Minneapolis, MN activist and fighter Brother Ali teams up with Oakland, CA producer Unjust for his 8th full-length LP only 4.5 years after producing Evidence Secrets & Escapes. Explosion inside the basement from his sophomore effort in 2003 Shadows in the Sun & of course the 2007 sequel The indisputable truthwould continue this streak of acclaimed releases with Us as well as the Jake One-production Mourning in America & Dream in Color and All the beauty in all this life. I can't forget to mention Ali's debut EP Champion turns 20 in a few weeks and debuts mixtape Left on deck either. It's been a few years since we last heard him on his 4th EP Brother Minutester which marked his departure from Rhymesayers Entertainment after nearly 2 decades. So me Love & Service Being his first album through his own label Traveler's Media, this and seeing some of the features still kept me interested.
After the introduction of “Chapter 1”, the first song “Ottomans” is a boom bam that welcomes you to the extravaganza and lets everyone who listens know that they are now rocking with a real and live master aside from the “mumble rap” jabs. they're chilling because it's not 2016 anymore, while “Awaken” combines those woodwinds and strings that speak of sleepwalking these days. “The Collapse” calls out to those who were blinded by the flashing warning signs and continue to dance through it all collapsing over an instrumental with a summer glow, but then Aesop Rock & Casual's “Manik” brings together the trio who enters Their battle rap bag for 4 minutes.
“Nom De Plume” is rather a strange vibe, speaking of some of the dues that must be paid to even bring you this news, resulting in blood and tears raining down on whatever stage it's rocking while “Cadillac” merges these instruments and guitar licks while discussing his father-in-law's honorary yellow tinted whip. “Gauntlet” with Roc Marciano goes into a more jazzy direction with both of them talking about some other bullshit their whole lives which pretty much leads into “Howlin' Wolf” which jumps over a brass sample to rock and moan like the blues icon of the same name.
Quelle Chris joins Ali Newman on the spacious “Ghosts” begging us not to let them walk alone just before the title track talks about how it's all simple Love & Service at the end of the day. “Worthy” continues near the end of the album affirming that each and every one of us is worthy of love accompanied by a playful beat and finally wraps up Ali's first full length song in nearly 5 years from this upcoming fall, “Inside” . he ends the album by speaking vulnerably that he can't hold back his tears.
The vast majority of Brother Ali's discography is extremely high quality, and while this isn't one of my favorite works from him, I still find it perfectly tolerable. unJUST provides a warm and unquantized sound, cutting and refolding educational children's films from the 70s and 80s, using an ASR-10 sampler, coherently squeezing Ali's dense and poignant thoughts about God, death, empire and beauty in the process.
Rating: 7/10
