Brother Ali Brought the Undisputed Truth to the Velvet Underground
On Sunday night, Brother Ali played the Velvet Underground. It was the best show I’ve been to in a long time. In fact, it was one of the best shows I have ever been to. It’s definitely up in my top 3, hip hop or otherwise.
The crowd was rocking the entire time. Even the opening act—Toki Wright (music page)—got people moving. That’s a rare feat, but Toki has the kind of talent that it takes. In addition to being a damn good emcee, he’s one of the best hype-men I’ve ever seen.
Blueprint, as always, was amazing. He’s definitely a party-rapper. He knows how to make people move, and he’s got songs that are perfect for partying. He seems to have written a lot of political stuff, since I last saw him perform, though.
While he was still partying, and putting on a great show, his newer songs seemed to have a lot more darkness and political cynicism to them. Given the times we’re living in, I suppose that’s to be expected, especially coming from an American artist, who deals with it much more directly than we do here in Canada.
Brother Ali gave one of the most intense performances I’ve ever witnessed. In a weird sort of way, it almost resembled a testimony, or some sort of religious evangelism. The fact that Ali’s music has a definite spiritual aspect to it probably didn’t hurt.
I honestly don’t even know what to say about the experience. It was truly one of those things that you have to experience to understand. Luckily, the Champion will probably be back soon. He said that he plans to come back at least once or twice a year from now on. He also seemed to hint that he’s going to try and put out new material more often (the time between The Undisputed Truth—the album that this tour is promoting—and the previous album was nearly 5 years).
If you didn’t experience Brother Ali this time, I highly recommend that you check him out the next time he’s in Edmonton.