Sat, Mar 3, 2001 05:28

Elements: Who is Mr Lif?
Mr Lif: I'm an independent artist. My first two songs were on the Rebel Alliance Compilation released on Brick Records titled “Madness In A Cup” and “This Won.” And, in 1998 I released another 12“ called ”Electro,“ and the b-side was titled ”The Nothing.“ In 1999 I did the ”Triangular Warfare“ single which also featured a song called ”Arise“ produced by El-P of Company Flow. I hooked up with Grand Royal to release another 12” later on in 1999. The a-side was “Farmhand” and the b-side was “Settle The Score.”

Elements: What influenced yourself to call yourself Mr Lif?
Mr Lif: I was at a Fish show and I was listening to some of their grooves and something they played basically a baseline they played spelled out the chorus to this jam “Lif To Be Man.” I was the Lif To Be Man for a little while. After a while things got cut down to Mr Lif. The name means to strive to learn more everyday.

Elements: When did you first listen to Hip Hop?
Mr Lif: Maybe it was 86 or 87. One Easter my mother gave me a boom box and she gave me a Run DMC tape. It was on from there.

Elements: What are some of your favorite artists to listen to?
Mr Lif: Right now I'm in the process of going back to old Rakim shit. I'm even checking stuff off his new album. It's not a secret that a lot of the pioneers that helped find this music are still as sharp as when they did came out. I've been listening to some old B.D.P. shit. I've been listening to the Four Horsemen album by Ultramangetics. I went through a stage listening to some of the contemporary shit. I was a fan of those artists and try to follow them. Also, it's something that people feel about me even if I'm down and out they'll still check out what I have to say. I checked out Q-Tip and EPMD to see what they saying. It's time to go back to the raw era when things were unbelievable.

Elements: How has music influenced your life?
Mr Lif: If it wasn't for having the positive messages from cats like KRS-ONE who spoke his mind, Chuck D was doing that, Rakim moved also on that level. I think having that type of creativity and innovation around me just led me on a positive path where it's like I had my relationship with my parents, I had school, also I had intelligent people who were very strong and gifted with their message. It really worries when I think about what could be on the minds of the youth today. The cats out here listening to DMX and to them Jay-Z is the best rapper ever. Wow cause all these people are talking about straight up nonsense. They have no respect for women or themselves. I don't see how it can be constructive. It puts no emphasis on family structure. I think kids nowadays with this type of shit being pumped in their head, I think we have to have a stronger family structure so we don't have a bunch of whooligans.

Elements: When did you know when you wanted to be an emcee?
Mr Lif: 94 yo when I was young when I first started to listen to hip hop. I haven't tried to write anything until I went off to college in 94. It took a step back the life of going to school, playing after school sports, fucking doing homework, and breaking out of that cycle and stepping back. Then, I started to write. I think I knew from the beginning that I wanted to talk about things that were important to people on a universal scale. But, I didn't know on how about go doing it. So, I was kicking nonsense. It was straight up gibberish. I feels stronger and stronger in me now, man. So, I hope I can make the most out of it. Keep the message strong and keep on learning more everyday. If I stop learning, then my music will fall off you know?

Elements: Who have you been recently working with?
Mr Lif: I been keeping shit on the low. 7L and Esoteric. I did something for their album. Did something for the Masterminds for their album that's suppose to come out on Nu Gruv. That should be out in a couple of months. Did something with Jedi Mind Tricks for their album. About to do something with my boy E-Don. He just dropped his first record out here about a month ago. And, I'm on this new record by my boy Insight who produced “Triangular Warfare” and “Settle The Score.” That record I think is coming out in a couple of weeks. So, I been kind of busy.

Elements: What projects you currently been working on?
Mr Lif: My boy from Porn Theater Ushers I guess is going to be doing a compilation. It's hard to talk about because I'm not sure what the deal is. Things have been kind of low-key. My main focus has been on getting my solo album together. I've been writing for that for a while.

Elements: What Direction do you think Hip Hop is going at this point of time?
Mr Lif: I like to think that it's making a move back towards like the raw, creative, intelligent type style. You got EPMD dropping an album on Def Jam where they don't even do a cross-over track. You got joints like “Simon Says” blowing up. Every now and then there's some shit that's real and that comes out and does reasonable well. But I guess my main motivation is to not believe that people continue to make the garbage. You got to consider what people listen to music for.

Elements: If there was something you could change in Hip Hop what would it be?
Mr Lif: On the real it would be the message going out. What would I change in Hip Hop is what I would change in the world and that's a moral human life.

Elements: In the long run where would you like to see yourself in this profession?
Mr Lif: Make quality joints what people consider classics for as long as I can. I would like to do various projects with some of my people. I'm in a few different groups and shit like that. I'm going to keep trying making Hip Hop classics until I can't do it anymore. I hope to reach out to as many generations as I can. And, at least get people thinking about different issues that you might hear on commercial radio.