Mr. Lif

Rappers don’t come much more ambitious than underground favorite Mr. Lif, the main charge behind The Perceptionists. Lif followed a politically engaged, thought-provoking Definitive Jux concept EP (Emergency Rations) with an even more ambitious concept album, I Phantom, which weaves in and out of fantasy and ends with Lif, El-P, Jean Grae, and Akrobatik contemplating the end of the world. His 2006 effort, Mo’ Mega, was another conceptual affair, examining how the lower class has been alienated by modernization, and his self-released I Heard It Today, out in 2009, deals with similar themes.

Updated 06/21/2011