Brother Ali, The Bite Marked Heart
To kick off the week, Brother Ali dropped his seven-track EP The Bite Marked Heart, again displaying the singularity of his musical style…
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In a day and age in which rappers deluge the Internet with free projects that often round out at between 15 and 20 tracks, Brother Ali takes a different approach with his latest EP, The Bite Marked Heart. The smooth, soulful EP only has seven tracks—five produced by Jake One, the other two by Ant—with Brother Ali using quality control throughout.
The Minnesota rhymeslinger starts the compilation off strong with “Shine On,” which features singer Nikki Jean. “Run away with me, I swear I’m not a maniac/I give you that pretty diamond ring with last name to match,” Ali offers, spitting his G to that special lady on the cut.
The soothing vibe continues on “Electric Energy,” a cut which has Ali dropping knowledge about self-absorbent dudes like, “He’s talking about all these bitches at the party wanna fuck me/He treats them the way he feels, which is ugly/Misery hates itself, and loves company.” “I’ll Be Around,” possibly the best cut on the EP, has Phonte of Little Brother and Ali complementing each other with verses, while tracks like “I Can’t Wait,” and “Haunted Housebroken” further set the mood.
The channeling of emotions on “Years” is truly poetic, shining a light on Brother Ali’s talents at their finest.
The title track, “The Bite Marked Heart,” finds the MC closing out the show with nimble wordplay: “Love struck like dumb luck, see the bite marked heart come untucked, still scared of the dark, yet I’m not…afraid to fall, scale the wall that you construct,” he dances around rhyming.
While The Bite Marked Heart may leave listeners wanting more, this seven-track project in a music industry of now, now, now does spell less is more. Props to Brother Ali. —Mark Lelinwalla
how can you rate an album L when you have his lyrics as XL?
XXL is wack
I agree with ^BangEm, this is a sad display of the skew towards mainstream rap over the latter. Brother Ali’s work is much better than Pill’s, which got an XL. Disappointing.
XXL fucking up once again? Of course
PFFT no surprise there… fuck this magazine and website… All of Rhymesayers family have better raps then any of these mainstream douches.
I agree with all he above comments. I remember when people use to take the ratings from mag’s serious. Now its really a fucking joke. Bro Ali gets an XL in two spots and one L and that equals an L?
And if you may be wondering why the rap industry is a joke right now…just look at this shit.
The Source > XXL Mag
since …. umm 4ever
WHAT HOW DID HE NOT GET A XL IF HE GOT XL RATING IN TWO SECTIONS AND PHIL’S MIXTAPE GOT A XL WITH HIS MIXTAPE HAVING THE SAME RATINGS.
CHECK OUT OUR MAGAZINE
I will tell you what, I will check out the Source if they actually put true artists like Brother Ali first rather than heartless mainstream emcees
Fire!
This is such a solid release I am going to give it a XXL. The production, the concept, the lyrics are all epic. I see no flaws. Giving it an L is not a good look at all! SMH