CD Review – Brother Ali “Shadows on the Sun”

Brother Ali
Shadows on the Sun
Rhymesayers

Why is it that when an artist creates an album full of unforgettable scraps, they always make one good song and stick it at the beginning? It’s setting the table, only to leave the listener starving.

Brother Ali’s newest offering, Shadows on the Sun, suffers from one-good-song disease along with weakly contrived choruses and anemic rhymes.

He has a decent voice, but it can’t save him from the cheesy beats and samples dragging down his verses.

The opening track, “Room With a View,” sets the album off nicely with its retro sound and edgy flow. It is only a front for the following 17 tracks, which, more or less, fall plainly flat.

Although Ali comes from NYC and has shared the stage with legends such as Guru and De La Soul, his sound seems closer to a bland Midwest rather than the delectable hip hop sounds baking in the boroughs.

Ali has had most of his success and praise by way of touring. Maybe this guy is just a road warrior, which is fine. But please, keep him out of the studio.