Today, acclaimed Hip Hop artist and community leader Brother Ali serves up a powerful new single and animated short entitled “Cadillac.” It further plunges audiences into the world of Love & Service. This animated film and full-length analog album represents the newest chapter in Brother Ali‘s litany of statement pieces. Love & Service will arrive on April 26, 2024 via his own imprint, Travelers Media.
Pre-order/Pre-Save Love & Service HERE.
“Cadillac” paints a haunting real-life picture of systemic racism and police brutality delivered through the rapper’s poignant play-by-play. The throwback beat and jazzy guitar lick belie the harrowing tragedy at the heart of the tune. Ali recalls a morning where he and his father-in-law found themselves zip-tied and threatened by police—who mistake them for stickup men.
Brother Ali: “Every single word and detail of this story are true. There are certain experiences that live in me and become part of who I am. They’re usually a single event that represents a bigger theme in my life. Those stories are always looking at me as an artist wondering when it’s their time to speak. Those moments have the right to be heard and I can’t let them out until I’m ready. Writing the song is usually the moment when I realize that I’ve healed. I’m really grateful that this song decided to come out now.”
He initially teased this era with “Ottomans.” Beyond plugs from the likes of The Hype Magazine, Mxdwn, and more, Vibe proclaimed, “Flowing over a breezy instrumental, the Minneapolis rep touches on generational pain and grief amid contemplative couplets and boasts of his otherworldly rhyme skills,” going on to praise how he “gives his musical disciples a taste of what they have to look forward to upon Love & Service’s arrival.”
There’s much more to come…
The 13 songs and 40-minute film play like a multimedia primer on healing and wholeness, spirituality and community. The gritty yet lavish soundscape provided by unJUST (of the mighty Hieroglyphics crew) is a collage of educational children’s films from the 70’s and 80’s chopped and flipped in the classic ASR-10 sampler. The warm, unquantized sound is a perfect bed for Ali’s dense and poignant musings on God, death, empire, and beauty.
This music marks a new sonic territory for Brother Ali, but just as important to the project is the visual identity created by unJUST. A life-long fan of hand-drawn illustration and cartoons, he created a dynamic animated canvas for visual storytelling to accompany the concepts Ali has written about. In Love & Service, each song features a unique visual style meant to harken back to the days of pen scribblings and charcoal drawings. These are not the slick, hyper-realistic computer graphics that define most modern animation. This is textured, choppy art with fingerprints and smudges.
Brother Ali left Minneapolis in 2020 in the midst of a fiery uprising, global pandemic, and music industry shut down, taking his family to live in Istanbul Türkiye. Straddling two continents, this city has been the perfect home for Ali as he forges a new understanding of his purpose, relationships, and self. Now he returns with a new project to share what’s on his mind and his heart.
Love & Service TRACKLISTING
- 1. Chapter One (feat Rakaya Esime Fetuga)
- 2. Ottomans
- 3. Awaken
- 4. The Collapse
- 5. Manik (feat Aesop Rock and Casual)
- 6. Nom De Plume
- 7. Cadillac
- 8. Gauntlet (feat Roc Marciano)
- 9. Howlin’ Wolf
- 10. Ghosts (feat Quelle Chris)
- 11. Love & Service
- 12. Worthy
- 13. Inside
