From the desk of:

My Concert Forecast: Brother Ali

Brother Ali continues to amaze me.  I’ve written about my love for the Brother before, but he has unequivacally provided the most consistently progressive and dependable hip-hop releases of the last 5 years.  His debut changed the scene.  The hiatus that he took during the writing period of his new cd was more or less a dark time in independant hip-hop — very few releases inspired me or did much to advance the genre.  His new album doesn’t only advance hip-hop, it blasts it to the moon.  It’s bonkers.  He absolutely kills the genre, wraps it’s bruised and bloody carcass around his shoulders, douses himself in lighter fluid, and then storms into a fireworks factory while breathing fire.

The guy is the definition of what every hip-hop artist should strive to be: patient, prolific, thoughtful, funny, large, and charismatic.  He’s the most well rehearsed MC I’ve ever seen.  His voice is what they will make hypnosis tapes out of in a post-hypnosis society of the future.  I’ve seen him near a dozen times — I’m confident that he won’t dissapoint tonight in the First Avenue Main Room.

I would fully recommend that if you want to hear the interview and the full stream that you head over to the Current 89.3 and listen to the full stream.  I’ve taken the liberty of editing them down to just the tracks for you, but I don’t want to be known as a poacher.  They did the work, they orchestrated the whole thing.

My favorite muslim, albino, MC — Brother Ali brings the magic.  Everytime.

Brother Ali Live from SXSW – Truth Is
Brother Ali Live from SXSW – Uncle Sam, God Damn 

Also — is Hype Machine broken?  I get nothing when I search for Brother Ali??