Brother Ali - Mourning in America & Dreaming in Color

Maknbeats

Back to Work
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 56
Yo what's good, i got to get a sneak peek from a connect at Rhymesayers and peeped the Album yesterday. Has anybody else heard it!? If your already a Brother Ali fan you know the intelect that he brings. It's definitely an album that will go down and be timeless for this era because he hits so many truths both positive and negative of what's going on in this crazy ass world of ours!! All the songs are produced by Jake One so I was excited to hear what he has been digging lately.

This is the HOC review! Def go cop that ALbum!!

September 18th, Brother Ali’s newest album “Mourning in America and Daydreaming in Color” will be available for purchase and downloads. The entire album was produced by the platinum award decorated Jake One. These fourteen tracks were developed through an intentional two-month “exile” in Seattle, Washington. It was there that Brother Ali crafted these tracks that unveil the many unseen truths of our country. Pointing the finger back to America, the problems we have here, and how often those are the same problems we condemn other countries for. Problems like chronic inequality, governmental deceit, and our relentless need for war. The album flows through the fourteen tracks offering a tempo or mood for everyone. Brother Ali definitely stuck to some of his classic inspirations, reminiscent of classic hip hop—complete with piano beats and back up female vocals. The intro track, “Letter To My Countryman” is instantly hypnotic with happy melodies and a solid opening to the story Brother Ali continues to tell in the 13 tracks that follow.


“I used to think I hated this place
Couldn’t wait to tell the president straight to his face
But lately I changed, nowa’ days I embrace it all
Beautiful ideals and amazing flaws…”

The album title is true to the overall message of this collection. We have a lot to mourn here in present-day-America. Brother Ali on many levels is speaking to “his age or younger”, because it’s that generation that inherited these political and philosophical sufferings. However the second half of the album title—“...and Daydreaming in Color” lends a reference to thinking forward and holding a heartening view of our future. We need to inspire each other for a better future.

His track “Fajr” (the first morning prayer for Muslims) makes an impression. Brother Ali moves fast with his words and calls out every facet of fiction and half-truth in American culture, especially touching on the subject of war. The mood of the track is straight up fed up. And after Brother Ali gets you all riled up in this moving track he seamlessly in almost the same beat moves to the next track, “Namesake”, which sounds hopeful and laid back, touching on the subject that we are all “somebody” in America, and who better to change America, then its people? Overall, Brother Ali’s “Mourning in America & Daydreaming in Color” brings fresh lyrics to a classic hip hop sound, with stinging political lines that (thank god) someone has to brains and the balls to say into a microphone so the rest of America can hear it.

Despite his critical political energy, Brother Ali leaves his listeners with a message of hope and love. I’ll leave you all with some lyrics from the next to last track on the album, “My Beloved” He opens by speaking casually, “it’s a story of friendship; it’s a story of love. The doc said, I am who I am because somebody loved me.”

“Faith in God/ High Thinking/Simple living/Work hard/Deep love, no conditions…”
 

Sucio

Old and dirty...
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 304
I've never been a fan of Brother Ali... Just can't......
 

Sucio

Old and dirty...
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 304
Mono...I really don't know..... He just doesn't do it for me....I've tried...he's definitely hip-hop all day...but I can't put a finger on it, really.
 
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