What rhymes with Barack?

Mr. Lif takes on the headlines
By FRANKLIN SOULTS  |  October 29, 2008

081031_lif_main
RACE TRACKS: On his new songs, Lif declares allegiance to his black community and its candidate while also standing above both.

The story of underground hip-hop these days often seems like the inverse of Barack Obama’s story. Obama strives to transcend race, compensating for the “otherness” of his black skin and unusual biography by emphasizing his bi-racial roots and the normality of his politics and household. Underground hip-hop also has bi-racial roots, stretching back to the New York City and Bay Area scenes of the mid ’90s. But as the style’s concert audiences have turned overwhelmingly white over the past decade, underground rappers of both races have seemed to reach for another kind of racial transcendence, compensating for their loss of otherness by stressing their musical weirdness, or their radical politics, or their connection to the marginalized history of “true” hip-hop. Problem is, racial transcendence of any kind risks dislocation from our very untranscendent culture, where none of us can ever completely slip our skin.

Sometimes, however, Barack Obama reaches for that transcendence while acknowledging its price, as he did in his Philadelphia speech on race. And the black underground rapper Mr. Lif strives for something equally admirable in a new two-pronged project. Among other things, that project addresses the particulars of this political moment, declaring allegiance to his black community and its candidate while also standing above both. “I sit down to write my songs with much more of a Bob Marley mind state than anything else,” he points out. And that explains why this 31-year-old Brighton native, whose career stretches back to the underground’s origins, remains the most highly regarded underground rapper to come out of Boston. Although Lif hasn’t dwelt in our fair city since 2005 — taken away to Philadelphia by “circumstances in life,” as he tells me — the genesis of his career also confirms his insistence that “Boston will always be my home base,” and he’ll be revisiting that base this Sunday when he comes to the Middle East.

In late August, Lif announced that several tracks from his new I Heard It Today (which will come out on his new personal label, Bloodbot Tactical Enterprises) would be released one at a time every three weeks at sites like iTunes. The final track would be written and recorded after the election, and the entire disc would come out on January 20 (Inauguration Day). Speaking like a candidate himself, Lif stated in the press release, “My research has led me to speak with so many citizens nationwide, and the stories of your struggles combined with the knowledge of my own struggles have given birth to the project.”

As if that weren’t enough, he also announced that regular “Presidential Reports” — quickly recorded raps “on recent events in national and world politics” — would be available on his MySpace page. As he explains from his Philadelphia home (on a cellphone with a Boston area code), the “Presidential Report” downloads and I Heard It Today album were both inspired by his sometime partner Akrobatik, a Boston MC who landed a gig rapping about sports headlines on Boston’s JAM’N 94.5 morning show. Akrobatik also supplies some of the most memorable commentary on “Presidential Report #2,” riffing on a paling Palin over a decent if perfunctory beat. As Lif freely acknowledges, the “Reports” don’t aim for much as music. They’re more like freestyle battle raps taken to the national stage — or, if you prefer, the offspring of Woody Guthrie’s musically readymade protest songs.

1  |  2  |   next >
Related: Rebirth of a prince, Beef stakes, Due Dilla-gence, More more >
  Topics: Music Features , Barack Obama, Elections and Voting, Politics,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY FRANKLIN SOULTS
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?  |  February 10, 2009
    "Turn down the bass!" a well-meaning fan finally yelled last Saturday night, about a half-hour into Murder by Death's sold-out performance downstairs at the Middle East.
  •   LILY ALLEN | IT'S NOT ME, IT'S YOU  |  February 09, 2009
    On her 2007 debut, this young British MySpace sensation came across like that rare thing — a natural.
  •   ¡VAMOS A ROCK!  |  January 28, 2010
    'Rock en Español 2' rides a new East Coast wave of Latino music
  •   PINK | FUNHOUSE  |  November 07, 2008
    Everything about this good bad ol’ pop Cinderella’s fifth (!) album is tried, true, and tired.
  •   CALL IT A COMEBACK  |  November 03, 2008
    Alabama offspring Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley have been making raucous rock and roll together in one band or another for the past 23 years, about the same time it takes most offspring to grow up and get real jobs.

 See all articles by: FRANKLIN SOULTS