Mr. Lif - Don't Look Down

Mr. Lif
Don't Look Down
2016
Spotify

Asking for hip hop to have a large quantity of self awareness is often a losing proposition. In a genre where flossing and boasting is the highest honor someone aware of their actual place in the world and their contributions to the evolution of culture is a rarity. The simple fact of the matter is that hip hop with awareness has been marginally successful at best, completely ignored at it's worst. Even Pioneers like Big Daddy Kane and Public Enemy who never shied away from conflict only experienced moderate radio play. That fate is likely on the horizon for Mr. Lif and this record Don't Look Down and for what it's worth Mr. Lif is well aware of that fact. This is not a collection of club bangers, but more a work of socially conscious poetry set to music. Even Mr. Lif's delivery shows that He is here for you to listen to exactly that He is saying, the spirit of the message simply won't do. However instead of using the mic as a pulpit to preach at his audience Mr. Lif takes them through the mistakes and missteps of his own life as an example. On Don't Look Down we have an activist who has been in the game for many years at this point and has seen little progress to show for all the strife. Rather than spouting off about complex ideas and driving deep down into the minute Lif is more surface on Don't Look Down making his ideas more accessible.

Things also take a lighter turn on Don't Look Down when Lif brings in a feature. He is able to use the counterpart to play off of and actually have some fun doing classic Hip hop things. Throughout the album scratching comes in makes you feel as if this music is here to stay around for awhile. Then there are the lyrics. Today rap is often slow, and more vibe than anything else, but not with this record. Lif is effortless in his rhyming, even though it is clear he pains over every single word that comes out of his mouth. This is not someone who is just going to say "Jumpman" 100 times and call it a life, these words matter to Lif and He wants to make sure the weight of what these songs represent make their way to the listener. Having taken seven years to release this album since his last means the Boston faithful put a lot of stock in this release and they will not be disappointed. While many of the beats sound dated, they work well with Lif's delivery so you never really get the idea that this album is old. At only 36 minutes this may go down as one of the most concise hip hop albums of all time, it never drags and never has one second of something unnecessary. It may have taken seven years to get this record to us, but after a listen it seems that all the best things do take time.

8.1 out of 10