Zion I feat. Brother Ali “Caged Bird”

Zion I’s new record The Takeover was just released this month, and I was very happy to see “Caged Bird” in the tracklist, a collaborative effort with the Twin Cities’ own Brother Ali. Even better, I am going to go out on a limb and say that it is the best track on a very good album. I love the sultry string section sample, which fits perfectly underneath Zion I and Ali’s introspective flows. The optimistic and socially conscious lyrics contain a passion and controlled fury that is becoming rare in modern hip hop. Even rarer, it’s a new hip hop song by a popular artist that doesn’t feature goddamn vocoder-tweaked vocals. Kanye could learn something from this.

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Also: Brother Ali “Us” Review