion I through the song “Silly Puddy” off of their debut LP Mind Over Matter.  The song itself, had a trippy futuristic beat set to equally trippy lyrics.  It was like nothing I had ever heard and I quickly went through their discography.

“Bird’s Eye View” is off of the duo’s 2005 LP True and Livin’.  The song is reminiscent of Common’s classic “I Used to Love H.E.R.” and refers to a women as an extended metaphor to hip hop.  It is an unadulterated expression of MC Zumbi’s love of hip hop and is one of my favorite songs of any genre.  Likewise, the Brother Ali-assisted track “Caged Bird Part 1”  comes off of their latest effort The Take Over, and is one of my favorite collabs (Every day that you hold me in bars is another day I can’t teach your soul to soar).

Peace, Love, & Hip Hop,

Northside Noah

"Bird's Eye View"

"Caged Bird Part 1" (feat. Brother Ali)

Brother Ali - "Forest Whitiker"

Greek mythology has a long standing tradition of the blind being the only characters who are capable of fully grasping the truth.  This is best emphasized by Tiresias, the blind prophet and advisor to Oedipus and later Creon, and Oedipus who is only able to understand the truth of his situation after gouging out his own eyes.  But what, you may ask, does this have to do with Hip Hop?

Enter Brother Ali, a legally-blind, overweight, albino man from Minneapolis, Minnesota.  A man who not only claims to speak the truth, but has proclaimed himself to be The Truth, (note that this is the clean version, but I'd definitely suggest checking out the explicit track), a statement echoed by many critics and hip hop heads around the nation.  Ali is one of my favorite MCs in the game today, though he is often overshadowed by labelmate and friend Slug (of Atmosphere fame).  He is a versatile MC with many political tracks ("Freedom Ain't Free," Uncle Sam Goddamm," "Letter From the Government") and has been compared by many to KRS-ONE in his prime (the government actually froze the man's assets at one time and had Homeland Security keeping an eye on him).

Ali is also an accomplished battle rapper, a capacity clearly shown on tracks such as "Truth Is," "Room With A View," and "Whatcha' Got" (even his eight year old son can spit mad rhymes).  Some of my favorite Ali tracks come when you catch him at his most introspective.  Tracks like "Walk Away" and "Faheem" bring us closer to Brother Ali as a person and let us know what he's really about.

Ali recently released a video preview for his fourth LP, US, which is dropping September 22nd.  The video is so good that I may have watched it three times straight the first time I saw it and another six times since then, and I may just have gotten goosebumps every time (And I go with the feeling from the start/ I'm blind in the eyes so I see with my heart).

This track is off of Brother Ali's sophomore LP, Shadows On The Sun (a classic underground album), a protest against the magazine standards of beauty.  It's short (only one actual verse), but at the same time it's to the point, comical, and touching.

I'm not the classic profile of what the ladies want,

You might think I'm depressed as can be,

But when I look in the mirror I see SEXY ASS ME!

Sorry for the long post, Ali's just one of my favorite rappers and I felt he deserved it.  Tell me what you think.  I'd love feedback both on my writing and musical taste and always appreciate any recommendations/drops on new artists/songs I haven't heard.