Posted on April 19, 2007
Most press released about underground beast Brother Ali make note of the fact that not only is he a devout Muslim, he is an African American albino one at that. However, regarding The Undisputed Truth, it is even more notable that this fact does not, even for one second, threaten to overshadow Ali’s raw talent or the overall quality of his album.
The Undisputed Truth marks the Minnesota-bred Brother Ali’s second full-length release of his career underneath Rhymesayers Entertainment, the label co-founded by prolific underground MC Slug of Atmosphere. Here, Ali offers an often exceptional and occasionally mediocre effort that shows artistic growth but fails to live up to the “classic” status many anticipated following his stellar 2003 debut, Shadows on the Sun.
The beginning one-two punch of “Whatcha Got” and “Lookin At Me Sidewayz” is unmatched by any other album in recent memory. The former shows Ali coming out of the gates running with a hard-hitting verbal assault over churning power chords and relentless snares wherein he aggressively addresses rivals without resorting to the tired rap clichés of gun talk. On the latter, Ali punishes a bass-heavy groove with dense rhymes that come at a frenetic pace, practically forcing one’s head to bob and one’s toes to tap.
Album producer Anthony Davis, better known as Ant, is one of the definitive highlights of The Undisputed Truth. The two had previously collaborated, but neither demonstrated the comfort with one another’s styles as they do now. Ant was digging through crates of obscure 70s soul records long before Kanye West popularized sampling, and he drenches the album with a rich soulful tone that only fails to inspire on a few tracks.
The momentum continues through “The Puzzle,” which showcases the chemistry and sheer energy the combination of Ant and Brother Ali can produces when both are on top of their respective games. Ali’s elastic wordplay bounces back and forth between the beats of the track to great effect. Ali advises listeners, “When life leaves you beaten up / don’t lay around in it hurtin’ pick them pieces up / Cling closely to the people you love / they your umbrella when the weather tough / See to it that your head is up / If not, just remember this just never let your chest and your chin touch.”
Several songs seem like a safe retreat to standard underground fanfare, be it introspective reflections recounting past struggles (“Daylight”), or typical battle raps stretched to over three minutes (“Pedigree”), that find Ali covering oft-covered ground that even his superior flow and cadence cannot redeem.
But each time The Undisputed Truth threatens to grow trite, Ali hits the listener with a track like “Uncle Sam Goddamn,” another unquestionable highlight of the album. The honky-tonk, harmonica-laden beat shows Ali putting his lyrical abilities to good use, as he gives a scathing indictment of our country with such lines as “Only two generations away from the world’s most despicable slavery trade / pioneered so many ways to degrade / a human being that it can’t be changed to this day / legacies so ingrained in the way / that we think we no longer need chains to be slaves / Lord it’s a shameful display” and grimly jokes that “the grown-up goliath nation is holding open auditions for the part of David.” The song is a lyrical revelation, and will undoubtedly remind listeners of Sage Francis’ 2001 underground political masterpiece, Makeshift Patriot.
In light of the recent Don Imus-inspired controversy regarding the content of hip-hop, Brother Ali’s The Undisputed Truth is a welcome reminder that the genre is capable of producing thought-provoking, well-reasoned commentaries on our society that can stand alongside other great musical works from different genres.
Overall, the album stands out heads and shoulders above most current hip-hop offerings, through Ali’s righteous vocals, variety of quality lyrical content and Ant’s lush production.
