Album Reviews

If you haven’t heard of Brother Ali before, here is what you need to know: You need to know who he is.

Jason Newman or Ali Newan is an Albino Muslim from Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was in North Minneapolis where he grew up and converted to Islam and was given the name Ali.  Ali was born with the skin disorder Albinism, the disorder that causes a lack of pigments in the eyes, hair, and skin. While Brother Ali’s family is white, he describes his childhood as marked  by exclusion by his white classmates, and being able to relate to Black classmates better. Even when he was starting his career people still never knew, in an interview from March 20th, 2007 he explains his early career:

“Hip Hop and MCing was my life growing up. I always had dreams of making music and performing for a living. When Slug (of Atmosphere) gave me an opportunity to tour with him, I was introduced to the underground, independent Hip Hop scene. I was really surprised to find a scene where many of the artists and fans were white. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it at first. I eventually decided to just make music that was real to me and let the chips fall where they may. The thing that fucked with me were magazines and music reporters who never cared about or covered rap before this new wave of white artists. That was so incredibly wack to me. So when they got me in an interview and asked me what race I was, I didn’t know what to say. You can look at me and tell I’m not Black so, what is the question really? What are you implying? I didn’t answer them and they decided I must be black.”

He débuted on Rhymesayers Entertainment in 2000 with his release “The Rite of Passage” and ever since then he have continue to get better. In May 2007 Rolling Stone declared Brother Ali as an “New Artist to Watch”, he followed up with appearances o The Late Late Show where he performed his single, “Uncle Sam Goddamn” off of “The Undisputed Truth” and on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and performed "Take Me Home" from The Undisputed Truth.  

 

Ever since then he have continued to put on some of the best underground hip-hop to be released in the last couple of years.  When I stubble upon his latest release that dropped September 22nd, 2009, I was excited to here what was in stored in term of production and lyrics. And I was not disappointed with “Us”.

The single is the last track on Brother Ali’s 16 track album named the same. The acpella start to one of the chilliness beats I have heard in a long time made me real excited to hear the rest. When the choir comes in he spits these words of wisdom:

Production on “Us” like the rest of Brother Ali’s albums is done exclusivity by Rhymesayers producer extraordinaire and the other half of Atmosphere; Ant. The album feature guest appearances by Chuck D, Stokley Williams, Freeway and Joel Ortiz. Brother Ali is going on a 50 venue tour in 60 days to promote his album starting September 22nd, entitled the “Fresh Air Tour”, Ali will be join by Evidence of Dilated People, Toki Wright and BK One, unfortunately there are no Canadian stops but hopefully soon we will get to see more Ali north of the border. Go out and get “Us” this might be one of the best hip hop albums released in 2009.

 

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