The Perceptionists - 2003

Akrobatik, Mr. Lif and DJ Fakts One perform "Show Starter" at Aesop Rock's Bazooka Tooth Release Party (2003).

Mr. Lif - Return of the B-Boy video

(pardon the completely unnecessary naked chick at the beginning)

This rare video is from Lif's I Phantom album on Def Jux.

Superbowl MC Battle 1999 - Mr. Lif vs Reks

Let me just say how much Mr. Lif DID NOT want to do this shit. Have you ever met an emcee less interested in battling than Lif?? Let me also say that Lif and Reks are two of the best freestylers I have ever heard ... both can rhyme for hours at a stretch.

Boston Beats & Rhymes - Part 2

Boston Beats & Rhymes

In 2004 Scott Limanek produced an interesting and thorough documentary about the history of hip-hop in Boston called "Boston Beats & Rhymes." The film includes a lot of footage from concerts we produced, along with interviews from our management clients; EDO.G, Mr. Lif and Akrobatik. I scoured the internet to find some video clips and came up empty, and then remembered that Scott gave me a copy years ago, and actually managed to find the damn thing .... I'll be posting this in 5 chunks, and it's worth a watch.

Here is Part 1

Eminem

Whatever you think of Eminem now, there was a time when the indie crowd went nuts for him. When "Just don't give a fuck" hit college radio there was a huge buzz, and it seemed like just a few weeks later we were hearing he was signed to Interscope. We busted our asses to get the Interscope account when we heard this, because we knew that with our reach in the indie/skate market, plus all the work we were doing for commercial labels at that point, that we were uniquely positioned to help break Eminem in Boston. We knew Em's manager, so when another company dropped the ball, we basically got a call from the manager saying "drop what you are doing and come do an in-store for me right now," and we did. I might be mixing up my timeline, but I'm fairly sure we hijacked Newbury Comics on Newbury Street and turned what was supposed to be a "walk-thru" into a full-on signing event, it was a mob scene, and Newbury was really pissed off at us for awhile.

It was interesting hanging out with Eminem at that stage of his career. He wasn't "untouchable" yet, so we got plenty of chances to grab a beer (or twelve) and drive him around places. He was sort of like a cartoon character ... very animated, and loosely sketched.

We worked with Lyricist Lounge to do their tour in Boston which De La Soul headlined. Eminem was on the bill, and even as a mostly unknown people were going nuts. We did an afterparty for this show, and Eminem was completely plastered, and forced me to do several tequila shots with him. We then went with Interscope up to a show/snowboard event in Vermont (Brooklyn Vermont) where Eminem was opening for Black Star ... which when you think of it is funny in a number of ways.

Eminem also did a posse record on Rawkus for Soundbombing II with Shabaam Sahdeeq which cemented his place as one of the best, and certainly the funniest, lyricists of the time.

Eminem blew up so fast that pretty soon we couldn't get within 50 feet of him, but we kept a good relationship with his manager for a while, and got to some events and such over the years. His original DJ, DJ Head, was a really cool guy who we ran into a bunch of times after that.

Here is the video that started it:

Mr. Lif EP Release Party Performance w/ Edan

Mr. Lif w/ Edan performing "Get Wise," from his Emergency Rations EP in May 2002.

Because They Made it That Way

We shot this video for zero dollars with Ethan Lader as the director. We did two takes, walking through Post Office Square in Boston. We had the music ramped up to play at 150% while filming so that when we slowed the video down to synch with the real track everything would be just a little slow.

DJ Fakts One had to do his DJ bit on the portable turntable and then haul-ass around the corner to get ahead of Lif again. I still think this is a dope video, and the honest response from people walking on the street was pretty funny ... mostly when people walked by like nothing was happening. There is a dreaded dude rapping like a chipmunk walking down the street ... no big deal I guess. I couldn't begin to tell you when we did this. 2000 maybe?

Here is the instrumental for that track.

Here is the video: