Word: lif
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...Lif is a man with a mission. Several, in fact...
...those in the know, the release of underground rapper Mr Lif’s debut I Phantom is a momentous occasion. Having spent years building up a following in his native Boston releasing raw singles and playing awe-inspiring live shows, Lif was becoming increasingly hot property and was snatched up by the powerhouse underground label Definitive Jux. He released an EP on Def Jux this summer entitled Emergency Rations, an angry firestorm of an album that included on its lead single the lyrics “Headlines: Bush steals the presidency” and “Planes...
...Phantom won’t disappoint in the slightest. Lif hasn’t toned down his politics—he’s just made them more personal: “The government is smiling because they smell the scent of death blowing / Just showing that their plan is running precisely / This nigger ought to fit into a wood box nicely,” he rhymes on “A Glimpse Of The Struggle.” Phantom is a concept album (as the belabored liner notes explain), dealing with the personal struggles of a young...
...whose raw beat, supplied by Insight, is, according to the skit that precedes it, due to Lif’s inability to muster anything more than a sandwich with which to pay him. “Hip hop is so wack, the beats are fighting back,” Lif declaims on “Return of the B-Boy,” a seven and a half minute epic that morphs from a funky battle rhyme to a sparse drum-driven speed verse in which Lif realises that his greatest opponent is himself...
...produced much of the album, and his potent influence is abundantly apparent, particularly in the industrial beats and dystopic family theme of “Success,” which recalls El-P’s own “Stepfather Factory.” However, Lif is a much more elegant, talented and hard-hitting rapper than El-P, and now he finally has the album out to prove it. Hip hop may be wack these days, but if anyone can bring back the B-Boy, I’d put my money on Lif...