Post Description

So far so good :-)

On the surface, Brother Ali is a bruiser. His voice is blunt, his manner curt, and his point of reference planted in a gritty, urban life. But listen closer and you'll notice that he's a tortured soul, with a life that is meticulously and laboriously examined. On "Here", the Minneapolis emcee confides, "We dine here on a balanced diet/ Ego when it's loud/ Self-hatred when it's quiet." And on much of The Undisputed Truth, things are very, very quiet.

Ali's focus on his inner landscape is the rapper's greatest asset and his biggest liability. There are times when his tales of personal disillusionment, righteous political anger, and emotional calamity are scarily realistic, but as often as not this obsession with his own emotions is incredibly megalomaniacal and incalculably boring. It isn't that his troubles are minor or tedious, it's that we don't entirely know his troubles-- only that he's troubled.

Ali does, however, deliver a hell of an opening punch with "Whatcha' Got". Churning power chords crash against a giant bass and restless snares, and Ant's beat bears more than a passing resemblance to Just Blaze's beat for Fat Joe's "Safe to Say". What the song lacks in originality it makes up for in sweaty bombast, and Ali is in loud/ego mode as he declares that the "champion is back" and spends three verse attacking rival rap crews. The bluster works, making this song among the strongest on the album.

But later the focus turns inward. "The Puzzle" finds him playing the part of a victim, musing that the constant struggles define him. It's the sort of idea best delivered by greasy gurus at self-improvement seminars, and everything here is mawkish self-definition or cliché. One minute he claims that he's "tormented and tortured, and got nothing but gray hairs to show for it." The next he tells fans to keep their heads up and demands respect. He does let slip in the song's final verse that he's a single father and that he recently lost his mother to cancer – both reasonably interesting subjects-- but the details are limited.

And it isn't as if Ali doesn't know how to paint a picture or tell a story. The songs that concern themselves with specific incidents and have concrete settings are the set's strongest. "Lookin' At Me Sideways" begins by taking aim at e-thugs-- the wanna-be gangstas who issue threats behind the anonymity of a screen name-- but that's a mere launching point for an amusing bout of self-definition. Here, Ali is "a thugged out nerd," the sort of guy who eats "organic vegetables mixed with fast food" and claims he's somewhere between Howard Zinn and Howard Stern.

Ali honors the former on "Letter from the Government" when he takes aim at Bush's foreign policy misadventures. Over a slow, spare beat (the entire album is produced by the slick but derivative Atmosphere member Ant) Ali recounts opening a letter from the Army Reserves calling him to go to Iraq. His "knuckles turn white/ Eyes begin bulging," and he sulks, remembering the "blue sirens" and abusive cops. "What kind a sucker would I have to be after these years of you harassing and attacking me to go join the calvary?" he asks. "In the name of freedom, I'm supposed to one in his head?"

But what lies at the heart of Ali's malaise is his recent divorce, which he deals with head on in "Walking Away". The song is an open letter of sorts, with Ali directly addressing his ex. "You're about to lose the company your misery loves," he says. Later he'll claim she tried to kill him, and that he never loved her and only stayed as long as he did for the kid. Ant's slow and slinky beat, with a whistle as its centerpiece, provides an effective juxtaposition and makes Ali's vile go down a little easier. It's a great track: honest, heartfelt, and (perhaps most importantly) very descriptive.


Track listing
No. Title Length
1. "Whatcha Got"   4:33
2. "Lookin' at Me Sideways"   4:05
3. "Truth Is"   4:20
4. "The Puzzle"   3:24
5. "Pedigree"   3:36
6. "Daylight"   4:01
7. "Freedom Ain't Free"   3:36
8. "Letter from the Government"   4:02
9. "Here"   4:00
10. "Listen Up"   5:03
11. "Take Me Home"   5:01
12. "Uncle Sam Goddamn"   4:57
13. "Walking Away"   3:58
14. "Faheem"   2:49
15. "Ear to Ear"