Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2012: ‘Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color,’ Brother Ali

Brother Ali's provocative album 'Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color' is a powerful testament of the human spirit. The Minneapolis rhyme spitter paints a vivid portrait of his personal turmoils and triumphs within the past year.

On 'Stop the Press,' he painstakingly rhymes about burying his father just days after he committed suicide. On 'Work Everyday,' Ali addresses poverty and joblessness in America without sounding preachy. And on the soulful 'All You Need,' he gives a heartbreaking account of a failed marriage.

Not everything is doom and gloom on the album -- the lyrically clever 'I Need a Knot' and 'My Beloved' brings some levity to the collection. But it's Brother Ali's honesty that's a breath of fresh air amid the chest-pumping and browbeating that is so commonplace in today's rap scene.