Pen To Paper by Brother Ali
Feat. Amir Sulaiman
Album : All The Beauty In This Whole Life
Released : 2017
Genre : Hip-Hop/Rap
Label : Rhymesayers Entertainment, LLC.
[Amir Sulaiman]
I am not beautiful, I am an elegant beast
A well-mannered monster, a charming barbarian
I will pillage your heart with language so lavishly violent
You will curse me for coming and curse me for going
Your crying and your moaning will share the same sound
Put pen to paper the first time when I was barely eight or
Maybe nine that was the late eighties, Reagan time
Put in the freshest tape rewind, wait, let me take my time
The entire landscape of that blank page was mine
Created space to climb inside, escape the crazy times
Reshape the climate, break it down, that was my frame of mind
Thank the divine great designing this as my sacred shrine
I made myself a place to shine, wait, let me spray this rhyme
When I was thirteen I met KRS, he put me on the stage
Suggested I read up on Malcolm X, y’all know the rest
So much pushing down on my chest
Both my folks got laid to rest
Loved ones wishing me all the best
I’m a ball of stress, yet I digress
I’ve spent my every hopeless dream and my unspoken secret
You hear it floating through your speakers in my old releases
My fanbase began to grow beneath & crowd around me
I never tiptoed ’round here shy I spit it loud and proudly
The U.S. government profiled me and the sponsors dropped me
Some of my listeners felt a way so they no longer got me
I knew that telling that truth is costly no one alive can stop me
I rolled that flag out on the ground and prostrated my body
This is more than music to me, this is ancestors
Speaking through me at the tomb of Rumi
My mic’s a rifle I’m honor bound to fire my weapon truly
Whether they jeer me, cheer me, boo, salute me or just shoot me
Let it be known, my whole life I break that cycle set it in stone
I’d still rather be known as a man that stand on my own
Rather than beg at a throne cold
You know I still honor my own code that go down to the bone
We just want to get it on shooting at the devil
With a megaphone till we dead and gone
BOOM!
○ Brother Ali – All The Beauty In This Whole Life (Album 2017)
01. Pen To Paper
02. Own Light (What Hearts Are For)
03. Special Effects
04. Can’t Take That Away
05. Dear Black Son
06. We Got This
07. Uncle Usi Taught Me
08. Pray For Me
09. It Ain’t Easy
10. Never Learn
11. Tremble
12. Before They Called You White
13. The Bitten Apple
14. Out Of Here
15. All The Beauty In This Whole Life
○ Listen to “Brother Ali” Songs
● “Uncle Sam Goddamn ”
[ Quotable ]
All must bow to the fat and lazy
The fuck you, obey me, and why do they hate me?
Only two generations away
From the world’s most despicable slavery trade
Pioneered so many ways to degrade a human being
That it can’t be changed to this day
Legacy so ingrained in the way that we think;
We no longer need chains to be slaves
Lord it’s a shameful display
The overseers even got raped along the way
Because the children can’t escape from the pain
● “Forest Whitiker ”
[ Quotable ]
Ayo, dependin’ on the day, and dependin’ on what I ate
I’m anywhere from twenty to thirty-five pounds overweight
I got red eyes and one of em’s lazy
And they both squint when the sun shines so I look crazy
I’m albino man, I know I’m pink and pale
And I’m hairy as hell, everywhere but fingernails
● “Breakin’ Dawn ”
Producer: Brad Trimble
Director: Chris Gliebe
Editor: Nate Clark
Designers: Chris Gliebe, Trevor Grubbs, Kurt Koch, Caleb Halter
Animators: Rob Engle, Dave Irion, Evan Sheldon
[ Quotable ]
See good Lord, I’ve been waitin so long
For y’all to come out here and take me in the home
The world’s so cold with no place to belong
They said “come on in boy, sing your song”
He stepped inside and to his surprise
It was so damn fly, he can’t believe his eyes
Ate and he drank and he felt satisfied
‘Til he sat by the window and he glanced out-side
Loved ones out workin
Eyes got full and his heart start hurtin
Cause them folk been singin for years
But ain’t any one of them set foot up in here