Mr Lif feature – Serie B 2006

Mr Lif feature – Published in Serie B magazine 2006

A full length version of the q&a this interview is based on is available online at www.spinscience.org.uk and ukhh.com.

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Return of the Colossus

Having become a firm fan favourite in the 9 years since he first released a record, Mr. Lif has in many ways a lot to live up to with his new album, ‘Mo Mega’. Regularly praised by critics and fans since his official introduction to the rap world back in 2000, Lif is an MC known for many things: intricate rhyming skills, politically charged content, an ability to articulate and deliver thoughts that aren’t the normal staple of hip hop and a talent for supercharged live shows. While these skills have earned him a reputation as one of Boston’s finest hip hop exports, a 21st century Rakim for many, they’ve also brought a fair share of criticism.

His first album ‘I Phantom’ was a conceptual tour de force that aimed vocal bullets at the government and post 9/11 world. Like label Def Jux, the record was equally praised and criticised. Lif then built on his reputation by touring relentlessly, so much so that he couldn’t get back into the studio. His way back in was through The Perceptionists project, with fellow Bostonians Akrobatik and Fakts One. Their album, ‘Black Dialogue’, dropped on Def Jux last year and proved to be a turning point for the label and for Lif. It showcased hip hop that was dancefloor friendly, approachable and not inner-looking but still conscious. It showed that Def Jux was more than just a backpacker’s label – as so many critics were fond of pointing out.

At a time when things look worse than they did 4 years ago Lif has come back with ‘Mo Mega’. And with it has shown that there is more to him than what fans and critics thought – he’s as versatile as ever and more mature.

Why is this album the one you had to make?

Once you get to that 4 year point and you haven’t made another record, you better get one done! The label originally wanted me to make this 2 years after ‘I Phantom’ but I wasn’t inspired to make another solo record at that point. I feel that this is such a unique point in time, because people realise that they can’t really do certain things to have an impact on the government anymore. Protesting is clearly not as effective and we know that violence doesn’t work, so we’re at a bit of a loss. If you’re watching music videos it looks like everyone is having such a great time but then you have the real underbelly of dissatisfaction and powerlessness that people feel so I wanted to make an album that reflected that. It seems the right time to do it.

Did you feel the success of ‘Black Dialogue’ weighting on you while in the studio?

No. ‘I Phantom’ was the record that drove me away from the studio for so long. But Perceptionists was the getaway to getting back in. It enabled me to really be myself, and get away from politics, have a different tone to what I was doing – uptempo, danceable. It gave me the opportunity to write some love songs, so it allowed me to redefine myself a little and on this new record I wanted to come back to some politics. This record to me was like my first release all over again. Back then I wanted to kick in the door of the hip hop world, come in and stake a claim. And after 4 years away I felt the exact same way going into this one.

How would you describe your writing, your work?

I hope that people, and I hate using the word common or average, because none of us really are, but just people from all walks all life that are the working class, I hope they feel my voice represents them. A lot of my inspiration for my writing comes from strife. As could be easily picked up from listening to my work, a lot of is based on dominance or strife. Dominance is the MC shit, you just wanna come through and own the place. Strife is just life’s impact. Like watching my parents struggle. That’s something that as a kid you just see. No matter how much they try to mask it up.
So I still want to do my thing because I haven’t even really begun to do what I planned to when I dropped out of school, which is crazy. I want to be a dominant factor in this game, and I haven’t put out enough records to do that yet. So my focus is to keep on releasing shit. I’m working on an album with Edan, I’ve worked with Oh No and I’m also working on an album I’ve almost entirely produced myself – I need to continue the momentum I created.

You say you wanted to go back to some politics, but this album is about more than that – there’s comedy, relationships, family stuff. What prompted you to break away from the politics?

It started after ‘I Phantom’ – I felt I just wanted to make a comedy record. ‘Mo Mega’ became what it was supposed to be, in that it starts being dark and political, then goes to comedy and finishes on more personal, sincere points. It’s important to show different sides to your character but because of the hiatus and everything else I still wanted to come in dark and then talk about things I wanted to, like the global communities of colour, because for most of the world it’s not such an emergency if a bunch of black people are dying, as is being seen everywhere from Africa to America. But then to me a comedy song like ‘Murs is My Manager’ really is the centrepiece of the record. It’s fun and the turning point of the album so that’s why I brought Edan to do the beat.

