by Brother AliThis is a great album/dvd combination by Brother Ali. The cd features nine tracks, all produced by Atmosphere's Ant, and all of a high level of quality.
Ali sticks to very familiar and comfortable ground, mostly rapping about his own life and circumstances, but he does, for the most part, leave his divorce out of the mix this time around, signifying that he has moved on, and upwards (he does make mention to the impending birth of his daughter).
Ant understands Ali in the same way that he understands Slug, and on this disk, he provides him with music that really showcases his lyrical talent, and his rich voice. Slug shows up on one track (which is something you can say about almost half the cds I've bought this year), and the two mc's complement each other nicely.
Stand out tracks to me are 'Real As Can Be', which opens the disk, 'Palm the Joker', a song in the tradition of his classic 'Uncle Sam Goddamn', and 'Begin Here', a nice album closer wherein he thanks the people who have supported him in his artistic journey.
Packaged with the cd is a dvd which contains a concert performed at Seventh Avenue in Minneapolis. It's a great concert, as he covers all of his best songs, and even brings his son out for a minute. The dvd is rounded out with a few music videos.
It's great to see an artist like Brother Ali achieve success. He is not marketable in mainstream hip-hop circles (I can't see him getting a lot of play on BET), but he is a consistently strong artist, who is only getting better with each new release. I look forward to the upcoming full-length album.
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