Artist Brother Ali

Julian Murray

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Brother Ali

Minneapolis rapper Brother Ali's conviction seems to heat up, purify, and focus more intensely with each record. The big, bald, albino dude takes on enough morally juiced-up narrative to drown a lesser rapper, and usually succeeds in condensing it all down to searing blades of verse. "I ain't into bein' ostentatious," he says on the new Us, but his righteous looks at such minefields as family life and homophobia can't help but feel big and imposing in the best of ways—even as he reflects on happy domesticity and "crashin' on the couch with Conan" on "Fresh Air." The album's gospel-style instrumental arrangements rule pretty hard, but its focus is the ever-strengthening voice of a timelessly great MC.

Updated 11/12/2009