Then you’ve got songs like ‘Lookin In’, about family and the only one on there where I play a character. It’s an ode to many of my friends who are black men and don’t have fathers around. I see what they go through. It also stems from my fear of what is becoming of the youth in America. The media and music being put out isn’t helping the situation of families and young people. The family structure is weak today in our society, and I’m thinking that in a way we’re breeding all of our children to be drug dealers and male chauvinists, which depresses me.

El-P executive produced the album. How was it going back in the studio with him?

El came in and took over the record after I spent a lot of time not really knowing how it would end up. When he showed up I had all these songs but not much direction, yet he felt confident we could finish the record. But it required dismantling some of the songs, and crafting them again. ‘Brothers’ for example, was pulled together from another song I made called ‘Shift’ – El loved a line I’d wrote for that and built the song around it. He brought in one of his beats, and after recrafting the song I was able to come in and just write the rest of the lyrics. This process happened on a lot of songs in this album, so it took time for me to adjust to the fact that these songs I had were becoming something else – like getting your shit remixed, which for me isn’t something I’m used to. The process was crazy. He wanted to kill me and I wanted to kill him! But we worked through it and once we did we were unstoppable!

So what’s El-P really like, as a boss and a friend?

He is gruff but also really hilarious. He’s got a unique perspective. He had to create something because he is a boss. Now that I really know him well I find it so hard to think that he was signed to Rawkus, because how can he be signed to anyone? He’s the goddamn boss! He’s a great friend, he can be very rough, you’ll have arguments with him but at the same time he’ll bend over backwards for you. I can’t really think of anyone who’s impacted my career more than he has, ever since I met him – he brought me on tour with him after Co Flow broke up, gave me a chance to shine, produces on all my records, helps with the titles… we just have this thing where it’s worth going through the pain or arguments because I feel like when we’re done we come up with something that’s interesting.

Mo Mega Review – Sidebox

‘Mo Mega’ is a return to form for Lif combining familiar subjects and content with unseen sides of his talent. The first half of the album is some classic shit but with a twist – El-P serves up apocalyptic, headbanging powerhouse beats for Lif to deliver lyrics about society, politics and the general shitty state of things. Songs like ‘Brothers’, ‘The Fries’ and ‘Ultra Mega’ show incisive commentary but the difference is that this time Lif sounds resigned to the fact that things are shitty. So rather than dropping complex lyrics and metaphors about why they’re shitty, he just expresses the anger and frustration that a lot of us feel – he shouts, he makes fun of things. He tells both Bush and Clinton to really go and fuck themselves, he rips the piss out of soulless malls and he makes fun of the Big Mac generation with rhymes like ‘Happy meal / what a crappy deal’.
And then ‘Murs is My Manager’ comes on and the whole LP flips. Over a fast-paced Edan production, Lif and Murs joke about themselves, the industry and political rapping. The gruff, hard-hitting tone of the album dissolves before your ears. Another comedy rap, Washitup!’, follows about bad personal hygiene and cunnilingus over a dancehall, bouncy riddim from Lif himself. The album ends with tracks that touch more personal matters, something Lif isn’t known for but had already explored on the Perceptionists album. ‘Long Distance’ is about relationships while ‘Lookin In’ is a downtempo musing on families and the loss of father figures.
El-P’s influence on the album is apparent, especially in the first half where the productions are reminiscent of his own solo work. But the combination of El-P and Lif really is greater than the sum of its parts and ‘Mo Mega’ impresses most when Lif shows more of his talent, both in the writing and delivery. The Murs track in particular is a real stand out point, as is the collabo with Aesop Rock, ‘Take, Hold, Fire’.

Overall ‘Mo Mega’ really is an outstanding album and a refreshing offering from both Def Jux and Lif – after a few years of gloomy, lyrically hypnotic but depressing and at times not so approachable hip hop, they have delivered something that everyone can enjoy, not too serious and which still bangs where it needs to. Last year The Perceptionists brought us dancefloor Def Jux material, and this year Lif returns with ‘Mo Mega’. Welcome back.