TRUE Magazine Album Review: Brother Ali – Mourning In America And Dreaming In Color

“This is not a practice life, this is the big game, we gotta attack it right” -Brother Ali

Jake One quickly sets the serious, focused tone for Brother Ali’s Mourning in America And Dreaming In Color with the introductory bass line and chopped vocal sample.  Brother Ali then humbly, which is a sign of significant growth as a man when compared to the swaggering braggadocio of Shadows on the Sun, admits that the polarization of America as bad and good is immature, and that it actually paints an inaccurate picture of our dynamic country (but please do not read blind patriotism here either).  A heartfelt call to action by the good Dr. Cornell West provides the listener with the appropriate lenses through which to view the rest of Mourning In America…, lenses shaped by reality, tinted by despair, yet clear enough to look into the future with hope.

Brother Ali attacks just about every topic under the sun, but seems able to combine the deeply personal approach of Shadows On The Sun and The Undisputed Truth and the communal approach of Us, giving all listeners multiple points of relation to just about each record on the album, and putting forth some of his best work to date.  Songs like Letter To My Countrymen, Only Life I Know, Need a Knot, and Mourning In America each takes a unique perspective to expound on social issues – how can one’s thoughts not be provoked by lines like, “warfare [is] the terrorism of the rich,” which forces us to question the labels we place on people and people groups and, more importantly, the actions behind those labels without being preachy.  Depression, aggression and death have all riddled Brother Ali in recent years, but those very same years have been some of the greatest years of his life, both internally and externally and Ali can’t help but pour forth both ends of the spectrum on tracks like Stop The Press.  Due to its depth and breadth of both subject matter and emotion, Mourning In America… should be ingested slowly by one who has the time and energy to digest it.

Brother Ali then steps behind the pulpit and preaches a sermon on the power of words when used by a true emcee, discourse that will make the irreligious and sacrilegious Say Amen.  It feels very much like Jake One also turns a corner at the same point in the album; the production on the last five tracks is so beautiful that it somehow takes Brother Ali from an already 10, to an off the charts 11.  The last seventeen minutes and thirty-seven seconds of the album will leave you with a dropped jaw and emphatically nodding head and Jake Uno hits you in places you didn’t know you had and Brother Ali tells tales of life in cracks of America’s beautifully flawed complexion – this album, consequently is something like mortar or caulk that helps to smooth rough edges and mend what’s broken.

It may seem impossible, but Brother Ali is MOURNING In America AND DREAMING In Color.  It is written, “Blessed are those who MOURN, for they shall be comforted” and if you mourn both societal and personal hurt along with hip hop’s lovable big Brother, you will find comfort and may even find the strength to dream.

Peace and Love,

NathanAnthony