Album title: All the Beauty in This Whole Life
Artist: Brother Ali
Genre: Hip-hop
Nationality: American
Release date: May 5
Position in Discography: Sixth
Estimated Rating:
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre?No
Average RYM Score: 3.29
I like this. It makes me move. I like the way the opener starts with just spoken word then a piano melody comes in, and I can understand the rap easily, which is not something that I can always do with every rapper. Very kind of soul feel to “Own Light (What Hearts Are For)” and it has a really nice beat, while “Can't Take That Away” is an early highlight, and “Dear Black Son” is both simple and heart-rendingly personal with just a piano melody behind Ali's voice. Really enjoying this so far. His story of being searched at the airport in “Uncle Usi Taught Me” is both sobering and has the greatest beat/sample behind it; sounds like a seventies hard rock song or something. Does “It Ain't Easy” actually use the sample from that song? I think it might, though I'm not one hundred percent familiar with the song. I do recognise the melody though. Let me check. Still not sure. Great song though, another standout.
There's kind of a cinematic feeling, something very dramatic anyway about “Never Learn”, a much slower, darker track, and there's a whole lot of anger in “Before They Called You White”. “Out of Here” is intensely personal, given that it concerns two suicides that took place in his family, and the music behind it is powerful and driving. I don't hear anything here I don't love. Another success for my first steps along the road into hip-hopville. Perhaps I'll see if there are any cheap rooms I can rent. Mostly, despite what I had expected, the natives seem to be friendly enough.
Check out more from this artist? Yo!
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yo!
Actual Rating:
